I wish I had five minutes added to my life for every writer I've met with a stalled novel. You meet them at writers conferences; you meet them on the street. Why are they stumped? Because most believe they have to know how their stories will turn out before they start. Rack one up for the majority of creative writing programs

My theory is that you have to love writing in order to write. It has to a pleasurable pastime, like reading a book. Who wants to know how a book will end at the beginning? Or even all the details that make the story meaty? I've written twenty-four novels, good and bad mixed, and I've loved writing them all, because I discover my stories as I go. If my characters are strong, I can trust them to take me on a journey. At occasional wrong turns, I simply backtrack and take another route.

For instance, in DARK OF THE MOON, my first published novel (bought by Hallmark, then later optioned by Rose Film Productions), my protagonist Merdie sets out to make it to Nashville TN as a country music singer. She is married to Hamp, an aging flatwood's moonshiner, who is always on the lookout for whiskey revenuers. In the first chapter, I had a general idea of where I was going: Merdie would slip off to sing as usual on a Friday night, taking her own band of three teenage sons along. They would nab the attention of a music manager and be on their way. But when I got to the second chapter, with the intention of having Hamp and his stepson kill a whiskey revenuer, I decided to have them capture the revenuer instead, and consequently, the story turned from comic mystery to a love story.

Same as with PAWPAW PATCH, my third published novel--Number 20, in writing order: Chanell, popular, divorced beautician, in the small town of Cornerville, would marry the local bachelor lawyer, and Chanell's redneck ex would try to kill him for his money. Second chapter, Chanell's friends and customers take over by starting a rumor that Chanell is racially-mixed, and the story turns serious. Ostracized by the town, and unable to leave, Chanell decides to make the town look at itself as she has had to do.

True, it is a risk to give yourself over to your intuition, to build your plot a step at the time. And what works for one writer may not work for another. I write as fast as I can, on my first draft, to keep momentum and tension; I actually live inside my stories, live inside my characters, till the plot is complete. Then on rewrite, I can let go, relax, and spend time on making my magic with words. I have the story down, my plot is intact. But the discovery process continues, and I'm loving the book I'm making.