However appalling to consider, however tedious to enact, every novel requires furniture, whether it is to be named or unnamed, for the characters will be unable to remain in standing position for the duration of the story.
It's the technique, I think, of writing a novel that is difficult for a nonfiction writer.
I think the main thing to remember when writing a novel is to stay true to the characters.
When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.
Anthony Powell taught me to write; he has such brilliant control of the mechanics of the novel.
Art, at any rate in a novel, must be indissolubly linked with craft.
I save the best of myself for novels, and I believe it shows.
Writing a first novel was an arduous crash course. I learned so much in the six years it took me to write it, mostly technical things pertaining to craft.
Great novels have great characterization no matter what. But multiple points of view let me examine characters from entirely different perspectives, allowing me to learn more about everyone in the process.
Reading is the most rewarding form of exile and the most necessary discipline for novelists who burn with the ambition to get better.
Writing novels is an essentially amateur activity.
