The writer — as therapist, scientist, therorist, experiencer, persona and reader.  

Now that Jane Smiley has defined what a novel is, she turns her attention to the writers of these novels. And the idea of the novel as a ‘thing’ is turned into the novel as an ‘experience’ because she not only inspires the writer to write, she gives the reader of the novel credit for their part in this experience as well.

“The desire to write a novel is the single required prerequisite for writing a novel. … The desire does not guarantee that the resulting novel will be a good one, but it is the only way to begin.” – Jane Smiley

“The novel integrates several forms of human intelligence:
• verbal intelligence – for the style
• psychological intelligence – for the characters
• logical intelligence – for the plot
• spatial intelligence – for the symbolic and metaphorical content, and the setting
• musical intelligence – for pacing and rhythm.”

And then as you’re basking in the glory of your own intelligence as a writer, Smiley moves the intelligence argument forward by showing the similarities between writing novels and psychotherapy – and then the writer and the scientist.

“It takes as much wisdom to solve a significant problem in a novel as in life.”

“A novel is a hypothesis. A novelist shares with a scientist the wish to observe. … Both novelist and scientist say, ‘what if?’ Every novel must embody a theory of how life works or it could not have a beginning, middle, and, especially, an end.” 

“A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing. Their job is to develop a theory of what it feels like to be alive. … The most basic conviction of every novelist is that things are not as they appear.”

All quotes are from Jane Smiley’s 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel.

lara
My Story Writer
writing software
www.mywritingsoftware.com


Miss a post from the 13 Ways series? Find it here:
Kickoff: The 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel | The 13 Ways | I Hate Introductions | What is a Novel?