Writers on how they write: Richard Powers

The Wall Street Journal has a great article: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by 11 novelists on how they approach writing. I’ll feature one writer per day, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article.

Today’s writer is Richard Powers, whose books include Plowing the Dark and The Echo Maker.

Richard Powers, whose books are often concept-driven, intricately plotted and stuffed with arcane science, wrote his last three novels while lying in bed, speaking to a lap-top computer with voice-recognition software.

“It’s recovering storytelling by voice and recovering the use of the hand and all that tactile immediacy,” Mr. Powers says of the process. “I like to use different parts of my brain.”

Voice-recognition software. That’s interesting. Takes talking into a tape recorder to the next level. But he has a point, reclaiming story’s roots as oral tradition.

[Originally posted November 14, 2009]