“I wasn't sitting around years ago thinking I really want to write a novel.” ThinkingWantWritingYearsNovelSittingYears AgoSitting Around Author:Amy Waldman
“I've found myself at one in the morning just sitting at my desk spending an hour returning emails from the day until like two in the morning. It's ridiculous, I should be sleeping, or dreaming, or reading a novel.” ShouldTwoDreamReadingFoundHoursSleepMorningNovelSittingSpendingRidiculousDesksEmail Author:Brit Marling
“THE ABULON DANCE is an intricate and fast-paced novel of political intrigue and clashing alien cultures. The characterizations are rich, detailed, and subtle, the action engrossing. I finished it in a single sitting.” ActionPoliticalCultureNovelRichSittingFinishedAliensSubtleIntrigueFast PacedIntricateCharacterization Author:Robin Wayne Bailey
“People think that they will sit down and produce the great American novel in one sitting. It doesn't work that way. This is a very patient and meticulous work, and you have to do it with joy and love for the process, not for the outcome.” PeopleThinkingWayJoyProcessNovelProduceSittingAnd LoveDown AndPatientOutcomesGreat AmericanMeticulous Author:Isabel Allende
“There's nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, "Well, okay, I'm going to do something of high artistic worth." It's funny.” WritingWellsNovelSittingOkayArtisticWorth ItSitting Down Author:Douglas Adams
“I myself love to read those Victorian novels which go on and on, and you don't read them in one sitting. You might read one over the course of a summer, but that isn't what I want to write.” WantWritingMightCoursesNovelGoes OnSelf LoveSummerSittingVictorianLove To Read Author:Joan Didion
“My novels are never truly finished, even if they're published and sitting on the shelf. While I may no longer be interested in spending time with that particular set of characters, I can't help but think about all the ways the book could be different, the small, insignificant tweaks that no one but me would ever notice.” IfsThinkingWayMayI CanBookDifferentCharacterHelpingNovelParticularSittingSpendingFinishedShelvesInsignificantSpending TimeTweak Author:Jillian Medoff
“Creating the characters is the most creative part of the novel except for the language itself. There I am, sitting in front of my computer in right-brain mode, typing the things that come to mind - which become the seeds of plot. It's scary, though, because I always wonder: Is it going to be there this time?” MindCharacterLanguageBrainWonderNovelCreativeFrontsComputerCreatingSittingScarySeedsPlotTyping Author:Elizabeth George
“With novels, you're sitting at a desk, alone, going slightly crazy, for anywhere from six months to a year with zero feedback.” YearsNovelCrazyMonthsSixSittingZeroDesksSix MonthsFeedback Author:Duane Swierczynski
“When I was writing my first novel, I smoked cigarettes. And when I think about what it was like to smoke, I remember exactly the feeling of sitting in front of my big old computer in that little room where I wrote my first novel.” ThinkingWritingFirstsLittlesFeelingsBigsRememberRoomsNovelFrontsComputerSittingSmokeCigarette Author:Dani Shapiro
“Simply put, you can read a story in a single sitting and hold it all in your mind. You can experience all of its rhythms, beginning to end, during that span. Consequently it has, I think, greater emotional power than a novel because of this real-time effect. Stories can stun you.” ThinkingMindRealEndsStoriesNovelGreaterEffectsEmotionalSittingRhythmEmotional Power Author:Adam Ross
“Experimental novels are sometimes terribly clever and very seldom read. But the story that appeals to the child sitting on your knee is the one that satisfies the curiosity we all have about what happened then, and then, and then. This is the final restriction put on the technique of telling a story. A basic thing called story is built into the human condition. It's what we are; it's something to which we react.” HumansChildrenSometimesStoriesNovelHappenedConditionsSittingBuiltFinalsCuriosityTechniqueCleverAppealsKneesHuman ConditionRestrictionBasic Things Author:William Golding