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The novel writing Creative domain

Here, The Muse Of Language Arts explores the subject of whether and under what conditions novel writing is a creative activity. To accomplish this exploration, The Muse investigates the creative aspects of novels written by a few extraordinarily creative and original authors. They illustrate that the novel literary form is still fresh, alive, living, and changing after centuries of development.

 

About this feature

Some literati define a novel to be a long, complex prose narrative in the form of a sequential story that portrays fictional characters, actions, and events. Is this the way you define it?

This succinct definition, one embraced by many scholars, is simple and to the point; it works well enough for teaching classes, but it doesn't account for the variety of distinctions that actually exist between the many different kinds of literary works that experts call novels.

What's in a name like novel? Works that scholars call novels have taken on a large variety of forms over many years; they cover a lot of literary territory, ranging from ancient prose narratives going as far back as eleventh century China to stories written in Western Europe in recent centuries.

But definitions like the one for a novel are not just vague generalized descriptions: they're guidelines. They should clarify the thing they define; they should render it definite and distinct; they should convey its significance.

Novel writers at work today need a more comprehensive, clearer, more detailed description of what a novel means, one that discriminates between modern "novels," old "novels," and other kinds of fictional prose stories. They need a definition that works for them as authors at work today—as creators and originators— regardless of what other novel writers may have done in the past or what scholars have taught.

If you write novels professionally or as a committed connoisseur, you probably already have your own firm idea of the kind of novels you like to write. But if not—if you're an apprentice—this feature may help you refine your idea of what a novel means to you. It may help you keep on track, to sharpen your pencil to a point so to speak, so that the next novel you draft will be the one you always wanted it to be.

And if you're an expert who exploits the novel literary form as a tool, as an instrument to explore new forms or techniques and to express new ideas, this feature may help you crystallize your concepts for the next steps you want to take.


Welcome To The Novel

To fully appreciate the creativity of the novel, it helps to understand the nature and structure of the novel literary form.

The novel, novella, and short story are three related literary forms that differ in complexity, length, number of characters, character development, themes, settings, and many other such factors.

The novel is the most complex and enriched of these forms because it's much longer and more intricate than its companions. More words and pages permit authors to introduce more subtlety and sophistication.

The so-called English novel is a form of literature that was invented in the 18th century. Since then it has been the standard, accepted way to write novels around the world.

Precursors of the English novel were devised and written around the world for over a thousand years before the English novel form was created. Cultures and countries have changed a great deal during that period. Novel writers were stimulated to invent a large number of novel types and genres, each a reflection of the author's personality and the period in which he wrote.

Today the public buys and consumes novels in great numbers. Interest in this form of writing remains high. New kinds of novels are being innovated more or less continually.

With so much to enrich them, better novels tend to be intensely creative forms of writing.

Want to explore the novel from a literary point of view? You can get a good idea of what good creative writing is like if you do.

  • Explore the literary form of the novel at The Muse Of Literature's feature titled Welcome To The Novel: click here.


Novel novelscreative innovations or just something else that's new and different?

The 19th century and the 20th and 21st centuries were periods of economic and cultural innovation in many parts of the world. Many writers believed that their hands were untied by these revolution; they felt free to devise new kinds of novels and to create new literary genres that mirrored the times and places in which they lived. They had many new things to say or do.

Because novel writing is intrinsically a creative art, novelists have experimented with the forms and genres of novels from their inception. As a consequence, change since the novel's inception has been continual. In the hands of highly creative modern authors, the pace of change has continued to increase in recent times.

To demonstrate this fact, The Muse Of Literature offers a feature titled Novel Novels. Novel Novels takes its name from the fact that many novels published in earlier periods were novel—were new and different—at their time, and that modern novels continue to introduce innovations.

Novel Novels explores some of the modern developments that have taken place in the novel in modern times. Using several prominent 20th century authors as examples, Novel Novels demonstrates that innovation has gone on practically from the novel's inception, and that innovation continues today, particularly in the introduction of new forma and genres. Along the way, the feature identifies a few of the many different kinds of forces that impel novelists to create new kinds of novels.

  • Explore The Muse Of Literature's feature titled Novel Novels: click here.

Birth Of The modern Novel

From a literary perspective, a modern novel is a fictitious prose narrative (i.e., a concocted story or imaginary account) of considerable length and complexity portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of actions and scenes.

The current body of modern novels is an amazing collection that includes brilliant authors and masterpieces, works exhibiting striking beauty and significance that sparkle with artistic excellence. Compared with other kinds of important literary works that tell storiesand there are many of them—modern novels account for an amazing number of the greatest books ever written.

The modern novel literary form has just experienced its two hundredth birthday. Two hundred years may seem like too long a time to call the modern novel modern, but modern is a relative term. Considering how long mankind has been telling stories that are not novels, even at two centuries the modern novel is a relatively recent development.

What, then, are the literary and linguistic traits that make modern novels truly different from all these other ways to tell stories, and special? What are their technical specs: their literary forms, genres, language characteristics, and other properties? What is it about modern novels that makes them especially effective and meritorious? When, where, how, why, and by whom were they originally conceived?

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