All language subtitles for Masterclass Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing - 14.The Door to Your Book The Importance of the First Five Pages

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The single,
shortest, best opening

sentence of a novel in my
opinion is "Moby Dick."

And those three words
are "call me Ishmael."

So what's packed into
those three words?

His name isn't Ishmael.

Why does he want you
to call him that?

You have to think about
then who Ishmael is,

You have to think about
then who Ishmael is,

who this character is
representing himself as.

Ishmael is an outcast.

But he is an outcast who
is favored by angels.

Okay, so that's two
things about Ishmael.

Call me Ishmael.

Who's he speaking to?

He's speaking to the reader.

He's speaking in
the present tense

so that we know whoever else
goes down with the ship,

it's not going to be him.

He will survive the
story, which he does.

He will survive the
story, which he does.

He's the only person
who survives the story.

We don't know that yet because
we haven't read the book.

But it's packed into
those first three words.

Another famous one is
"A Tale of Two Cities."

It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times.

You can't do better than
that about any time.

We can say that about
our time as well.

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Let us do a thought experiment.

You are a new writer, and you've
actually finished your book.

You finished it.

You've edited it.

You have found an agent.

The agent has placed
it with a publisher,

and the publisher has
published your book.

So close your eyes
and imagine the cover.

So close your eyes
and imagine the cover.

That's the cover of your book.

It has the killer title
that you have given it.

And you walk into a bookstore.

This is real life.

It's different from
somebody telling you

that you've got talent.

Your book is
actually in a store.

It's right there.

And now you're going
to switch roles,

and you're going to be
a bookstore customer.

and you're going to be
a bookstore customer.

You see this striking
new book by somebody

you've never heard of
with an interesting title.

And maybe there will be a
little bookstore recommendation

by one of the employees.

I loved this, says Nancy.

So you pick it up.

What's the first thing you do?

Well, if you're
like everybody else,

you turn to the
inside front flap.

And there will be an
account of the book.

And there will be an
account of the book.

So you read this enticing
inside front flap,

and then you turn
to the first page.

And if you cannot get that
reader through the first page,

they will never read the
brilliant insights into life

that are on page 75.

So what you want
on the first page

is something that is going
to beckon the reader in.

The first page is a gateway.

The first page is a gateway.

It's a door.

It's a door into the book.

There's a sort of pre-door,
which is the cover,

and then the secondary pre-door,
which is the title page.

But the real door is the
first page of the book.

And that's why the first page--
in fact, the first five pages--

have to be a good
entryway into the book.

Tell me more.

This looks like a really
interesting setup.

This looks like a really
interesting setup.

Tell me more, but don't
tell me too much more.

And don't overload me with
information in those first five

page pages.

Lead me through the doorway.

And leave enough hooks there
so that I will want to read on.

So finding that moment, finding
those first five pages--

it can be immediate.

You may have had
them right away.

Or it may be a bit of a search.

And as I say, if you write
your way into the book,

those pages may appear
maybe around page 20, 30.

You find what really ought to
be the beginning of the book.

And then you use your
cut and paste function,

whether those are
scissors or scotch tape

or whether it's on a computer,
and you move that block of text

or whether it's on a computer,
and you move that block of text

to the beginning because
that's your doorway.

Every reading of a
book is a journey

of discovery and surprises.

You're going to find out
things that you were not

told on the first page.

And you're going to
find out that some

of the things that you think
you know in the first 20 pages

are not as you
thought they were.

are not as you
thought they were.

That is certainly what
I'm looking for in a book.

Surprise me.

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This is the very first
handwritten manuscript

of "The Handmaid's Tale," which
is called a holograph version.

I can see that I was writing
it with a fountain pen.

And I was writing it on a
lined notebook, which I often

have used.

have used.

And here we are.

My original beginning then
turned into chapter 2.

"We turn left at the
corner and continue along.

To our right is the
wall, red brick,

with its sentried gates and
the barbed wire and floodlights

and broken glass set in
concrete along the top

and the electronic alarm system.

These sentries have dogs.

These sentries have dogs.

No one goes through
those gates willingly."

The beginning beginning
got written a bit later

and stuck onto the beginning.

And what you often find working
with students' manuscripts

is that they have
the wrong beginning.

You can look at maybe
the first 20 pages,

and their real beginning
might be on page 10.

And finding that moment to
begin is pretty important.

And finding that moment to
begin is pretty important.

But it often doesn't happen
until a certain amount

of the novel has been written.

So you're writing your
way into the material,

but the real beginning
may not appear right away.

There's various ways
of beginning stories.

But looking at
this one, I can see

that the beginning
of the writing

is not the beginning
of the novel.

is not the beginning
of the novel.

Another beginning then appeared.

I quite frequently have
a lot of crossings out.

I quite frequently have
a number of arrows.

When you're editing
on a computer,

you don't see those
anymore because, of course,

you delete and add in.

But you can see them quite
easily on manuscript material.

And I also quite frequently
have arrows that point

And I also quite frequently
have arrows that point

to the back of the page
and marginal notes.

I can see some of those.

So that's how it goes.

I can see I cut some of it off.

I obviously moved something from
this page to somewhere else.

So I cut it off, and
I actually pasted it.

And that's where we get
that cut and paste function

on a computer.

We used to actually cut
things with scissors

and paste them with glue,
which is what I did there.

It's quite odd to be
looking at all of this.

It's quite odd to be
looking at all of this.

And I can't say that my
handwriting has improved

any in the intervening years.

It's worse than ever.