All language subtitles for Masterclass Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing - 20.Research and Historical Accuracy

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I think if you research
too much ahead of time,

it's going to clog things up.

You find out such
interesting things

that you long to put them in.

But quite frequently,
they sidetrack the plot.

So you want the
details to be accurate,

but you don't want them
looking like research.

And by the way, let me tell
you about the shoelaces.

And by the way, let me tell
you about the shoelaces.

So I like to write
first and then research

the details that I've put in
to see if I've got them right.

I find that much more
helpful than having

a huge stack of research that
can bog you down, if you like,

and slow up the actual writing.

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It's important to get
those details right,

because if you
get them wrong, it

throws off the reader's
belief in your story.

I once got a letter from
a woman who had read

"Alias Grace," an older women.

She said, that's not
how you make butter.

Luckily, I had "Mrs. Beeton's
Book of Household Management"

at my side, in which there are
about 50 ways of making butter,

at my side, in which there are
about 50 ways of making butter,

one of them being
the one described.

But if you've got one
of those things wrong,

it throws the reader off.

And they get sidetracked.

And believe me, if
it's not accurate,

somebody is going to
write you a letter--

or these days, do an internet
posting that begins, you idiot.

So it's best to check your
facts and factoids and even

So it's best to check your
facts and factoids and even

such things as when did people
start using plastic garbage

bags, what color were the
refrigerators in 1960,

when were pantyhose invented.

You may think you
know these things.

But you really should go
back and double check.

And a wonderful
source of information

are old magazines,
especially the ads.

You can find out a lot that way.

You can find out a lot that way.

Your goal is to keep your
reader believing in your story,

even though both of
you know it's fiction

and it says fiction
on the outside.

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The internet is
your friend mostly,

just as the reference library
is your friend mostly.

But just because
it's on the internet

or because it's in the reference
library doesn't mean it's true.

or because it's in the reference
library doesn't mean it's true.

It's always good to
cross check and use

more than one reference.

If you're using old
magazines with ads in them,

be advised that the ads aren't
how people actually lived.

The ads are the
advertisers' idea

of how they thought people
ought to want to live,

which was a different
kind of thing.

But mail order catalogs
are pretty good.

But mail order catalogs
are pretty good.

That's closer to how people
probably really lived

in some areas of their lives--

old diaries, letters,
those kinds of things.

Unfortunately, diary
writers and letters

never wrote down the
most obvious things

that you might want to know
because those things were

known by everybody at the time.

So why would you
write them down?

Suppose that we're in
the future and everyone

has forgotten what a toaster is.

has forgotten what a toaster is.

Nobody will have
written down what

it was because everybody knew.

But then they forgot.

So if you are a diary
writer or keeping a journal,

do us a favor.

Do the people in
the future a favor.

Tell them about some of
these ordinary things

that you did every day, and
explain what those things were.

They'll thank you for it.

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"Alias Grace" was a
major research project

because it was
about a real event.

It was about a double murder
that took place in 1843.

And nobody quite knew
whether the girl involved

in it, Grace Marks, had
been an innocent victim

or a fellow perpetrator.

Because within months,
the four people

who had been living
in that house--

who had been living
in that house--

three of them were dead, and
she was the only one left.

And she never told.

There was a wealth of material.

But it was contradictory
because the case

was highly politicized.

There had just been
a failed rebellion

in that part of the world,
namely what is now Ontario.

And the political factions
took different views.

So the reformers, being mostly
Methodist and Presbyterians,

So the reformers, being mostly
Methodist and Presbyterians,

took the view that Grace
Marks was an innocent victim,

that she had run away
to the United States

with this man under
threat of death,

and she was a bit simple-minded,
and that, of course,

she hadn't been
actually a murderer.

The conservative
faction took the view

that it was very bad form
to kill your employer

and that she was a conniving,
devious, manipulative--

and that she was a conniving,
devious, manipulative--

fill in the rest--

femme fatale who had
enticed the male perpetrator

into doing these murders.

That was their view.

But people could not even
agree on what she looked like.

They all agreed that
she was good-looking.

But they couldn't
agree whether she

was tall or of medium height,
what color her hair was,

what color her eyes were.

what color her eyes were.

These were eyewitnesses.

It's a real lesson in the
unreliability of eyewitnesses.

And putting together
the timeline,

what happened when-- that
was difficult as well.

The motivation-- some
people said that Grace

was jealous of the housekeeper.

Other people said
that the housekeeper

was jealous of Grace.

Maybe it was both.

We don't know-- all of
these kinds of things.

The most difficult one was
how old was the murdered man.

The most difficult one was
how old was the murdered man.

And that was very
hard to find out.

There was a monument to
a man of the same name

in the churchyard where we know
the murdered man was buried.

But it was the wrong
Thomas Kinnear.

He would have been about
75, which, excuse me,

is not a steamy, hot, and
sexually motivated jealousy

drama.

Forgive me, all you
75-year-old men.

Forgive me, all you
75-year-old men.

But I managed through
a friend in Scotland

to find the real one.

And he would have been about 43.

So judge's notes of the case--

illegible.

Newspaper reports-- unreliable.

They probably made
a lot of it up,

as people did in the
confession of Grace Marks.

Who knows what that really was--

all of these different details.

all of these different details.

So I needed to write
a narrative that

took account of all of them,
that allowed for all of them

to be true.

And that was the challenge.

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Leave no stone unturned.

I had help.

I had somebody that I could
send to these different places

to look in their libraries,
in their archives.

to look in their libraries,
in their archives.

And that was pretty helpful.

So if you need to use
a qualified researcher,

it's worth it.

Cross checking is good and
having more than one source.

Of course, with Grace Marks,
there was more than one source.

But they contradicted
each other.

We went to the archivist of
the Kingston Penitentiary.

He was very helpful.

The newspaper reports
were happily on microfiche

The newspaper reports
were happily on microfiche

in the central reference
library in Toronto.

The judge's notes were with
the upper Canadian law society.

The notes from the man
who ran the lunatic asylum

were in their archives.

And there was quite
a lot of material

at the Kingston Penitentiary,
except that there

had been a fire there, and
some of it was in disarray.

The many petitions and letters
sent on behalf of Grace--

because there were--

because there were--

had been in the National
Library in Ottawa.

But somebody had
thrown them out.

Rats.

Too bad.

I would have loved
to have read them,

but I can kind of
imagine what they were.

There was some record
of Grace's handwriting.

We know that she
could read and write.

We know that her family
disappeared from Toronto.

They never turned up.

Nobody ever came and visited
her at the penitentiary.

Nobody ever came and visited
her at the penitentiary.

We don't know where they went.

Other research was
such things like what

nationalities were the mix
of immigrants in Toronto

at that time.

And I got that through a
friend who was an historian

and had access to these
censuses that were taken then.

A lot of newspaper accounts.

The case was very notorious, so
people were interested in it.

So many people
attended the trial

So many people
attended the trial

that the courtroom
floor broke, collapsed--

so many people.

And the hanging was
very well attended--

the hanging of James McDermott--
although some of the newspaper

commentators took a dim view
of ladies being present.

They didn't think it was
ladylike to attend a hanging.

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"Alias Grace" took a
lot of fact checking in

regards to what
people were wearing

and what kinds of undergarments
they were wearing.

And you want those
things to be accurate,

because if they aren't accurate,
somebody is going to spot it.

If you have a crinoline in 1820,
you're going to be in trouble.

So Grace Marks went
into the penitentiary

before crinolines developed.

before crinolines developed.

So she has not been in a
position to wear any of them.

But she has observed them on
the visitors as they have come.

She has this to say about them.

"There were no wire crinolines
when I was first brought here.

They were horsehair then, as the
wire ones were not thought of.

I have looked at them hanging
in the wardrobes, when I go in

to tidy and empty the slops.

to tidy and empty the slops.

They are like bird cages;
but what is being caged in?

Legs, the legs of ladies; legs
penned in so they cannot get

out and go rubbing up against
the gentlemen's trousers.

The Governor's wife
never says legs,

although the
newspapers said legs

when they were
talking about Nancy,

with her dead legs sticking
out from under the washtub."

How did I know about
those kinds of details?

How did I know about
those kinds of details?

First of all, I
have a great book

called "The History of
Costume" by Millia Davenport.

And you can pinpoint fairly
precisely when fashions changed

and when certain kinds
of undergarments came in.

So I knew about that.

And the squeamishness about legs
in the middle Victorian period

is well known.

They even sometimes
put little coverings

on the legs of
the piano to avoid

on the legs of
the piano to avoid

mention or suggestion of legs.

It was also a period
in which you were not

supposed to sit down in
a chair that had just

been vacated by a gentleman
because the chair would

be suggestively warm.

You wouldn't want that.

You can still see in
some buildings in London.

You can see
crinoline staircases.

And those are staircases that
have a railing that bulges out

And those are staircases that
have a railing that bulges out

at the bottom and then goes
up so the crinoline can go up

the stairs like this.

And you could hold
onto the railing.

You can also see specially
constructed furniture

that allowed someone in
a crinoline to sit down,

because these were
giant edifices.

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When did underpants come in?

Underpants came in,
pantalettes came

in when hoop skirts came in
because the wind can blow

your hoop skirt inside out.

And if you didn't have
any pantalettes on,

that could be very,
very embarrassing.

And the reason why
underpants were plural--

have you ever wondered that?

Because they used to
be two separate legs

attached with a drawstring.

And should the drawstring
break as you were parading

around the park in your
hoop skirt and pantalettes,

around the park in your
hoop skirt and pantalettes,

you might have quite an
embarrassing experience.

During the Second World War
when elastic was at a premium--

very scarce because it was
being used in the war effort--

ladies' underpants
didn't have elastic.

They had drawstrings.

And those can come
off and flip down.

They weren't two separate legs.

They weren't two separate legs.

But your underpants
could just fall off

as you were walking
along the street.

And women got into the habit
of just stepping out of one leg

and then flicking up
with the other leg

and catching their underpants
and just flipping them

into their purse.

Did you know that?