A NEW NOVEL !

Yes ! My Murakami's will be finished by then ! Oh,oh,to buy a new book !

depression. (in answering to your question)

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nostalgia

Perhaps if you are able to acquiesce in your present state of writing and tipsiness, you can change this melancholy to simple nostalgia?

Novel

I'd love to go to the bookstore and pick up a brand new Grunberg novel, take it home in a little plastic bag, leave it lying in the perimeter of my eyesight for a little while and then suddenly devour it like it's my prey.

Poor godson;) Well its good that he knows the truth early.

Yes, a deep depression or drink until you start to hallucinate. Go to the bottom! Be a professional - although an intelligent one – and not only in writing.
(Another clever advice from your brother Bernard)

I went to an Italian restaurant yesterday. The girl I was with said they always give a limoncello with a meal. Yesterday was another day, they may have changed their policy. I wasn't sad about it, because I'm not really into limoncello.

what else?

Science, the arts, nature, politics.

Dear Aliefka

a month ago you wrote: "I'm sure I'll have dinner with Eric Wander though, one day."
What a pity we missed the oppertunity in June.
Would you like me to inform you when I'm 'arround' the next time?

yours,

Eric W.

Dear Arnon,

What do you do when you work with your editor on your new novel?

yours,

Eric W.

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Francette

Je maakt me nieuwsgierig. Een française die naast frans nederlands begrijpt, in het engels schrijft en dan ook nog eens de taal van Goethe meester is.

Francette

Sorry , I wanted to remove my comment, but was just some minutes too late.

What else is there?

Buying socks of course.

Melancholy and tipsiness is all there is. Writing doesn't count.

Eric W.

'What do you do when you work with your editor on your new novel?'

When he works with his editor on his new novel, he is probably working with his editor on his new novel??

Editing work?

Apperently Arnon's editor or the editing work itself makes him drink trying to avoid getting into a depression. No experience in this, but maybe it's very confronting?;) (just kidding a bit)

Dear M. Hordijk,

clever you.........

yours,

Eric W.

Eric W

Deleting a comma here and there.
Adding a sentence here and there.
Deleting a sentence here and there.
Correcting typo’s.
We don’t concentrate on the overall structure, that work is mostly done already.
Hope this was helpful.

When

When will it be published? Before 2011?

Dear Arnon,

Thank you for your answer.
Do you discuss the overall structure with your editor?
Could he be of help in developing ideas in the process of writing?
Or is he mainly there for the comma's and typo's?

yours,

Eric W.

Mr. Arnon

If I have to believe Deborah Treisman, fiction editor of The New Yorker, she really plays a big role in the editing of (short) stories. She often makes the author rewrite the whole lot (which is, of course, quite different to rewriting a novel).

What do you prefer? An American, overzealous editor or a Dutch editor with a knack for nitpicking?

Dens

Soms magazines tend to prefer a heavy edit.

Eric

The overall structure is certainly something you discuss with trusted readers.

Dear Arnon,

Interesting to hear that you discuss certain aspects of your writing with others.
Already at an early stage?
And how important is it for you;
in the sense that the reaction or advice of your trusted readers changes the concept or course of a novel?

yours,

Eric W.

Discussing the overall structure at an early stage with readers makes me think of how holywood movies are being tested with a small audience, measuring there reactions of different scenes....that would kill the artistic part of it in advance?

Milan / Eric

I have one or two trusted readers who might or might not have something to tell me after they have read my novel – the complete novel that is.
Getting comments on your novel from a trusted reader is not exactly the same as organizing test screenings.
Discussing the overall structure is basically what any sound conversation about a novel (among other things) should be doing. You are asking me if I can have sound conversations about my own work, yes, it’s rare but it’s possible.
Writing a novel, Eric, is not a democratic process.
But that doesn’t mean that an editor or a trusted reader can make a clever remark.
Milan: “That would kill the artistic part of it in advance?”
You claim to be an aspiring writer, could you please take time to write decent sentences.

Dear Arnon,

Who is talking about democratic processes?
My curiosity here is merely on your working process
and if you seek for ways to 'test' or 'sharpen' your ideas.
Thanks for the information.

yours,

Eric W.

Practical writing questions

@Arnon
Interesting, nothing wrong with that o.c. Probalby you developed some extra skills in doing this, compared to getting your first novel out.
Do you set some deadlines, in number of words a day or month or something else? Like maybe also number of words for the whole novel?

(personally i stopped at 60.000 and now i am making a follow-up story of again 60.000, but i have no idea why i do this...i read that brusselmans write like crasy, so fast....but i guess you never know with him, if he is telling the truth...)

Eric

I have answered your question haven't I?

Life itself sharpens your ideas. For that you don't need a trusted reader.

Dear Arnon,

"Life itself sharpens your ideas."
Nicely put!
You answered my question indirectly: your trusted readers read the complete novel.

Another question that I wanted to ask you for some time:
When you started writing were you conscious about style?
(When did you start writing?)

yours,

Eric W.

Dear Arnon,

is 'style' a topic you don't like to discuss on this forum?

Maybe to end it then a quote about Flaubert:

The romantic in him [Flaubert] wanted to soar above it all, to write a book of pure music, "a book about nothing," a book held together only by the "internal force of its style."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/books/review/16wood.html?pagewanted=3

yours,

Eric W.

Dear Eric,

do you believe that 'style' is more important than 'content'?
Is that what you're trying to say here?
As one of the characters from David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas' says
(I believe it's Frobisher, the English composer):
"It's not about what you say, but how you say it".
To some a cliche, an expression not worth repeating....

yours,

Eric W.

Eric

There is a tendency to concentrate on the style of an author or a novel in order to ignore the content.
Nabokov has been hailed as a great stylist, but without the very specific content of let’s say “Lolita” this style – great or not – would have been useless.
Yes, you can have beautiful ideas, but at the end it all depends on the execution.
However the celebration of style often borders on fetishism.
I don’t deny its importance, I’m just pointing out the obvious: It’s never style alone

Dear Eric and Arnon,

Yes Eric, I believe style is more important than content.
And I agree, it's never style alone.
(Where does style end and content start?
Having said this: )
When Thomas Mann writes about Hans Castorp's walk in the snow in Der Zauberberg
it's how he says it that you want to read on.
And I'm sure there are more stories, novels about adult man who are obsessed by a young girl.
The question then is: what makes Nabokov's "Lolita" a special case.

But what REALLY interests me is:
*When you started writing were you conscious about style?
(When did you start writing?)*

yours,

Eric W.

Eric

When I started writing, well before my first novel (“Blue Mondays”) was published, I was very much aware of style.
At the time style was for me the essence.

Dear Arnon,

Is it possible you say something about the choices you made regarding to style?

yours,

Eric W.

Dear Arnon,

Or is it not right to talk about 'choices' in this respect?

yours,

Eric W.

eric

I suggest politely that you study my work to know more about the choices I made regarding style.
All what I can say about these choices pales into insignificance compared to the work itself.