“You no longer have much in the way of knowing what to do in a big, epic novel about the future, because nobody knows what the hell is going to happen.” KnowsWayBigsHappensNovelHellKnowingEpicNobody KnowsKnowing What To Do Author:Jerry Pournelle
“I know publishing now more as an author than with occasional peaks inside those elite offices than as an industry insider. It was difficult publishing a novel the first time around, while working behind the scenes, knowing all that has to happen to make a book a success and to still make the leap as an author.” KnowsFirstsStillsBookHappensDifficultBehindsNovelKnowingIndustrySceneOfficeFirst TimeLeapElitesPublishingOccasionalBehind The ScenesInsidersWorking Behind The Scenes Author:Jennifer Gilmore
“I don't see how anybody starts a novel without knowing how it's going to end. I usually make detailed outlines: how many chapters it will be and so forth.” EndsNovelKnowingChaptersOutlines Author:John Barth
“I had been virtually a Unitarian (as I still am) but without knowing it. The experience of being among Unitarians who did know what they were, and attached much importance to it, was entirely novel to me, but I soon fell into their ways and found it easy to go forward on their road, the more so because the other roads became closed to me.” KnowsWayStillsFoundEasyNovelKnowingImportanceUnitarian Author:L. P. Jacks
“When you write a book, you want to have fidelity to the character. Characters and their emotions guide the structure of the novel. The author is aware that there's a certain amount of information she/he has to provide in order to satisfy the reader, knowing that she/he has set something up that must be paid off, but this payment must be made while maintaining fidelity to the characters.” WantWritingMadeBookCharacterCertainOrderEmotionNovelKnowingInformationReaderAmountPaidStructureGuidesMaintainingPaymentFidelityPaid Off Author:David Bezmozgis
“We live in a cluttered culture, a culture of information in which even our computers can't tell us what's worth knowing and what is merely cultural scrap. In such a society, we don't have the experience of contemplative space, of the time or mood to engage a book of poetry or even read a novel. Who can achieve the unconscious-conscious state of the reader when everything is stimulation, everything is movement and information?” BookStatesCultureSpaceNovelKnowingAchieveInformationMovementReaderComputerConsciousMoodUnconsciousScrapContemplativeStimulation Author:T.C. Boyle
“I got a rejection letter from an editor at HarperCollins, who included a report from his professional reader. This report shredded my first-born novel, laughed at my phrasing, twirled my lacy pretensions around and gobbed into the seething mosh pit of my stolen clichés. As I read the report, the world became very quiet and stopped rotating. What poisoned me was the fact that the report's criticisms were all absolutely true. The sound of my landlady digging in the garden got the world moving again. I slipped the letter into the trash... knowing I'd remember every word.” WorldWritingFirstsFactsRememberMovingSoundBornNovelKnowingReaderQuietGardenCriticismLettersRejectionReportsEditorsLaughedStolenTrashPitsDiggingPretensionSeethingRotatingRejection Letters Author:David Mitchell
“I don't begin a novel until I have written, not just the last sentence, but usually, as a result thereof, many of the surrounding final paragraphs, so that in addition to knowing what happens, I know what the voice is.” KnowsHappensLastsVoiceResultsNovelKnowingWrittenFinalsSentencesParagraph Author:John Irving
“"Unputdownable" is, I suppose, something we all dream of, maybe without knowing it. I realized, some time ago, that a novel can hold a lot, and it made sense that this one was not of the sleek and economical variety, but instead the "full" type. Novel as piñata. And the reader does the whacking. I had a central idea, which is to look at what happens to talent over time.” LooksDoeMadeIdeasDreamHappensNovelKnowingTalentTypeReaderI RealizedVariety Author:Meg Wolitzer
“I always worry that knowing too much about a novel or a story early on in writing will close it down - it feels fatalistic in some way.” WayFeelsWritingStoriesWorryNovelKnowingToo MuchKnowing Too Much Author:Dan Chaon