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
somehow
I always have a book that I use that somehow inspires my novels.
chance dive ignore moved sort voices
When I get moved to write a story, I don't question the story. I dive right in, and I try to ignore the voices that are chattering away at me: 'You can't do that', 'You shouldn't do that'. I just sort of leap and take a chance and go for it.
except liked numerous sent stories time wrote
The story wrote quickly. I called it 'Where You're From,' and I sent it out, as I had numerous other stories over the years. Except this time I got a letter back saying that it would be published. Someone out there had liked the story. I was thirty-one years old.
easily expect four good humbled main others quite reason writers
I didn't expect to be up here. I'm quite humbled by this and the main reason I'm humbled is that there were four others who could easily be up here; that humbles me. We have so many good writers in this country.
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.
age contest entered grand hard loved offering prize
In 1970, at the age of 14, I entered a short story contest offering a grand prize of one dollar. I won. This was my first foray into writing fiction. I loved reading and thought that it shouldn't be so hard to write a story.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
counting empty proper remained shape ten took trying work
It took me ten years to write a proper story. I floundered about trying to shape something, counting on the 'feeling' I had as I wrote, only to discover upon rereading my work that the feeling had disappeared, and what remained was an empty shell.