E.L. Doctorow, master of the historical novel who mixed fact and fiction to bring history to life, died at age 84 earlier this month. Reading announcements of his passing, I learned something very interesting about the author of such mammoth best sellers as The Book of Daniel (1971), Ragtime (1975), Billy Bathgate (1989) and The March (2005). Doctorow said he never plotted out his novels in advance. “It’s like driving a car at night,” he said of writing. “You can never see further than your headlights, but you make the whole trip that way.”

In other words, Doctorow, acclaimed for historical novels that relied so heavily on facts, was a highly intuitive writer. I, too, am an intuitive writer. Despite being advised in workshops and through articles how important it is to prepare an outline before starting a long story, any skeleton I try to build collapses under the weight of characters and events as they are fleshed out. The phenomenon of characters coming alive for an author and taking off in unexpected directions is not uncommon. I hear that from writers all the time and it mirrors my experiences.

Doctorow’s words are very comforting for writers like me. It proves that lectures, workshops and tutorials about the writing craft are like shoes at a shoe shop. You will be offered many. Like seeking a good pair of shoes, you should try on different ideas and suggestions to see which ones fit best because the path from the idea of a book to the finished work is long and challenging. You never really know where the path will lead, “but you make the whole trip that way.”