Mark M. Lowenthal's Blog

"When I want to read a good book, I write one." -- Benjamin Disraeli

"...there's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all." -- Bob Dylan, Love Minus Zero, No Limit

This is a blog about writing and reading. I do both for purposes of my profession and for pleasure. It is my intention, and hope, that this blog will explore why we write what we write and why we read what we read.

When it comes to my fiction, the question that I get asked most frequently is: how did you think of that? I'm not sure there is a good answer to that. Most of my ideas for fiction begin with a question: "What if?..." I explore the question by writing, not sequentially, but in scenes. Scenes come to me that help delve into the question and then more scenes and then more. They tend not to be sequential at all. In some cases, one scene will build on another. In other cases, they are independent. I usally let this run for quite some time and only after I have a fair amount of amterial do I begin to consider how I might shape this into a coherent narrative. This is undoubtedly a more difficult way to write. there is usually a set beginning but no set end; or, if there is a known end, getting there from the beginning has yet to be determined. But, for me at least, that is how I do it. But what I do not know is where the "What if?..." comes from. That is the mystery of imagination and the creative process.