I've never written a book, except my first, without at some point considering that I might die before it was completed. This is all part of the superstition, the folklore, the mania of the business, the fetishistic fuss… dying in the middle of a word, or three-fifths of the way through a novel. My friend, the novelist Brian Moore, used to fear this as well, though for an extra reason: "Because some bastard will come along and finish it for you." Here is a novelist's would-you-rather. Would you rather die in the middle of a book, and have some bastard finish it for you, or leave behind a work in progress that not a single bastard in the whole world was remotely interested in finishing?-- Julian Barnes, Nothing To Be Frightened Of --
Have great Thursday!
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Worth thinking about...
ReplyDeleteC.
If you did write a book, what would it be about. Cats, poems, drums, friends?
ReplyDelete"C", -- I agree.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous -- if I were to write a book, it would include in it, my theories of the afterlife. [And sadly, some other bastard would finish it for me]!