To make it interesting and worth doing, writing a novel has to be a leap into the unknown. I have to be unsure if I can write it; otherwise, I won't want to.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The good thing about writing a novel is that you're creating an imaginary world and can take a break when you need to.
My shorthand answer is that I try to write the kind of book that I would like to read. If I can make it clear and interesting and compelling to me, then I hope maybe it will be for the reader.
For me, writing a novel is like solving a puzzle. But I don't intend my novels as puzzles. I intend them as invitations to dance.
Writing can be fun. I think the challenge is to convey interesting things in accessible ways, and that's what I aim to do in books.
I write in a very peculiar way. I think about a book for 25 or 30 years in a kind of inchoate way, and at one point or another, I realize the book is ready to be written. I usually have a character, a first line, and general idea of what the book is going to be about.
I quickly realised that it is difficult to get started when writing a novel. You have this dream of what you want to create, but it is like walking around a swimming pool and hesitating to jump in because the water is too cold.
Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough.
For me, writing a novel is more like digging a well than climbing a mountain - some heroic thing where I set out to conquer. I just sit quietly for a few years, and then it starts to become something.
It takes a lot of energy and a lot of neurosis to write a novel. If you were really sensible, you'd do something else.
I really enjoy writing novels. It's like the ocean. You can just build a boat and take off.