“I think I was also afraid of the novel. I write line by line, proceeding at snail's pace, rewriting as I go and paring the excess away. This is against all the best advice for writing long form prose, and I have tried over the years to break myself of the habit, but I can't bear to leave anything ungainly on the page and half the fun for me is that tinkering. So the length of a novel was a daunting prospect.” ThinkingWritingYearsLongI CanFormFunLinesHalfBreakNovelAdviceBearsHabitPagesProseLengthPaceExcessProceedingBest AdviceAll The BestRewritingSnailTinkering Author:Debra Dean
“I am not sure I knew what I was doing, writing an "apocalypse" novel, when I started this book. Now that the book is done, I can own that I have in fact written an apocalypse novel, one that speculates on a dark, dark future. Why I did it, I really don't know - every time people read my work they comment on its darkness, its sadness.” PeopleKnowsWritingI CanBookDoneFactsDarkDarknessNovelWrittenSadnessNot SureCommentApocalypse Author:Edan Lepucki
“Nothing moves around, it just goes straight from the start to the end. The final draft on the final day, that's it, same for the novels. What I turn in is what you see. There are some exceptions, but almost always I can see exactly what it's going to be.” I CanEndsMovingTurnsNovelFinalsException Author:T.C. Boyle
“The hardest thing in a novel is time. You've got [a line like] "two weeks later, he woke up with a headache," and you've got to add up that entire two weeks and what the date is and whether it works. That kind of stuff drives me crazy and if I don't have it exactly right, I can't move forward because I don't feel confident.” IfsFeelsKindI CanTwoMovingStuffLinesNovelWeekCrazyAddHardestMoving ForwardHardest ThingTwo WeeksHeadacheDrive Me Crazy Author:T.C. Boyle
“I can be really silly when I'm not actually writing silliness, and I have to rein that in. Pynchon, in my opinion, sometimes tells elaborate shaggy dog stories just to work up to a pun or punch line. My challenge is to use humor and wordplay to reinforce the emotional core of the novel.” WritingI CanSometimesStoriesUseChallengesLinesOpinionNovelDogEmotionalCoreSillyReinsPunWordplaySilliness Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff
“I've been asked if I'd consider doing Ropes as a straight novel - which is flattering, I suppose - but I can't imagine why I'd want to limit myself that way. There's a certain immediacy we gain from that specific image of Fred being struck by a revelation, of those union workers appearing from the shadows in an alley, of a lonely woman wondering for just a moment if she should make a pass at this young man in her hotel room” IfsMenWayWantShouldI CanMomentsYoungCertainRoomsWonderNovelImagineLimitsShadowGainsLonelyUnionsWorkersYoung ManRevelationsHotelRopeAppearingFlatteringAlleysHotel RoomsImmediacyLonely Women Author:James Vance
“You know how some people will say to writers, "Why don't you just write a romance novel that sells a bunch of copies and then you'll have the money to do the kind of writing you want to do"? I always say that I don't have the skills or knowledge to do that. It would be just as hard for me to do that kind of writing as it would be to learn how to do any number of productive careers that I can't manage to make myself do.” PeopleKnowsWantWritingKindI CanHardWould BeRomanceNumbersCareersNovelKnow HowSkillsSellsBunchManageProductiveCopiesRomance Novel Author:Lucy Corin
“There's also an immediacy to everything that has changed everybody's expectations. Now if I can't get a hold of somebody on their cell phone I'm, like, angry with them. And in my mind, all the things that I really value in terms of art, really good novels or films or comics, I know they all take a long, long time to create, and they take a lot of concentration and dedication...and I just feel like the training for that is becoming more and more rare when people are used to seeing things like YouTube clips, and being able to acquire things instantly.” PeopleIfsKnowsFeelsMindLongArtI CanAbleFilmUsedValuesTermNovelSeeingChangedLike YouBecomingLong TimeTrainingExpectationsAngryPhonesCellsAcquireConcentrationDedicationYoutubeCell PhoneBecoming MoreClipImmediacy Author:Adrian Tomine
“I can write three novels in the time it takes to write one novella. I'm probably not going to go with that form again.” WritingI CanFormThreeNovel Author:Nathan Lowell
“I think I can safely call 2012 average. Overall, it was a stronger year for nonfiction than fiction - a situation that would've surprised me back in January, when I was looking forward to big new novels from several authors I really love.” ThinkingYearsI CanBigsFictionSituationNovelStrongerAverageNonfictionLooking ForwardJanuary Author:David Edelstein
“I can't stand it when people say, "If you're writing a novel, you should read this and that." Because it's like giving someone another person's prescription. How do you know that's what they need?” PeopleIfsKnowsNeedsGivingShouldWritingPersonsI CanNovelDo You KnowPrescriptions Author:Sandra Cisneros
“There's novel reading, and then there's the other kind of reading. Take somebody like Carl Jung, the psychiatrist - now there's somebody worth getting into. With novels, I'm kind of fly by night. It isn't something I can be really consistent with.” KindI CanNightReadingNovelConsistentPsychiatristJung Author:Van Morrison
“I can't imagine otherwise - I guess Virginia Woolf could write wonderful novels where the women never have sex, and her novels work. But for me, I don't think I could write a plot without sex happening somewhere.” ThinkingWritingI CanSexNovelImagineWonderfulHappeningsPlotVirginiaWoolf Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim