I'll write maybe one long paragraph describing the events, then a page or two breaking the events into chapters, and then reams of pages delving into my characters. After that, I'm ready to begin.

Yes, (there is) no limit on the number of pages (or page sizes), plus each document can have chapters; chapters can have sub-chapters; and so on.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning could write a poem two pages long. Could she have brought it to a music publisher?

The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage.

For my own family, I would always choose the makeshift, surrogate family formed by various characters unrelated by blood.