First novels tend to be blood-lettings, and they're focused on you, not the reader.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.
It's got a lot more room for nuance and an assumption that people have started from the beginning. 'Bloodline' ends up being like a really good novel.
Writers have to be careful not to confuse personal attention with the attention that's going towards the book.
I don't very often read novels.
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.
One thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they're just infested with lots of stuff.
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.
A lot of first novels are coming-of-age stories. A lot are autobiographical.
Writing novels preserves you in a state of innocence - a lot passes you by - simply because your attention is otherwise diverted.