A novel, basically, is writing one sentence — then, without violating the scope of the first one, writing the next sentence.

Source: "Be an Artist, Right Now!" TEDxSeoul. Jul. 2010. Conference Presentation. Additional Information: This quote by Korean novelist Young-ha Kim is about storytelling, and novel-writing in particular. Says Kim, writing a novel is simply writing one sentence after the next -- the trick is that the sentence that follows makes sense in relation to the previous sentence. The quote is from Kim's 2010 TED Talk about how adults can recapture the creativity they naturally had as children. Kim also says in this Talk (in relation to this quote) that children are natural writers, since they connect related sentences to tell stories, i.e., lies, which is the same thing that a professional novelist does. Watch the full TED Talk here: Young-ha Kim: Be an Artist, Right Now!

“Be an Artist, Right Now!” TEDxSeoul. Jul. 2010. Conference Presentation.