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"Heathbar was neo-Georgian, meaning it had red brick on the front. It was otherwise a 6,000-square-foot conglomeration of awful architectural ideas throughout history executed in 21st-century Vulgarian; chief among the offenses was a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bay window that cantilevered out like a bodybuilder who spent way too much time on his abs." 

That's Larry Doyle describing an obnoxious suburban McMansion in quasi-Victorian terms in his novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper.

Doyle has written for The New Yorker, The Simpsons, and HBO, and this week he sharing some writing advice with us.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.

Jason Boog: 
You wrote this novel in a whirlwind. How did you budget time and outline the novel so carefully? Any advice for fledgling writers looking to get more organized about their fiction writing process?

Larry Doyle:
I'm probably not the best person to ask about organization and budgeting time.  It took me thirty years to write my first novel. Continue reading...

I sit down and write anything I can. The next day I do that again. Eventually I get to the end of the story, and I have something that is mostly outline, with some dialogue and scenes set.

Then I go through the whole manuscript again, adding scenes and dialogue where I can, changing things along the way. And again, again, again, until I reach the point that I think that at least the story is in the right order (At this point the actual thing may only be a third "done.") 

And then I write through the whole thing more methodically, usually starting the day reading and revising what I've done so far and then trying to get a little further through the piece. 

Once I get to the end, I may be about 80 percent there. Then I do several polish passes. This is what  I call a first draft.

I didn't budget time. I only wrote for the four months it took me from 100 samples pages to first draft.

Jason Boog:
Once you drafted your novel, how did you go about editing the manuscript? Any advice/tricks for writers about how to streamline the editing process (in any kind of writing)?

Larry Doyle:

See above. Not very streamlined, but it allows me to do evolving rewrites rather than finishing and then having to get the energy to do a complete rewrite.