All language subtitles for MasterClass Walter Mosley Teaches Fiction and Storytelling - 05. Narrative Voice, Point of View, and Dialogue

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When you write
a novel, a novel

is told from a
certain point of view.

A certain voice is
telling you the novel.

Without that, it's not a novel.

It's not a story.

Because stories-- they
originate on street corners.

People say, man, did
you hear what happened

with Joe and his prize pig?

And I want to know about
Joe and his prize pig.

And so they tell me the story.

Well, who's telling
me the story?

Pete is telling me this story,
and I'm listening to the story.

You have to decide who's
telling your story, who's

telling your novel.

And that's a narrative voice.

There's all kinds
of narrative voices,

and there are all kinds of
subsets of narrative voices.

There's the
first-person narrative,

where there is a living
human being telling you

the story that happened
in her experience,

from her eyes and ears and mind.

There's the second person
narrative, which is hardly

ever used in novels, often used
in how-to books and poetry,

which is, somebody is saying,
you walk into the door.

You pick up the
hat from the floor.

You see the blood on the floor.

It makes you telling the
story, but I'm telling you

that you're telling the story.

It doesn't work very
well in fiction.

Then there's the
third-person narrative.

That's a person who's
sitting on the shoulder

of a character,
who sees everything

that that character sees.

They're not that
character, so they

don't have the
emotional responses

that the character has.

But they see it,
and they explain it.

And every once in a, while they
have a little insight into what

that person is thinking.

Third-person narrative's
very good because it feels

objective, which
is good for it--

we're seeing things happen, and
we can make our own minds about

how they feel--

but also because it's from
more than one point of view.

A third-person narrative can--

I can be talking to you,
and then you leave the room,

and my narrator jumps
off my shoulder and jumps

onto your shoulder and
follows you to another room.

So I can see it from many
different points of view,

if I'm writing a novel with very
many different characters who

are very different
kinds of characters,

and I need to see what
they're experiencing.

And then there's the
universal narrator,

which can be translated to
God, and God knows everything.

God knows what Joe is doing
and what Joe is thinking

and what Sarah
over here is doing

and thinking about him talking.

He also knows about
the flies that

are buzzing around the
top of one of their heads,

and also, there's a
fish swimming around

in an underground lake
on Mars somewhere.

This character knows everything.

It seems like a great
way to write a novel,

because then you can tell
them everything you want,

but it's not very convincing
unless your voice is very,

very, very, very sophisticated.

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I chose first-person
narrative for Easy,

because it felt good to me.

It felt like, being
inside Easy's life,

I was inside the life of a whole
community, because he in a way

represents that community.

It worked.

And he does the main thing
that a first-person narrator

has to do.

If you're going to write
a first-person narrator

that someone's going to read a
300- or 400-pages book about,

that narrator has
to be interesting.

You have to care about
him, wonder about him,

like the way he says things,
like the way he gets brave,

like the way he gets
scared, like the way

he responds to other people.

He's that guy that you want
to hear tell the story, not

the guy that when
he starts talking,

you walk out of the room.

I felt I could do that
with Easy, and so I did.

And it worked pretty well.

Now, that's very
interesting because I later

wrote up a series of
stories about a guy named

Socrates Fortlow.

And the whole story
is-- every story

that I wrote about him was
from his point of view.

But I used a
third-person narrator,

because he's a very
taciturn, sullen kind of guy.

And if you only wrote
from his point of view,

it would be a really dark--

dull, even-- kind of writing.

But a third person brightens it
up because it's more objective,

and other people
play roles in it

that I could use to make
it more interesting.

And I have to add
that you will go out,

and you will find books that
are first-person narrative,

but it's a different
person for each chapter.

That's another way to do it,
and that's perfectly fine.

You might read "Moby Dick," that
starts out, "Call me Ishmael."

Sounds like a first-person
narrative to me.

But by the end of "Moby Dick,"
we're in the mind of Ahab.

So he changes narration
all through the writing,

and it works.

So if you tell me,
well, Walter, you

told me I can only
do a first-person

narrative, a third-person
narrative, but look,

I could do anything?

And I say, yes, you
can do anything.

But you have to
be able to do it.

So I'm starting you on
something a little simpler.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Dialogue in a novel
is so, so important,

because it allows
you some leeway.

For instance, if you have
a first-person narrative,

and we're only
hearing from you, we

may not understand
you completely,

because you have a
certain view of yourself,

but you could be wrong
about some things.

But if all of a sudden,
somebody comes in,

and they start talking
to you or about you,

then we have another
way of seeing you.

Even if you're hearing it,
we're hearing that person talk,

and they're talking
different, sounding different,

saying different
things, not agreeing

with stuff that you're saying.

And then that can bring a
question into the story.

Dialogue is also
interesting because novels

are about people, or at least
living beings who transform.

And so to hear
people talk brings us

deeper and deeper into the
human element of the novel.

Dialogue is also
interesting because people

talk differently.

If you have a PhD from
Harvard in English literature,

you're going to talk
one kind of way.

If you dropped out of
school in the second grade

and live in the
underbelly of the Bowery,

you're going to have a whole
different way of talking.

And that's musical, especially
if you have the Harvard

guy and the underbelly
girl talking

to each other in these
completely different dialects.

That's symphonic.

That's kind of wonderful.

Dialogue, connected
with dialect,

gives us all kinds
of information

that are really,
really wonderful.

And you can begin
to play with it.

For instance if you have a
first-person narrative, and--

let's say Easy is
talking to Mouse,

and Easy says, well, I
told you not to do this.

And he says, no, man, you
didn't tell me not to do it.

You just said, don't
do it like that.

And it becomes wordplay.

It becomes light.

It becomes funny.

There's all kinds
of things that you

can do with dialogue--
and not only dialogue.

With street signs,
newspaper articles,

movies playing on television.

There's all kinds
of different ways

to bring information inside
a narrative voice, which

may be different
than the one that you

need for this particular
piece of information.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So here's a small
example of dialogue

as I configured it in
"Devil in a Blue Dress."

"'Nice friends you got,' I
said, as I studied his place.

'They're like you, Easy.

Whenever I need a little
manpower, I give them a call.

There's a whole army of men
who'll do specialized work

for the right price.'

'The little guy Chinese?'

Albright shrugged.

'No one knows.

He was raised in an
orphanage in Jersey City.

drink?' 'Sure.'

'One of the benefits of
working for yourself--

always have a
bottle on the table.

Everybody else,
even the presidents

of these big companies, got
the booze in the bottom drawer.

But I keep it right
out in plain sight.

You want to drink it?

That's fine with me.

You don't like it?

Door's right there behind you.'

While he talked, he poured
two shots into glasses

that he had taken
from a desk drawer."

Once you get deeply
involved in writing a novel,

everything comes together.

You split it up at some point.

You say story, you say
plot, you say characters,

you say character
development, you say dialogue,

you say dialect.

And that's all wonderful.

But they're not separate.

They're all working together.

The only dialogue is going
to come from characters.

This is a character who
has a very specific view

of the world.

And this is a world that
Easy Rawlins is entering.

Dewitt Albright,
even though he's

an evil guy, a terrible guy--

he's the guy that
Easy wants to be.

Easy wants to be
working for himself.

Easy wants his
bottle on the table.

And this guy explains it to him.

Easy says, is that guy Chinese?

I don't know.

He was raised in New
Jersey, in an orphanage.

He's something.

The idea is, you're explaining
a character while that character

is explaining his world.

So you're doing two
things with the dialogue.

You're telling us all
the stuff about him

and who he is and about
the world that he lives in

and that he believes
he lives in,

and, you'll find out later
on, the kind of character

that Easy actually wants to
become, just not maybe so evil.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Dialogue is the song
of your characters.

It is the response to
the story of your novel.

It is very often the moment
of revelation in plot.

Dialogue is the firmament
on which the novel stands.

And if you use it correctly,
if you use it in a proper way,

you're going to
understand who people are

and what they're doing
by what they're saying.

And that sounds very complex.

It's not a thing that you
come through immediately.

Slowly, draft after
draft, dialogue

alters to become the
basket to hold your story.