Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The Madness Quotient

Writing a novel involves a mix of right brain-left brain, logic and feeling, which is why few persons are truly good at it.

What makes The Great Gatsby, say, a masterpiece is that F. Scott Fitzgerald imposed structure and discipline onto his unrivaled sensitivity to the world.

With my ebooks I’ve attempted to create order—to build a framework within which the passions of my characters can move. In which their over-the-top voices can express themselves. I’ve seen if I can bring some of my own madness into the narrative. In my last three ebooks I’ve struggled to achieve this—in Crime City USA, The Tower, The McSweeneys Gang—with varying degrees of success.

With my next novel my objective will be to go farther. To present the craziest novel ever, yet also one of the best structured. Is this possible?

No comments:

Post a Comment