Cotter began journaling early in life, long before she contemplated becoming a writer. She reports having hundreds of journals. This process was the beginning of a spiritual journey that opened up many of the memories she had once forgotten and about which she is now writing. Several members of her family also write and they often don't view the remembered situation with the same eyes. Until this memoir, she had written mainly short stories and poetry.
Mornings are for writing and afternoons are for painting.
She regards painting more like poetry than essay writing. Painting and poetry both use vertical images, rather than horizontal or linear ones you usually follow in prose. They also don't require the kind of resolution that prose does. Cotter seems to have gone through a very active process in finding what system works best for her. More and more, she has developed a trust in her internal landscape, which eases the process of creating, no matter what form it takes.