“In fiction, what I do is I will often put on the mask of the character that I’m writing in the persona of. I go through the day in the point of view of my character. So put on the mask of the person that you’re writing, even if that person is in a nonfiction book. Think about how would this particular person see the world and details will come up and jump into you and stick with you. And you can get them down if you have [a] notebook, if you have [a] pen and [a] piece of paper, no matter where you are.”

—Stewart O’Nan, “Finding Time to Write“