The most important basis of any novel is wanting to be someone else, and this means creating a character.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
What fascinates me as a writer is the stuff underneath, To me, what drives a novel is the curiosity behind the character and the depths that you want to find in that character.
Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.
Novels demand a certain complexity of narrative and scope, so it's necessary for the characters to change.
Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.
It's really a misconception to identify the writer with the main character, given that the author creates all the characters in the book. In certain ways, I'm every character.
In order for a narrative to work, the primary character should have a concrete desire - a need that drives her story - and the story's writer should make this goal known to the reader pretty early in the narrative.
Novels give you the opportunity to create a whole world. Because you create people, you make them talk... You decide who they are, whether they live or die. It's the closest thing to feeling like a god that you can come to.
The goal is to have every character take on a life of his or her own. Sometimes characters will come into the story that I haven't planned.
When I work on a novel, I usually have one character and a setting in mind.
An author's characters do what he wants them to do.