In "Off the Page" today's best writers reveal their secrets, tell us how they work and give insight into their writing process. Paul Auster, Martin Amis, Gish Jen, Dan Chaon, Alice McDermott and many others have been interviewed on washingtonpost.com's "Off the Page" series and now host Carole Burns has woven their wisdom into chapters illuminating to the writer or reader. She asks how place influences authors, how they make a sex scene work and how they tell when the work is done. They discuss how they approach a new novel; whether they start with plot, character or theme. A.S. Byatt starts with colour. E.L. Doctorow begins with an image. Here is Walter Mosley defying genre, Shirley Hazzard on love and Michael Cunningham on compassion. This and more from Richard Ford, Jhumpa Lahiri and Charles Baxter will deepen the reader's appreciation for the art of writing and excite them to try new ways of writing.