What I want is to respond to the challenge posed by the mass media - to permit the novel to say what can only be said by narrative - to allow it to be itself.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The challenge in fiction is to write a terrific story. The challenge in journalism is to communicate solid, objective information. The challenge in creative non-fiction is to do it both and to do it well.
You want to suggest something new, but at the same time, resolve the drama of the action in the novel.
But with nonfiction, the task is very straightforward: Do the research, tell the story.
As a writer, I challenge myself not to tell the same story - to tackle different characters with different issues.
I'd rather let the fiction speak for itself and I don't want to write fiction that tells people how to feel, and I don't want to be judgmental in the fiction.
People need a narrative, and if there isn't one on offer, they make one up.
I don't know if anything I write will endure, but I do try to write it as a narrative that will not only challenge but also entice the reader into the lives of children.
The challenge for a nonfiction writer is to achieve a poetic precision using the documents of truth but somehow to make people and places spring to life as if the reader was in their presence.
I want prose fiction to be recognized as that, and I'm not interested in writing as it becomes more personal.
Novelists have always had complete freedom to pretty much tell their story any way they saw fit. And that's what I'm trying to do.