"Giving Birth to the Novel"

Every novel has a seed, but after that all gardening analogies should be pruned back. Why? Because it is almost impossible to imagine what will grow from that seed. And while some novelists may work with outlines and others may at least know how a book is going to end, for Bohjalian it’s a complete mystery. He suggests it is much more like parenting than gardening – hence he will be speaking about giving birth to a novel.