How Heinlein plotted

By at 3:40 am Thursday, Jul 22

I'm powering through the ending of the smashing, enormous first volume of the first major authorized biography of Robert A Heinlein: Robert A Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century, Volume 1: Learning Curve (1907-1948) and I've just been poleaxed by this quote, which absolutely sums up the way that I approach stories: "My notion of a story is an interesting situation in which a human being has to cope with a problem, does so, and thereby changed his personality, character, or evaluations in some measure because the coping has forced him to revise his thinking. How he copes with it, I can't plot in advance because that depends on his character, and I don't know what his character is until I get acquainted with him."

Cory Doctorow

Upcoming appearances

* Feb 9, 2012, DeKalb, IL: Day of Doctorow, NIU
* Feb 10-12, 2012, Chicago, IL: Capricon 32
* Feb 13, 2012, Arlington, TX: UT Arlington College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker Series
* Feb 16, 2012, Victoria, BC: 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference

Recent books:
* Context (essays)
* With a Little Help (short stories)
* For the Win (YA novel)
* Makers (adult novel)

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