Writers on how they write: Kate Christensen

The Wall Street Journal had a great article a few weeks back: "How to Write a Great Novel", reflections by novelists on how they approach writing. Since the article is subscription only, I'm featuring one writer per day here, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article.

Today's writer is Kate Christensen, who novels include "The Great Man" and "The Epicure's Lament."

Kate Christensen was two years and 150 pages into her first novel, "In the Drink," about a boozy ghostwriter, before she discovered what the book was really about—so she dismantled the draft, threw out a bunch of pages and started over. The process repeated itself with her second, third and fourth novels, she says. With her 2009 novel "Trouble," a story about two women who go on a Thelma and Louise-like adventure to Mexico, the opening finally stuck. Ms. Christensen, who works out of her home in Tribeca, says a lot of her writing time is spent "not writing." Most mornings, she does housework, writes emails and talks on the phone to avoid facing her work. In the past, she's played 30 games of solitaire before typing a first sentence.

Have you ever written well into the first draft of a screenplay, then "dismantled the draft" and started over?