Making of Inside the Wright Brothers in

Book excerpt: This journal, a companion book to the novel, Inside the Wright Brothers: Flight is Possible, is a record of the thoughts that occur to a writer while in the process of writing a novel. In recording these thoughts, the journal provides an exploration of a number of topics: the working out of a pattern, in novel form, to reflect the author's conception of the meaning of the Wright Brothers' experience; a consideration of the achievement of the Wright Brothers as an example of the creative process at work; and a step-by-step record of the writing process, which includes the planning, writing, editing and polishing of a novel about the Wright Brothers. In addition, the journal presents the challenge of matching form and meaning in the novel genre as a response to the complexities of life, and a discussion of the possibilities of the novel as an art form. This journal is the seventh in a series of companion books pairing novel and journal which explore the concept of form and meaning in the novel.