David Bergen
David Bergen
David Bergenis a Canadian novelist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He has published eight novels and one collection of short stories since 1993. His most recent novel, Leaving Tomorrow, was published in September 2014...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth14 January 1957
CountryCanada
editor objective publish
An editor is an accomplice, looking in from the outside. That objective view is essential. We don't write in a vacuum, and we don't publish in a vacuum.
certain editor finished longer novel number submit submitted
I usually submit a novel at a certain number of words, and when I've finished working with my editor, the novel is longer than when I submitted it. I need my editor to help me open up the story.
emotion emotions interested
I've always been interested in the emotion of longing,
best throw
Every year, the Giller jury is different. You write the best book you can and throw it out there.
absolutely teacher
A mentor, a 'teacher,' is like an editor. I absolutely value my editor, who is my teacher.
age born car children confuse dates god grow hope lives marries names suffers till wrote
One day, at my office, I wrote down some names and dates and notes, and I wrote a title, 'The Age of Despair,' and then some other 'Ages' - Innocence, God, Reason, Hope - and I wrote this as well: 'Woman, born in 1930, lives till the age of 80 or so, suffers depression, marries a car dealer, has children who grow up to confuse her.'
thrown
As a writer, you write the book, you give it to your editor, it's copy edited, it's published, it's thrown out there, and then there's a response.
aware
As a writer, I'm always aware of the fact that there are so many books out there.
That's the novelist's job: to peel back the layers and look underneath.
arrive brief expect happen life means novel time
In my brief writing life, it means I am still lucky that I have at least one more novel to complete. I do not expect that a story will arrive just because it is time to write another novel. It doesn't happen that way.
came certainly family religion shaped type
I think my writing was certainly shaped from having lived in a place like Niverville as well as by the family that I came from, the religion that I had, that type of thing.
I may not have written the stories that I've written if I hadn't ended up in Niverville. I don't know; I don't know. How can you know?
characters invite surprising
Invite characters of surprising and moral character, or at least those who grapple with what is right or those who make decisions that shock.
clueless gave picked seeking seven
I gave up writing for seven years (very biblical) and picked it up again, still clueless and still seeking the exotic, when I was twenty-one.