There's an outline for each of the books that I adhere to pretty closely, but I'm not averse to taking it in a new direction, as long as I can get it back to where I need it to go.
A leader is the one who can outline the broad vision and the direction, and say here's where we are going to go, here's why we need to go there, and here's how we are going to get there. A manager is the one who actually gets up under the hood and tunes the carburetor.
I don't start a novel until I have lived with the story for awhile to the point of actually writing an outline and after a number of books I've learned that the more time I spend on the outline the easier the book is to write. And if I cheat on the outline I get in trouble with the book.
It's a new day with a new president who isn't trying to get along and intermingle. He's taking over. These are dire times, and there are decisions that need to be made in order to change the direction this country is going and rapidly.
And American voters understand that if we want to keep fighting to move in the new - in a new direction, we've got a long way to go. And we need to make sure we continue with Democrats being in the majority.
That's really the essence of what any fiction writer does. Some of it is research-based, but most of it is a really long-term, imaginative, empathetic effort to see the world the way someone whose experiences remote from yours might see it. Not every writer works that way; some writers make a wonderful career out of writing books that adhere very closely to how they view the world. The further I go with this, the more interested I get in trying to imagine my way into other perspectives that at first seem foreign to me.
I went to Germany taking a chance on seeing what Europe was like, and taking on that new challenge. Obviously it wasn't for me at the time, but I always had that goal to come back to the U.S. and work hard and hopefully go back to Europe.
But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction.
I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books, I have to start a new direction.
It's a sense in Minnesota that we need to get back to common sense. We need to get back to taking sensible looks at positions and understanding the proper role of government.
You stay sharp. You go back into the gym. You work, put that work in, get that conditioning up, you lift. You pretty much know as a pro athlete what you need to do to get yourself back. But none of that, for me, means as much as playing.
If you expect to grow your business, you need to be plotting out your schedules days in advance. Until you get that most basic of steps orchestrated, you can never get to the critical steps that I outline in any one of dozens of books.
I'm really starting to get bored with myself, doing the same workouts. 'Oh here we go again.' I need someone to crack the whip. I need someone to kick my butt because sometimes I can end up taking it pretty easy on myself.
I doubt that VR will really replace the quality of books. If you want to go into let's say the Prado in Madrid and you want to go into Hieronymus Bosch or whatever, you'd rather go into books and you take your time and it's sitting there all day long and you go back and revisit it and it becomes part of your physical life.
Am I pushy? Yep. Do I like taking 'no' for an answer when 'no' means New Yorkers aren't going to get something they need? No. Do I push back and crack some eggs? Absolutely.
Reason why we've lasted so long is we write music; we get very intense. We go away from each other, do our own thing, and then we get back together.
Every year, something happens, and it turns me in a direction about where I need to go and what I need to do to give these guys direction.