“Are We There Yet? Process vs. Productivity in Writing the Novel” by Judith Claire Mitchell
There were twenty-four years between the publication of Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize winner Gilead and her previous novel Housekeeping; twelve years between Edward P. Jones' Pulitzer winner The Known World and his previous book Lost in the City; ten between Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides. What is it about the novel that takes so darned long? And what impels novelists to see their visions through even when it takes a decade or longer to do so? Drawing from personal experience as well as the experiences of other writers, Judith Claire Mitchell, author of the novel The Last Day of the War, will discuss common stumbling blocks encountered in completing this often unwieldy form and various practical ways to overcome them.