 You have to be humble when you're writing, and you don't know how the writing is going to happen sometimes. Like, I'll sit there and go, I don't really know what's going to happen next, you know, in this story. I hope I can figure it out. You've got to take each step as it goes. Ruth's insights shaped my own approach to writing. In the case of Across So Many Seas, Ruth's process was all about building a strong structure and following the beats laid out before her.