Pierre Assouline sets foot in the plan – Libération

Advice from the novelist to aspiring writers to deal with the white screen.

Pierre Assouline dedicates this book to Pierre Lemaitre, the author ofGoodbye up there (Albin Michel), Goncourt Prize 2013. Lemaitre is good at explaining how he establishes the plan of his plots, or defines the qualities of his characters. He does not move forward blindly. However, it is so orderly that if you are a beginner, if you are hesitant in temperament, listening to him talk about his method, you may become frightened and give up. Pierre Assouline is reassuring: from his book we learn that there is no recipe, that it is normal to be discouraged but it is essential to regain self-confidence: “Everyone will tell you: be yourself. It became a literary council saw. A cliché must-have. Too bad because it has its truth.” Discipline is also necessary even if it does not exclude days off. Everything is valid, one thing and its opposite; here we are. Example of reversible truth, from the pen of Assouline: “Let us guard against any overly doloristic conception of writing. To write is not necessarily to suffer even if we do not forget the words of Simenon at the end of his life: “To write with joy, what nonsense!” So there is joy but if it is missing, don’t panic. The cohabitation of a principle and its antithesis appeared in the title of a beautiful art of writing, Emergency and patience