TueAs John Steinbeck crouched at his desk, it sometimes helped him to imagine that the novel unfolding on the page was addressed to a single person, real or imaginary.
According to Bernard Schweitzer, an English professor who founded a publishing company, contemporary writers aspiring to create the great American novel also have an imaginary reader in their head. Their imaginary reader, however, is about to jump out and denounce them.
“In the publishing industry, but unfortunately also among writers, there is a perception that the public domain is a minefield, and readers are in ambush,” he said. “Imagine the amount of creativity that can occur under such circumstances.”
Schweitzer attributes this to an “inquisitorial approach” in which the novels are seen as a “collection of knowledge”.
