I'm always interested in how individual writers write. The whole process fascinates me, especially since it's so different for everyone. Here's more on researching for your (fiction or fantasy) novel, this time from Shannon Hale, who, by the way, is doing a great little series of blog posts where she goes through her award-winning Princess Academy chapter by chapter, analyzing and answering questions. Someone asked if Shannon did all her research for the book as she wrote the first draft, or if she wrote first and then researched to fill in the gaps. Shannon: " I do minimal research before beginning, write the first draft or two, and then do more intensive research, so that I already know what I'm looking for. I like the story to lead the research, not the other way around. I know other writers research in different ways." Another chaos-writer. I'm feeling a bond. Only, the way she describes it, the whole process sounds rather orderly. J