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Seven reasons not to write a novel

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  • And yet we do it - although the 'have an affair with a millionaire celebrity' road to fame is quite tempting. (Alas I'm a tad too long in the tooth for that) :(
  • Seems pretty convincing to me.

    *bins quill*
  • All I can say is 'pretentious b*stard'. :-q
  • Sounds like someone who can't and therefore must attack those who can.
  • Good old Javier - tongue in cheek as this obviously is, with negativity and bitterness flowing through every well-turned phrase, he's right, except for one thing.
    Most of us don't have - or need - any good reasons to write a novel; we do it because we must.
  • Neph, he has done it, that's the issue.
  • edited August 2014
    I took it as tongue-in-cheek and cheerfully self deprecating, in as much that he was obviously a writer. He didn't offend my sensibilities.
  • All I can say is 'pretentious b*stard'. :-q
    I read it as ironic. At the end he explains why we carry on doing it regardless of the obstacles.

    Sounds like someone who can't and therefore must attack those who can.
    'Javier Marías, Spain's foremost contemporary novelist, has had his work translated into more than forty languages; his most recent novel is The Infatuations, published in America by Knopf.'
  • I got to about half way and couldn't bother reading on, so didn't reach the irony slot.

    He could have said all that in half the space...
  • I read it as though he's trying to put people off - too much competition out there. In that sense I agree with him. I think you need to be clear about why you're doing it. If you hope to make a fortune then you will be sadly disappointed.
  • I agreed with a lot of what he said.

    Because every Tom, Dick and Harry think they can do it, the market is overcrowded by a lot of dross. People do think they can get rich and famous and do think that if they can write sentences they can 'write'.
  • Why do we need reasons? If people don't want to write novels then they don't have to.
  • And those who have no idea and think it's easy will soon learn and won't keep doing it.
  • It's all tongue in cheek and could have been said more succinctly. 'Don't do it for the imagined glory; do it because you must. Anything else is a bonus.'
  • And those who have no idea and think it's easy will soon learn and won't keep doing it.
    Yes, but there are always those jumping on the bandwagon just behind them!

  • Carol's right -and Mrs Bear - he could have said it in far fewer words.

    But he's Spanish. And famous. I bet he's a real bore at dinner parties.
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