The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
To make it interesting and worth doing, writing a novel has to be a leap into the unknown. I have to be unsure if I can write it; otherwise, I won't want to.
I must be honest here; I don't think there's such a thing as 'unconventional' when it comes to YA. YA readers are the most open-minded in the literary world. They'll read anything.
Writers who want to interfere with adaptations of their work are basically undemocratic. The book still stands as an entity on its own.
At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.
There is no better way of elevating the novel than by making it into a construct which contains ideas.
My shorthand answer is that I try to write the kind of book that I would like to read. If I can make it clear and interesting and compelling to me, then I hope maybe it will be for the reader.
I have always argued, in a good novel, interesting things happen to interesting people.
But I think, and hope, that the novels can be understood and enjoyed as science fiction, on their own terms.
A great literary work can be completely, completely unpredictable. Which can sometimes make them very hard to read, but it gives them a great originality.
Every book has an intrinsic impossibility, which its writer discovers as soon as his first excitement dwindles.