All language subtitles for MasterClass Walter Mosley Teaches Fiction and Storytelling - 11. Discovering Yourself Through Writing

[MUSIC PLAYING]

You know, we live in the
so-called civilized world,

where we have hot and cold
running water and electricity

and airplanes and nuclear bombs,
you know, all that crazy stuff.

But if you go to someplace,
many places in the world today,

you'll find, as you
find in Western Africa,

there are people
who either right now

or only a generation
away from it

would plan great feasts
and great celebrations.

And in those celebrations,
they would play things

like the talking drum.

They would build beautiful,
very ornate masks,

and spend one evening, or two,
maybe, dancing and celebrating

themselves, their lives,
their ancestors, their gods,

et cetera.

And on the next day,
after it's over,

the masks are all discarded
because they were only

alive that one night.

They weren't a static piece
of art the way we see art.

But there was something
living, that we

imbued with our own spirits
and then left to the side.

Nights like that,
people like that, places

like that, you didn't have
an audience and an artist.

You had the audience
and the artist

as one, working together,
creating, celebrating.

This is one of the
reasons that I really

think that people
should write novels,

because if you write
a novel, whether you

get that novel published or
not, you have created something.

You have made something.

You have started
from the beginning

and gone to the end of something
that is a transformation

itself, but also has transformed
you in the making of it.

As a writer, which you are,
and as a potential writer,

which we all are, there is a
person who exists in your core.

And that person is more
innocent than you are, smarter

than you are, more evil than
you could ever imagine being.

And the more you write,
the more that person

is going to gain in influence,
in size, and ability.

And the more you write, the
more you come in relation

to that internal person.

And as you do that, you
become more and more and more

talented and capable.

And you're able to control
things about yourself

that your whole life you've
tamped down because they've

frightened you.

Writing about anything
that you're really

trying to explain,
that you're really

trying to get an idea across,
a feeling across, a character

across, that is going to
help you define who you are,

what you're thinking, and what
you think of the world that

surrounds you.

The ability to stop and
to think about something

in great detail, not
having somebody else

tell you what it is, what
you should be thinking,

how you should be thinking, but
you're just thinking about it.

You're going, saying well,
then he first, he went there.

And then he went that.

And that really frightened him.

But still, he did this thing.

No, he wouldn't have
done that thing.

He would have done this.

The whole idea of
going through that

is something that we
never do in everyday life.

In everyday life, we worry
either about physical details,

about what the plot
of something is,

how I get from here to there,
how I'm going to rob that bank

or whatever.

But it's not about the
wholly human experience

of moving through a story,
moving through a life,

moving through a landscape.

And the idea, the
ability to do that

makes you, in my opinion,
a better person, certainly

a deeper one.

And I'm very--
you know, I'm very

excited about being a writer.

And it's one of the things
that I love about it.

It keeps your mind alive in
ways that everything else

in this overly-organized
society tries to destroy.

Most people in this life,
they put the left-front tire

on the automobile on
the production line.

That's what they do.

They do it in the
production line.

They do it here
trying to make a film.

People go this is your job.

That's your job.

This is what you do.

This is what you're
supposed to cover.

But as a novelist, as
an artist of any type,

it's a completely broad motion.

And I love it so much.

The discovery of yourself
through your own work

is the best thing I can imagine.

People living a normal, everyday
life live a kind of redundancy.

They wake up in the morning.

They go to work.

They work all day.

They come home.

It's just that day
after day after day.

And they don't like it.

But that's what you have
to do in order to survive

in this world we live in.

What do they really want to do?

They really want to run away.

I want to get in my car.

I want to run away.

And I want to have
a wild affair.

And I want to rob a bank.

And I want to have revenge
on that guy who treated

me awfully when I was a child.

All of that they want.

They don't do it.

But when you write your
novel, you can do it.

You can say I got in the car.

And instead of getting off on
exit 27, I just kept going.

I just went and went and went.

And I found myself
someplace new.

And I ran into the guy who named
me Sue as a boy and I shot him.

These may all be
things you want to do.

But you can't.

You can't do it
in everyday life.

Of course, I'm not just saying
you should do it willy nilly.

These should really be
things that the character

is feeling, wanting to
feel, wanting to say.

I mean, even simple things.

You have two kids and one of
them is your favorite kid.

You don't really
like the other one.

Just to hear a
mother say that would

be so satisfying to
so many people reading

their books who know
they feel like that,

but would never admit it.

Most people are afraid of the
dark feelings in their heart.

They don't want to say it.

They don't want to write it.

They don't want
anybody to know it.

They don't want anybody
to know that they

hate their kids sometimes.

They don't want their
husband to know that they

hate the way he chews his food.

They don't want
their mother to know

that she was a terrible
mother and raised her awfully

and she's had all this
time to overcome it.

They don't want to know that
sometimes they're driving down

the street and they
just want to run over

that person who's sauntering
across the crosswalk.

And that's a pretty good thing.

You shouldn't run
over that person.

You shouldn't complain
that your husband,

how he's eating his hamburger.

You shouldn't tell your children
that you hate them sometimes.

But when you're
writing a novel, you

should say all those
things, as much as possible.

Say everything that you think
that the character is doing.

Don't try to make the
character some goody two shoes

person that is only
acceptable in this very

limited, restrained
world that we live in.

Write about a person who really
has feelings, who is really

doing things, who really is not
perfect, because if you start

off with a perfect
character, how

are they going to transform into
anything except something bad?

So you should say all
the things that you

know you can never say in
everyday life in your novel--

the good things--

I love you-- the
terrible things--

I hate you.

What I'm saying is
you have license

to say whatever you feel,
whatever your characters feel.

You write that and
you follow that.

And that will bring you to
the story you want to tell,

not the story that some
editor somewhere feels

will be acceptable.

Just remember two things--

number one, while you're
writing your novel,

your mother is not reading it.

And number two, when she
does read that novel,

she probably won't
recognize herself.

And there's a third thing--

who cares?

Write your truth
and believe in it.

And if your mother
doesn't like it, too bad.