From Norman Mailer
“To know what you want to say is not the best condition for writing a novel. Novels go happiest when you discover something you did not know you knew: an insight into one of your opaque characters, a metaphor that startles you… a truth… that used to elude you.”
December 7th, 2007 at 7:45 am
I like that quote! Some of the worst fiction I’ve read (and written!) has been that way because the writer “had something to say” and it took precedence over everything else — like good characters and a plot that makes sense.
If you have something to say, write an essay. If you want to write good fiction, you have to be willing to let your characters say things that you don’t agree with or you risk writing something really boring.
December 7th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
I do love that flash of clarity when everything finally makes sense (accompanied by a beam of light and a heavenly chorus, of course).
At the moment, I’m wishing I’d experienced it before I started sending out the last manuscript. I really, truly thought it was finished… until the obvious booted me out of sleep (and has been kicking me ever since).
Lesson learned: hold everything for six months after I deem it completed, so any issues festering in my subconscious have time to claw their way to the surface.