Dave Eggers

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has forced abortion rights advocates to face their biggest fear.

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The court has the power of life and death.

Because of this kind of power, the leanings of a new and ninth justice are so crucial.

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How scientists are considering every possibility, even poop, to power the future of air travel.

This week on Shortwave, listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

I almost always know how it ends because it feels not at all fun if I don't know where I'm going at all, you know?

Like you're saying you're going to Alaska.

It could be any which way you get there, but this is our destination.

So I don't outline in any traditional way.

but i'll jot some stuff down and then i'll write scenes so to me it's always set pieces and scenes and i don't write in order so this new book i wrote a scene the first thing i wrote is now i guess in page 100 i think and it was a scene i wrote because i wanted to write it and then i knew generally where it would fit but it becomes a patchwork that you stitch together later and

I've never been able to write linearly and I find it really boring to do that.

And also if you're stuck with something, you're just stuck, you're stuck right there.

Whereas you could just go just around that barrier, keep going, you know, you gotta fix something here, but just keep going.

But I do know a few writers, older writers, write straight all the way through.

And that's where I think you get this idea of writer's block and the person pacing around the room and throwing crumpled up pieces of paper into the corner.

I think it's because they're just, they've structured their work in such a way that they can't go around the obstacle.

But it is harder in the end to stitch everything together.

Do you ever change the order?