All language subtitles for Masterclass Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing - 05.Who Tells the Story Narrative Point of View

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Who are you writing this for?

And what do you
want to tell them?

I think there might be a bit
too much theory kicking around

in the world, that
it has to be this.

It has to be that.

It has to be that.

But the first thing
is writing is a voice.

And so it's a way of
recording the human voice.

Whose voice is it that
is doing the talking?

And to whom are they speaking?

Because there's always someone.

So once upon a
time, it was either

an omniscient third
person narrator

who would tell you
about the characters

and tell you what they were
doing, and in some instances,

what they were thinking.

what they were thinking.

The he is she, you can either be
a narrator taking a long shot.

And the omniscient
narrator knows everything.

So the omniscient
narrator can say,

little did Red Riding Hood
know, but behind the tree,

there was lurking a wolf.

And there was nothing that would
please him more than eating

not only Little Red Riding
Hood, but also her grandmother.

And that's what he
was scheming to do.

As the know-it-all narrator,
you can say those things.

As the know-it-all narrator,
you can say those things.

But if you're not going to
be that know-it-all narrator,

you can go to Little
Red Riding Hood.

She was happily picking flowers
when out from behind a tree

stepped a gentlemen clad in
a rather hairy tweed suit.

Oh, my goodness, said Little
Red Riding Hood, et cetera.

So you're not
necessarily telling all,

So you're not
necessarily telling all,

but you're seeing that encounter
through the eyes of one person.

You can move it around in
whatever way you wish in order

to tell your story.

We also have stream of
consciousness that entered.

It's not exactly a
first person narrative,

but sort of the flow
of ideas that goes

through the character's head.

So who is talking?

To whom are they talking?

Are they talking to the reader?

Are they talking to
somebody else in the book?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

There's no rule that says you
have to have one point of view.

I think I've mentioned
"The Sound and the Fury"

by William Faulkner
before, in which there

are four different narrators and
four different points of view.

are four different narrators and
four different points of view.

And some of them
are first person.

And some of them
are third person.

And the perspective
keeps getting

further and further away.

So the first person is--

you're smashed right up
against that character.

You're right in their mind.

And then we move back a bit.

And by the end, we're
seeing an overview.

We're seeing a long view.

The films and cameras
really influence the novel

The films and cameras
really influence the novel

quite a bit.

So this would be a novel in
which the shot moves back.

you're looking at the same
thing but from further away.

[MUSICPLAYING]

How do you decide who's
going to tell your story?

Learn by doing.

You pick a likely
candidate and start off.

And if that is not going well,
maybe you need to reconsider.

And if that is not going well,
maybe you need to reconsider.

So if it's not going
well and you started it

in the third person, try
switching to the first.

If you started in
the first person

and that's not going well,
try switching to the third.

If that character isn't
working out for you at all,

maybe you need to come at
it from the point of view

of a different character.

Maybe you've picked
the wrong narrator.

Writing "The Blind
Assassin," I think

Writing "The Blind
Assassin," I think

I had to start it
three or four times.

And each time, I had
to start over again

because I had picked
the wrong narrator.

The first one I picked was
a younger person telling

the story of this older woman.

Next came an attempt
to approach her

through two journalists who were
interested in the novel written

by her dead sister.

by her dead sister.

However, the two
journalists started

having an involvement,
which took over the story.

And theirs was not
the story I was

really interested in telling.

So I defenestrated them.

I got rid of them.

And then I had the woman
start telling her own story.

And that's when the novel
really started to move.

And that's when the novel
really started to move.

You know how things are
starting to move because you

start writing faster.

What I can tell you?

[LAUGHS] This is moving.

So instead of writing pages
that you then throw out,

you start writing
pages that actually

seem to be going somewhere.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When you've decided
on your point of view,

you have to also make
some decisions about what

you have to also make
some decisions about what

that person is allowed to know,
what they can legitimately

be expected to know.

Let's talk a bit about
"Dracula" and how that begins.

So "Dracula" begins with
a man on a train, kind

of an ordinary man.

He's taking a journey,
going to Transylvania.

He's writing his journal.

He has a wife called Mina.

His noting the peasants and
their silly superstitions.

And there's a great
recipe that he would like

And there's a great
recipe that he would like

to give to Mina and blah, blah.

And he's babbling
on in this fashion.

And it's really quite tedious
because he isn't really

noticing much around him.

But it's very suspenseful
for the reader

because the reader
knows something

that the character doesn't know.

The reader knows that the
title of the book is "Dracula."

So the man going
along in the train

has no idea what awaits
him, but the reader does.

has no idea what awaits
him, but the reader does.

So it is like the Alfred
Hitchcock saying, when somebody

said, Alfred Hitchcock, how
long can you hold a screen kiss?

And he said something
preposterous like two minutes.

And they said, that's
an awfully long time

to hold a kiss on the screen.

And he said, ah, yes.

But first I put a
bomb under the bed.

So in many
situations, the reader

So in many
situations, the reader

knows more than the character.

And that's what
creates the suspense.

In other situations,
the character

knows more than the reader.

That's a different
kind of arrangement.

Agatha Christie outraged
everyone one point

in her career by having the
first person narrator turn out

to be the murderer.

How dare she.

[LAUGHS] So all along, the first
person narrator knew something

[LAUGHS] So all along, the first
person narrator knew something

the reader didn't know--

namely, he was the
one who did it.

So there's a lot of
misdirection that

goes along with all of that.

So one question you can ask
yourself if you're writing--

does the reader know
more than the character?

Or does the character
know more than the reader?

Or do they both know
the same amount?

And so it's going to
be one of those three.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

There's something very useful
about writing the same event

from multiple points
of view as an exercise.

Let's do this.

Let's say this stapler is
having a romantic encounter

with this box, if you
don't like people.

But then along comes
the mother of the box--

the point of view
of the stapler,

the point of view
of this little box,

and the point of view this box.

Stop that.

Hi, honey.

Go away.

So is your story
going to be better

from the point of
view of the stapler

or from the point of
view of the large box

with a big knob on top?

I'm choosing the stapler.