You will, I am sure, agree with me that... if page 534 only finds us in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I actually feel, when I get to about page 200, that it's going to be a book after all! It never gets easier - when you conquer one problem, another one rises up to take its place.
I thought my book was done, then we went to Hawaii and the whole last chapter happened.
I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.
If you make a trilogy, the whole point is to get to that third chapter, and the third chapter is what justifies what's come before.
Well, I don't know. It's long, it's longer than both of the other books put together, so it's more ambitious. I think I get under the skin of the people a lot more than in the other books.
You know what writers say about their long books: If I had another year, the book would be half as long.
I treated the first few books as a very long journalistic exercise. I thought of every chapter as an article that needed to be finished.
Your first book is kind of a labor of ignorance. You don't realize the difficulty of it. Your second book is sort of a labor of fear. Then you sort of either hit a stride, or you don't.
I just have to proceed as usual. No matter what happens, nothing helps with the writing of the next book.
For all I know, I am beginning with the ending. My page one can wind up a year later as page two hundred, if it's still even around.