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Note: Ain’t life funny? Not a month later, I simply needed to start writing another novel! Read all about this new novel, The Storytelling Cat.

Whenever someone says “always”, “never”, or “everyone”, be very suspicious. I am too of my own utterance. Never write another novel? Never say never again! However, at this point in time, and with enough experience behind me, I do feel that way: I will likely never write another novel in the foreseeable future.

Why I feel that way might be a useful thought direction to you as well, especially if you’re a writer, but also if you’re simply someone interested in what art and expression mean in today’s world. More still, what forms creative writing takes and why I feel a novel is currently not among my favorite such forms.

I Will “Never” Write Another Novel: Concepts vs Seeds

A novel, in order to be cohesive and ultimately meaningful as art, must be aware of its conceptual foundations. In simpler terms, a novel should not merely be a linear progression from point A to point B, but an organic whole that delivers affective impact.

This requires a lot of work, if the idea is to make it properly.

Of course most people don’t bother, they just sort of making shit up as they go – even famous writers are repeat offenders, such as Haruki Murakami – which destroys any sort of conceptual consistency.

I don’t want to do that.

However, nowadays I’m also more and more interested in seeds rather than concepts: little chunks of experiencing, tangents and traces of things forlorn and forgotten. In other words, I’m interested in connections and ideas, rather than their sustained, in-depth exploration.

Art Formats and Scope

My most recent literary work is A Summer Evening in Another World. It’s a flash-fiction collection. Before it, I wrote Tell Me, Mariner, which was a short-story collection. Perhaps you see a pattern? It’s very likely not by chance that this occurred right after The Perfect Gray, my most solid literary-fiction novel in terms of conceptual cohesion.

At this point, I think I’ll never write another novel simply because flash fiction (and maybe short stories) are better art formats for expressing what I want to express: ideas and seeds, rather than concepts and themes.

Remember: A short story is not simply a shorter narrative! They have different dynamics and function in largely incompatible frameworks.

But there is more: What about art other than writing?

I Will “Never” Write Another Novel: Music, Painting, Drawing

As the images above reveal, these days I’ve been painting quite a lot. Of course I’ve been also drawing quite a lot, venting my frustration with the world through Punning Walrus. And music, as past blog posts reveal, has also been something I’ve been doing a lot.

What all these forms of art have in common is that – the way I approach them – they are idea/seed-based rather than concept-based, like novels.

In other words: With music, painting, and drawing (as with short stories and, especially, flash fiction) I can take the morsel of an idea and play with it, holding its hand for a very brief period of time and then letting it go. Yes, there are people painting a single portrait or composing a single song for years, but that’s not how I approach these forms of art.

To me, a song, a painting, or a drawing (or a flash fiction story) is a matter of a single day, if not a single afternoon. A Punning Walrus cartoon like the one you see above takes me as little as 15 minutes.

I immerse myself in the worlds I transiently create, throw the idea seed around and then continue with the next one.

Novels Beyond Concepts

My friend Igor, when I told him about these thoughts, aptly pointed out that my definition of a novel is somewhat Anglo-centric. It’s true, there are many ways of approaching a novel, not necessarily requiring in-depth explorations or strong conceptual foundations.

The thing is, however, that’s not how I want to write a novel. Perhaps this, too, will one day change. Perhaps I will then say “never say never again” and I will write another novel, one wildly experimental. Maybe I will even decide I want to work with concepts again, opting for the in-depth, sustained exploration I’m currently not so interested in.

Until then, I will “never” write another novel. But hey, maybe I’ll change my mind tomorrow.