In my brief writing life, it means I am still lucky that I have at least one more novel to complete. I do not expect that a story will arrive just because it is time to write another novel. It doesn't happen that way.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise. Because that is how life is - full of surprises.
There comes a point when you're writing a novel when you're in it so deep that the life of the novel becomes more real to you than life itself. You have to write your way out of it; once you're there, it's too late to abandon.
Writing a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer's own life.
It's easier to come up with new stories than it is to finish the ones you already have. I think every author would feel that way.
When I write, I get glimpses into future novels.
One of the humbling things about having written more than one novel is the sense that every time you begin, that new empty page does not know who you are.
Every time you finish a book, you have a terrible feeling that there's just never going to be another one. But fortunately, so far, the next one has always shown up.
In books, as in life, there are no second chances. On second thought: it's the next work, still to be written, that offers the second chance.
I thought that I would have a huge literary novel coming out when I was, like, 29. I quit my banking job, and I was halfway through my second novel - and I will never publish it, because it's very mediocre.
A novel ensures that we can look before and after, take action at whatever pace we choose, read again and again, skip and go back. The story in a book is humble and serviceable, available, friendly, is not switched on and off but taken up and put down, lasts a lifetime.