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Monday, 10.06.2008 |
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| Letters to a Young Novelist |
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Product Details
Notes
prizes, public acclaim, book sales and social standing are arbitrary and fleeting
don't set success as your main goal, literary ambition is different than hunger for glory
the exercise of the craft is its own best reward
your career is not predestined, but neither is it completely a choice
free choice can strengthen a subjective inclination to produce genius
there's a big gap from using your imagination to actually becoming a writer
do you have what it takes to go beyond imagination to really work with words?
the decision to commit to achieving your purpose is the first step of a new writer
writing stems from rebellion against reality and real life
if you were deeply satisfied with real life, why immerse yourself in a fictional one?
fiction is the flip side of history, it's not what actually happened but a made-up version
imagine a man who wants to blow up the world, but rather than do it, he writes it
is it true that real life is mediocre compared to what novelists can imagine?
but real emotions from real life situations are much more powerful than any story
in history, literature was often banned because of its power over the people
censorship is the method used to control the freedom of the oppressed
the literary vocation is not a hobby, a sport, or a pleasant leisure-time activity
there are no novel-writing prodigies, it's not like poets or musicians
all stories are rooted in the lives of those who write them
the novelist doesn't choose his themes, he is chosen by them
life assigns themes, but the novelist is responsible for transforming them into story
remember a novel is not judged good or bad by its theme but by its content
content is not really separate from form, what is told is tied closely to how it is told
a novel should be self-contained, driven by the story's internal mechanism
it shouldn't be the result of an arbitrary imposition of an outside will
good novels don't tell us anything, they make us live it and share in it
make the reader live the lie of fiction as if it were the most eternal truth
the goal of the story is to develop the power of persuasion through illusion
style doesn't have to be correct, but it should be consistent, with internal coherence
style fails when we feel the story could have been told better in a different way
remember that the narrator is not the same as the author, even in first person
a second-person narrator may be omniscient or a character within the story
shifts in narrator are not that unusual, like third-person multiple viewpoints
if it works, it's smooth and unnoticed, but if it doesn't, it jars the reader from the story
Flaubert introduced the modern novel with the invisible "objective" narrator
Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables (on and off) over 30 years in the 19th century
note that unattributed dialogue can create an infinitesimal shift in narrator
we see that one line of dialogue is heard by a character, then the other character
and then it may switch back to the omniscient narrator in the exposition
these details can be important in the overall feel and mood of the story
the narrator is a fictional creation, and so is the time passing in a novel
time in a novel is based on psychological time, not chronological time
psychological time moves faster sometimes and feels slow other times
the temporal point of view often changes, like in flashbacks or jumps in time
besides space (narrator pronoun) and time (tense), there is also "level of reality"
"level of reality" basically indicates whether the story world is real or fantasy
there is also the objective world (realist) and subjective (psychological)
a qualitative shift is like when there's a twist from realism to fantasy
the idea of Chinese boxes, stories inside of stories that relate to each other
the hidden fact is narration by omission, the reader has to fill in the answer
this can't be arbitrary, it has to be meaningful otherwise it feels like a mistake
another example would be the ambiguous ending
elliptic facts are hidden forever, anastrophic facts are delayed, like the killer's identity
remember that the written novel is just part of the total story that exists
so you have to consciously choose what to show and what details to hide
hiding something because it's irrelevant vs. hiding something for an important reason
communication vessels are two episodes interlinked to enhance to whole feeling
an example is the fair in Madame Bovary, a romance combined with the fair's events
this could also apply to parallel storylines that come together in the end
literary creation is reason and intelligence, but also intuition, sensitivity and chance |
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