“The most difficult part of any crime novel is the plotting. It all begins simply enough, but soon you're dealing with a multitude of linked characters, strands, themes and red herrings - and you need to try to control these unruly elements and weave them into a pattern.” NeedsTryingEnoughCharacterDifficultNovelCrimeElementsRedPatternsThemeMultitudesLinkedStrandsUnrulyHerringCrime NovelsRed Herrings Author:Ian Rankin
“I often use detective elements in my books. I love detective novels. But I also think science fiction and detective stories are very close and friendly genres, which shows in the books by Isaac Asimov, John Brunner, and Glen Cook. However, whilst even a tiny drop of science fiction may harm a detective story, a little detective element benefits science fiction. Such a strange puzzle.” ThinkingMayLittlesBookStoriesUseShowsFictionNovelStrangeElementsBenefitsScience FictionHarmTinyCooksGenreFriendlyPuzzlesDetectivesIsaacDetective Stories Author:Sergei Lukyanenko
“The solution to the novel's legal problem is a satisfyingly intricate one, and nobody will want his money back on the plot. But the echoes that will remain in your mind after you've finished Reversible Errors will mainly have to do with the novel's other elements.” WantMindProblemNovelElementsSolutionsErrorsFinishedPlotEchoesIntricate Author:Wendy Lesser
“I did ... learn an important distinction in graduate school: a speculation about who had syphilis when is gossip if it's about your friends, a plot element if it's about a character in a novel, and scholarship if it's about John Keats.” IfsImportantCharacterSchoolNovelElementsDistinctionPlotGossipGraduatesSpeculationScholarshipGraduate SchoolSyphilis Book:Second words: selected critical prose Source: Second words: selected critical prose
“I think authors are just realizing there's no real reason to feel limited to a narrow set of genre rules in their writing. There's no reason a mystery novel can't have fantastic elements in it. Similarly, there's no reason why your epic fantasy series can't have elements of a mystery.” ThinkingFeelsWritingRealReasonRealizingFantasyNovelMysteryElementsSeriesFantasticGenreReason WhyNo ReasonEpicMystery Novels Author:Patrick Rothfuss
“In modern novels I try to not let myself get away and to be here, and that's why I write about my life and myself. But even when I do that there's an element of disappearing to a place that's not me. It's "the selflessness of writing". It seldom happens, but when it does it's worth quite a lot.” WritingTryingDoeHappensNovelModernElementsDisappearGet AwaySelflessnessModern Novel Author:Karl Ove Knausgard
“I enjoy the research element. There are so many stories from the past that interest me, that I want to learn more about, just as an interested person. And if I'm going to learn, if I'm going to research, it's probably going to lead me to writing a novel.” IfsWantWritingPersonsStoriesPastEnjoyInterestNovelElementsResearchLeading Me Author:John Boyne
“The Lake of Dreams grew gradually, over many years, elements and ideas accruing until they gained enough critical mass to become a novel.” YearsIdeasEnoughDreamNovelGrewElementsMassCriticalLakesCritical Mass Author:Kim Edwards
“The lust and attraction are often a given in a romance novel - I want to dig into the elements of true friendship that form a foundation for a solid, gonna-last-forever romantic relationship.” WantLastsRomanceFormGivenNovelForeverElementsFoundationAttractionLustTrue FriendTrue FriendshipRomance NovelRomantic Relationship Author:Suzanne Brockmann
“There are always differences when you adapt a novel to a film. A novel is longer so you're automatically cutting out elements and introspection but this is actually a film that stays very close to the novel.” FilmDifferencesNovelCuttingElementsIntrospection Author:Nicholas Sparks
“Introduce your main characters and themes in the first third of your novel. If you are writing a plot-driven genre novel make sure all your major themes/plot elements are introduced in the first third, which you can call the introduction. Develop your themes and characters in your second third, the development. Resolve your themes, mysteries and so on in the final third, the resolution.” IfsWritingFirstsCharacterNovelMysteryDevelopmentElementsMajorsThirdsFinalsDrivenGenreThemePlotResolveResolutionIntroducingIntroductionMain Characters Author:Michael Moorcock
“I like horror, but I tend to like it as seasoning. I'd get very bored if I was told I had to write a horror novel. I'd love to write a novel with horror elements, but too much, and it doesn't taste of anything else.” IfsWritingNovelToo MuchTasteHorrorElementsBoredSeasoning Author:Neil Gaiman
“I've made the decision to adhere to three general truths when it comes to my novels: There will be a love-story element to the story, the novel will be set in eastern North Carolina, and the characters will be likeable. Then, I make each novel unique through differences in voice, perspective, age and personalities of the characters, and of course, plot.” MadeCharacterStoriesAgeThreeCoursesVoiceDifferencesDecisionNovelPerspectivePersonalityElementsUniqueLove StoryPlotEasternCarolinaNorth CarolinaLikeable Author:Nicholas Sparks
“In adopting the form of the adventure novel, Wells deepened it, raised its intellectual value, and brought into it elements of social philosophy and science. In his own field - though, of course, on a proportionately lesser scale - Wells may be likened to Dostoyevsky, who took the form of the cheap detective novel and infused it with brilliant psychological analysis.” InspirationalWellsMayArtPhilosophyFormValuesCoursesLiteratureSocialNovelFieldsAdventureElementsIntellectualRaisedBrilliantScalesPsychologicalAnalysisDetectivesAdoptingDostoyevsky Author:Yevgeny Zamyatin
“In a novella, a whole lot of crap can happen, and you can build momentum and suspense and leave room for a surprise or three. Stories are cut down to the most essential elements, and novels (this might be an unfair generalization on my part) are big fat clumsy efforts where the reader can snooze for a couple chapters and miss nothing of consequence. Hence my love for the middle way.” WayWholeStoriesBigsMightHappensThreeRoomsEffortNovelCuttingMiddleMissingReaderCoupleEssentialsElementsConsequenceSurpriseFatsSuspenseChaptersUnfairCrapMomentumClumsyGeneralizationMiddle Way Author:Robert Reed
“I don't think comics necessarily think in literary terms. There is an element of developing your stage persona and your comedic voice, but I don't think comics see it like a character in a novel.” ThinkingCharacterVoiceTermNovelStageElementsDevelopingPersonaComedicLiterary Terms Author:Ted Alexandro
“A large part of the art of instruction lies in making the difficulty of new problems large enough to challenge thought, and small enough so that, in addition to the confusion naturally attending the novel elements, there shall be luminous familiar spots from which helpful suggestions may spring.” MayArtEnoughProblemLyingChallengesNovelElementsSpringDifficultyFamiliarConfusionSpotsHelpfulInstructionSuggestionsLuminousAttending Book:Democracy And Education Source: Democracy And Education
“Doing crime films...maybe it's to some extent a matter of taste. Certainly my first novel had a criminal element and was about the similarity of criminals and artists. Pretextually, it was sort of a money bag thriller. But it was aggressively not what it seemed to be. It was kind of Duchamps.” FirstsKindMatterFilmArtistNovelCrimeTasteElementsCriminalsBagsSimilarityThrillers Author:William Monahan
“The characters in my novels, from the very first one, are always on some quixotic effort of attempting to control something that is uncontrollable - some element of the world that is essentially random and out of control.” WorldFirstsCharacterEffortNovelElementsAttemptingUncontrollableQuixotic Author:John Irving
“I love grand scale. One of the things that everybody mentions is that my novels are beautiful objects in the sense that the elements of the actual book are being extruded and re-contextualized.” BookBeautifulNovelObjectsElementsScalesBeautiful Objects Author:Richard Grossman
“Radio, or at least the kind of radio we're proposing to do, can cut through that. It can reach people who would otherwise never hear your work, and of course I find that very notion inspiring. Radio stories are powerful because the human voice is powerful. It has been and will continue to be the most basic element of storytelling. As a novelist (and I should note that working my novel is the first thing I do in the morning and the very last thing I do before I sleep), shifting into this new medium is entirely logical. It's still narrative, only with different tools.” PeopleShouldFirstsHumansKindHas BeensStillsDifferentStoriesLastsCoursesVoiceSleepPowerfulMorningNovelCuttingElementsToolsNotesNotionRadioStorytellingMediumsNarrativeNovelistsLogicalShiftingHuman Voice Author:Daniel Alarcon
“Hwang Jung-eun is one of the brightest stars of the new South Korean generation - she's Han Kang's favourite, and the novel we're publishing scooped the prestigious Bookseller's Award, for critically-acclaimed fiction that also has a wide popular appeal. She stands out for her focus on social minorities - her protagonists are slum inhabitants, trans women, orphans - and for the way she melds this hard-edged social critique with obliquely fantastical elements and offbeat dialogue.” WayHardSocialStarsFictionNovelFocusGenerationsElementsSouthWideDialogueAppealsMinoritiesAwardsFavouritePublishingStanding OutCritiqueTransKoreanOrphanProtagonistsSlumsJungPrestigiousBooksellersOffbeatBrightest Star Author:Deborah Smith
“In Italian, the word for novel is romanzo, "the romance." The English is "novel" - something new. Both of those elements, experimentation and love, are fundamental to the form.” RomanceFormNovelElementsAnd LoveFundamentalsSomething NewItalianExperimentation Author:Mohsin Hamid
“I believe a good memoir should have all of the narrative elements of a novel: character development, dialogue, descriptive language, and metaphor.” ShouldBelieveCharacterLanguageI BelieveNovelDevelopmentElementsShould HaveMetaphorMemoirDialogueNarrativeCharacter Development Author:Danielle Trussoni
“In terms of style, I think the memoirist should have a novelist's skill and all the elements of a novelist's toolbox. When I read a memoir, I want to really, deeply experience what the author experienced. I want to see the characters and hear the way they speak and understand how they think. And so in that way, writing a memoir feels similar to writing a novel.” ThinkingWayWantFeelsShouldWritingCharacterSpeakTermNovelStyleSkillsElementsShould HaveMemoirNovelistsReally DeepToolbox Author:Danielle Trussoni
“When 'Midnight's Children' came out, people in the West tended to respond to the fantasy elements in the novel, to praise it in those terms. In India, people read it like a history book.” PeopleChildrenBookTermFantasyNovelElementsIndiaPraiseWestMidnightHistory Books Author:Salman Rushdie
“My novels aren't really generated by a single conceptual spark; it's more a process of many different elements that come together unexpectedly over a long period of time.” LongDifferentTogetherLiteratureProcessNovelPeriodsElementsSparksLong Periods Of Time Author:Donna Tartt
“The road now stretched across open country, and it occured to me - not by way of protest, not as a symbol, or anything like that, but merely as a novel experience - that since I had disregarded all laws of humanity, I might as well disregard the rules of traffic. So I crossed to the left side of the highway and checked the feeling, and the feeling was good. It was a pleasant diaphragmal melting, with elements of diffused tactility, all this enhanced by the thought that nothing could be nearer to the elimination of basic physical laws than deliberately driving on the wrong site of the road.” WayWellsCountryFeelingsMightLawHumanityLeftSidesNovelElementsDrivingSymbolsPleasantProtestSiteTrafficHighwaysMeltingDisregardEliminationDisregardedDriving On Author:Vladimir Nabokov