A novel is, hopefully, the starting point of a conversation, one in which the author engages readers and asks that they see things from a different point of view than they might otherwise.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
A novel is a conversation starter, and if the author isn't there for the after-party, both the writer and the reader are missing a lot.
To me, novels are a trip of discovery, and you discover things that you don't know and you assume that many of your readers don't know, and you try to bring them to life on the page.
That seems to be the definition of 'novel' for me: a story that hasn't yet discovered a way to be brief.
Writing a novel is an intense and lonely business, but you have the reward at the end of a very direct dialogue between you and the reader.
When people write a novel, they want to have that reach and that impact. To get it with a first novel, you can either see it as an albatross or a calling card.
A reader should encounter themselves in a novel, I think.
I am a novelist. I traffic in subtleties, and my goal in writing a novel is to leave the reader not knowing what to think. A good novel shouldn't have a point.
A novel's whole pattern is rarely apparent at the outset of writing, or even at the end; that is when the writer finds out what a novel is about, and the job becomes one of understanding and deepening or sharpening what is already written. That is finding the theme.
A book is always a dialogue with other readers and other books.
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.