THE CAREER NOVELIST
ists, too, bring a wonderful facility with words, but the same state-
ment can also be made of lawyers, copy writers, and con men. Being
good with words is not the same as being able to sustain narrative
tension for four hundred pages.
Nevertheless, there is generally something about one's work that
is helpful when it comes to novel craft. Teachers, secretaries, actors,
social workers, and nurses all have to develop strong people skills.
They are excellent observers of behavior. Engineers, corporate execu-
tives, doctors, military types, librarians, and computer programmers
all understand complex systems and structures. They know how badly
things can go wrong, which is a wonderful help in creating conflicts.
What is more important than any of this, though, are some qual-
ities that anyone might have. Persistence is a big one. A first novel
can take years to build; a career can take decades. Attention to
detail, the willingness to revise, and the habit of breaking large
tasks into smaller pieces are also useful abilities. Novelists tend to
be intelligent and analytical, although the writing process itself is
highly intuitive and requires going into a sort of waking dream state.
I also believe that a tolerance for loneliness is a must, as is a tol-
erance for risk. Getting started as a novelist means being isolated
for long periods of time, as well as accepting a potential level of
rejection that can be crushing.
Above all, I find that novelists are passionate storytellers. They
love stories and compulsively collect them. They immerse them-
selves in fiction and seek out the company of other writers. They
draw from many sources: myths, movies, history, current events,
personal experience, family history.
Speaking of families, it is worth saying a few words about the
influence of family history and personality on a novel-writing career.
Just as one brings unresolved childhood conflicts to adult relation-
ships, so it is with one's fiction career. Well-adjusted people will
cope nicely with the obstacles of writing and publishing. They give
themselves reality checks that assure them that their difficulties are
no different from those experienced by others. They solve their pub-
lishing problems in direct and effective ways.
Neurotic types can be more driven, but will often have a tougher
struggle in their careers. These folks, I find, tend to shape their adult