Novelist as a Vocation

by Haruki Murakami

Novel writing is indeed a most inefficient undertaking, consisting of repeating “for instance” over and over.

I CAN’T HELP thinking that novelists share something in common with those who spend a year or more assembling miniature boats in bottles with long tweezers. I

the razor’s edge must give way to the hatchet’s edge, which in turn must be superseded by the axe’s edge.

One day, however, it hit me that I was pushing thirty. What I thought of as my youth was coming to a close. I remember how weird that feeling was. “So this is how it is,” I thought. “Time just slips away.”

it.” It was a moment of true clarity, when the scales fell from my eyes.

It is the right of all writers to experiment with the possibilities of language and expand the range of its effectiveness. Without that adventurous spirit, nothing new can ever be born. In

And it filled the spiritual void that had loomed with the approach of my thirtieth birthday.

so that when we try to express ourselves creatively, all those choices collide with each other and we shut down,

the slower your footwork becomes. The

The you who is not seeking anything, by contrast, is as light and free as a butterfly.

Make it strong while you have time to spare and while your eyes are still good.

stockpile as much material as possible in its original form. To

It is best if they are illogical, or counter the flow of events in a subtle way, or tempt you to question them, or suggest some kind of mystery. You

You have to fashion a vehicle that no one has driven before. Since

The first was to omit all explanations.

I would try to make those connections in a space set entirely apart

“When trees sink and rocks float.”

” I decide, and that’s that. If

will work on nothing but the novel until it is completed, so I need to prepare. If I happen to

ten Japanese manuscript pages (the equivalent of sixteen hundred English words) every day. This works out to about two and a half

maintain a steady pace when tackling

It’s like beating the bushes to flush out the birds. What difference does it make what kind of stick you use or how you swing it? Neither matters as long as the birds take to the air. It is that

“he knew he was finished with a short story when he found himself going through it and taking out commas and then going through the story again and putting commas back in the same places.” I know

Some novelists might have help from researchers, but all they do is gather materials helpful to the novelists.

some of the things I have to do in this life. I

No matter what, this is something I have to do in my life.

you don’t keep your wits about you, you’ll get lost, maybe unable ever to return to the surface.

chaos exists in everyone’s minds. Chaos

your quality of life becomes

The difference between immediate value and nonimmediate value is like the difference between a small teakettle and a large one.

a space of individual recovery.

the creation of the prototype is an unconscious and intuitive process.

if the only people you put in your novels are the kind you like, ones you’re interested in or can easily understand, then your novels, ultimately, will lack a certain expansiveness. There

adding more variety to my characters and expanding the scope of their actions. I keenly

Every time I went through these negative experiences, I tried to observe in detail the way the people involved looked and how they spoke and acted. If I’m going to have to go through all this, I figured, I should at least get something useful out of it

they provided a lot of nourishment for me as a novelist. Of course, I had plenty of wonderful, enjoyable experiences as well, but for whatever reason the ones I recall now are the negative ones. It’s the unpleasant memories that remain, the ones I don’t want to remember. Perhaps there’s more to learn from them. When I think about it, I realize that the novels I enjoy most are the ones with lots

one that leaps to mind is Dostoevsky’s Demons.

Books

Natsume Sōseki

Writer

every time I write a new novel I tell myself, “Okay, this time, here is what I’m going to try to accomplish,” one by one setting up concrete goals for myself—for the most part visible, technical types of goals. I enjoy writing like that. As I clear a new hurdle and accomplish something new or different, I get a real sense that I’ve grown, even if it’s a little, as a writer. It’s like climbing, step by step, up a ladder. The wonderful thing about being a novelist is that even in your fifties and sixties, that kind of growth and innovation is possible. There’s no age limit.

that have a sense of reality, yet are interesting and speak and act in ways that are a bit unpredictable, and make them a central, or close to central,

how far the novel’s characters advance the story. Of course it’s the writer who creates the characters;

It was a truly wonderful experience. Perhaps the sort of sensation only a novelist can taste.

but I was very young then (in my early thirties),

Babies

Books

women

men.

my duty as a Japanese writer,

McCullers.

Writer

Ryuichi Sakamoto and Banana Yoshimoto

Write Er