Most Important Qualities of a Novelist According to Murakami
Learnings from What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
1. Talent
‘No matter how much enthusiasm and effort you put into writing, if you totally lack literary talent you can forget about being a novelist.’ (76-77)
As Murakami suggests, while talent is not something we can control, it is a prerequisite to becoming a novelist.
This isn’t as depressing as it sounds. Because if you are here, reading this now, I believe, you must have some level of self-belief in your ability to write. I also believe that if you do have some talent, it will start to emerge once you give yourself the space and freedom to create. So relax — and write.
2. Focus
After talent, Murakami suggests, the next most important quality for a novelist is ‘focus’. That is, the ability to give all of your attention to your work when writing; and nothing else. Consider this similar to a meditative state; by letting go of intrusive thoughts, your experience is much more fulfilling as you are able to meditate more deeply.
In writing, your work is more authentic, you experience your characters more fully, if you are able to give all your concentration to your work in the moment it demands it. And this will go a long way.
‘…if you can focus effectively, you’ll be able to compensate for an erratic talent or even a shortage of it.’ (77)
3. Endurance
Like focus, Murakami suggests, endurance can be sharpened through training. Murakami, likening this to strengthening muscles. Just as a seasoned jogger will build up to running longer distances, the writer committing to a sustained writing practice will expand their capability.
But the writer’s motivation must come from within.
‘…a writer has a quiet, inner motivation, and doesn’t seek validation in the outwardly visible.’ (10)
While there may be outside measures of ‘success’ — copies of novels sold, awards won — the writer sets their own pace, their own standard; it is the self we are answerable to.
‘For a runner like me, what’s really important is reaching the goal I set myself, under my own power.’ (173)
Also see:
YouTube: The Write Read with Mary-Clare Terrill
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Reference: Murakami, H. (2008). What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Vintage, Penguin Random House.