Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Can you think of a better way to describe a novel?

“The basic substance of imaginative literature (novels, plays, poetry) is not reason, but emotion. … So, the psychology of the novel is a psychology of relationships.” – Jane Smiley

And the most important relationship of all seems to be that between the writer and the reader.

“When an author writes, she is communicating with herself; when a reader reads, she is communicating with herself, but when she feels a sense of kinship with a particular novel, she feels that the author is communicating with her.”

“When the reader accepts the first line of a book, she agrees to think about the same things, and in the same degree of detail and in the same order, that the writer has chosen to think about.”

“A novel unfolds in the author’s mind and the reader’s mind simultaneously.”

But before that relationship can occur, the author must write the novel.
“Every novelist has to withdraw from a state of inspiration at least once in a while to work out the logical steps or plot, character, structure, theme and style.”

“At the base of every novel is an argument the author is making about why a novel is worth writing, selling and reading.”

So it goes back to the relationship between writer and reader. Without them, the novel is nothing.

“If a novel finds no eager readers, it does not even exist.”


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 the Novel? | Who is the Novelist? | Origins: Where did the Novel Come From?