ABSTRACT
The American novelist Frederick Busch, in interview, noted that ‘You discover your book as you write it’ (Walker, 1999: 34). Writers of fi ction often describe writing as a process that unfolds mysteriously and speak of characters who come alive, of narratives that unfold into plausible virtual worlds. In one sense writing research is also like this. As we have argued elsewhere in this book, writing and understanding are mutually constructed. Scholars write and think simultaneously and their writing develops their ideas and then pins meaning on the page. The process of writing advances insight in research writing, just as it does in fi ction.
