A huge thank you to Deborah Kalb who interviewed me about my debut book, Jane Jacobs: Champion of Cities, Champion of People. I talked with Deborah about finding inspiration, researching in the archives, and reading experts’ work on a subject. (All of the fun stuff that happens before writing!) Here is a clip from our interview together:
Q: How did you research the book and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: This was my first full book-length project. It seems obvious — but you have to start with what makes you curious and interested. There’s some preliminary research and hopefully a moment when you say wow, I have to write about this. And then there's the process of pitching the idea and selling the book — that’s when the real work starts.
And so I think what you first do is you try to understand everything you can about the primary sources that are available. In this case, Jane’s archive is at Boston College. There's a fabulous book, Ideas that Matter, that is essentially her printed archive. That was enormously helpful.
It’s also important to read secondary sources written by experts who likely know a lot about your subject. It's a bit of a dance. And I think you just sort of intuitively know when you're done — you start to loop back on ideas that you've already read and absorbed and that's the point when you're ready—really ready—to dive into the work of writing.
