All language subtitles for Masterclass Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing - 15.Writing the Middle and Ending

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The middle of the book--

always the most difficult part.

You've got the beginning.

You have an inkling of what
the end is going to be.

But how are you going to
get through the middle?

More to the point,
how are you going

More to the point,
how are you going

to get the reader
through the middle?

I was talking last
night to a script

writer who happens to be the
showrunner for "The Handmaid's

Tale."

And I said, well,
there's going to have

to be a season three because
you left us with at least

five cliffhangers.

And he said, that's my thing.

I can really do cliffhangers.

So in the days when
novelists were writing

in serial form inside
of three chapters

in serial form inside
of three chapters

or so had to end on a--

and what next?

And that, too, is the
secret of Sheherazad,

telling the 1,001
nights in one night.

She always ended
when dawn appeared,

things were not resolved,
and the central character was

in peril or about to
open a forbidden door.

So you needed to
know what is going

So you needed to
know what is going

to become of these people.

Even if it's somebody
who's saying,

my life was just a mess,
and I sat in my room all day

staring at the wall, that,
too, is a cliffhanger.

How is he going to
get out of that room?

Or is he just going
to be in there forever

staring at the wall?

Something has gone off the
rails and needs to be resolved.

How are you going to
get your characters out

of the difficult situations we
hope you have put them into?

of the difficult situations we
hope you have put them into?

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What they say about
writing longer books--

not poetry, but longer books,
fiction, nonfiction, memoir--

it's one part inspiration
and nine parts perspiration.

So writing is work.

It's something you work away at.

And that includes scratching
things out, moving parts of it

And that includes scratching
things out, moving parts of it

around, making it better.

Let's speak of it in
terms of furniture

arranging in your house.

You put the sofa there.

Then no, it might
look better over here.

Maybe it's the wrong sofa.

Maybe we can put
this sofa upstairs

and then put this other
different one here.

Sometimes you take a turn down
a corridor, and it's a dead end.

Sometimes you take a turn down
a corridor, and it's a dead end.

It leads nowhere.

And at that point,
it's not a question

of resolving the
difficulties in the middle.

It's a question of
realizing you ought

to be writing a different book.

However, things
where you needed to

resolve the difficulties
in the middle--

I would say just
about every book

I've ever written is
that sort of thing--

or the moment when you
realize that something

you thought about your
character isn't true.

you thought about your
character isn't true.

Something else, on the
other hand, is true.

And then you have to
backtrack and work it

through in a different way.

There's no shame
in backtracking.

There's no shame in revision.

There's no shame in realizing
that you got it wrong

or that there's a better thing
that you can do that's better

than what you have done.

And those pages
can just go away.

And those pages
can just go away.

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The ending that
you think is going

to be the ending is
often not the ending.

And of course, it's
quite usual for you

to write the ending some
time before you actually

write the part leading
up to the ending.

That's normal.

As you approach the
end of the book,

your writing pace
can get quite a lot

faster if you know what ending
you were heading towards.

So you can actually
find yourself

So you can actually
find yourself

writing quite a few
more hours a day

than you did at the beginning
when you're working things

out and thinking a lot rather
than necessarily just writing.

You can get too speedy.

You can skip over things.

You can not go into enough
depth at such moments.

But usually, your
primary reader,

whoever it is you show the book
to, or your editor will say,

this went too fast.

I needed to know
more about this.

I needed to know
more about this.

I think the lesson is going to
get the book finished, and then

read it through.

And if it goes too fast at
that point, add more in.

Remember, there's
always revision.

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So the difference
between a book and life

is that in life,
there is no "the end."

There are different stages.

There are different stages.

People get born.

They live.

They die and all of
those kinds of things.

But there isn't any
final "the end,"

whereas in books, there is.

There's an arbitrary
end of the book.

And that ending can
either be a closed ending

or an open ending.

And the 19th century tended
to go in for closed endings,

although not always.

And our century tends to go
in for more open endings.

And our century tends to go
in for more open endings.

So it's not necessarily
Cinderella married the prince

and lived happily ever after.

It's not necessarily like that.

So what you do at
the end is going

to be something
you're going to have

to quite carefully consider.

How much are you
going to resolve?

If it's a traditional
murder mystery

If it's a traditional
murder mystery

and Hercule Poirot calls
everyone into the drawing room

and says, I don't have a clue,
we'll all be very annoyed.

We thought we were in the
kind of book in which we're

going to finally be told how
the person skied downhill

in the middle of the
night and murdered

somebody in the
conservatory with a wrench

and then got away leaving
no trace, except for.

and then got away leaving
no trace, except for.

We think all of that
will be explained to us.

And if it isn't, we're
going to be put out.

So you're always
dealing with readers.

You're always
dealing with what you

think they may already expect.

And how much of that expectation
you're going to fulfill

is really going
to depend on you.

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"The Handmaid's Tale" is
an example of an open end--

so reader's choice.

Reader's choice.

Does she get any further away
than Bangor, Maine, or not?

Does she manage to escape over
the border to Canada or not?

Does she make it as
far as England or not?

We don't know.

And people have been after
me for 33 years to tell them.

I have not been
able to tell them

I have not been
able to tell them

because it is one of those
instances in which we just

don't know.

People want things to be tidy.

It drives them a bit
crazy when they're not,

which is I think why there are
policemen dedicated to solving

cold cases.

It just drives them crazy that
they have not got the answer.

How did I decide on how "The
Handmaid's Tale" would end?

It doesn't end with our
central character maybe getting

It doesn't end with our
central character maybe getting

rescued and maybe not.

We do find out in
the historical notes

that she made it as
far as Bangor, Maine.

So in fact, she
was being helped.

In fact, she was not
betrayed at that moment.

So we know that much.

We don't know what
happened to her after that.

And my reason for doing
that is that in history,

And my reason for doing
that is that in history,

when you're trying to
trace historical figures,

they often simply vanish.

They vanish.

Somebody burned down the church.

The records were in it.

Somebody escaped and
changed their name.

Somebody just disappears.

So the fact that this
character just vanishes

is more like the norm than
it is like an exception.

Usually, people vanish
out of history, especially

in times of turmoil
and catastrophe.

in times of turmoil
and catastrophe.

They often just simply
aren't there anymore.

Researchers cannot trace them.

It was all very tidy when people
lived in their home villages,

had their births and
marriages and deaths recorded

in the parish registry.

But it's not the
norm for history.

So that's why I had
her simply disappear.

It's more likely that that
would have happened than that it

It's more likely that that
would have happened than that it

would not have happened.