All language subtitles for Masterclass Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing - 21.The Writer’s Path

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I don't think
the writing life is

like deciding you're going
to be a lawyer or a dentist.

It's not that kind
of a decision.

I think it's something
that you already--

you're already on that
path before you know it

and you discover it.

If you have to stand back
and say should I be a writer

or should I not be
a writer, if you're

doing that, then the answer
is probably I should not be.

When I was starting
to write, none of us

thought we were going
to have careers.

We thought we were going
to have vocations which

is quite a different thing.

So our idea of being
a writer was not,

you know, a six figure contract.

you know, a six figure contract.

It was the garret in
Paris with the absinthe

and the tuberculosis and
being penniless and unknown

but dedicating
yourself to your art.

That was our idea
in that generation.

People get news of the
occasional writer who

gets this fabulous contract.

And they think that
that's the norm.

But it isn't.

The norm is that most
writers don't make

The norm is that most
writers don't make

a living out of their writing.

Don't forget that many
well-known writers

had other jobs.

And I just always assumed
I would have another job.

I didn't think I was going
to have a career as a writer.

That did happen, but it wasn't
anything I ever thought.

And there weren't any
manuals of instruction

about how to manage your career
challenges, because let's face

it.

It's not easy.

It's not an easy life.

It's not an easy life.

It's like people who
want to be an actor.

Do they know how hard that is?

You have to really want it.

You can make writing
into a business,

if what you want to write
is cookie cutter books.

You can do that.

You can write certain
kind of genre fiction

that has a template.

And the publishers of it
will tell you how to do that.

And in that case, it's not a
question of career challenges,

it's just a question
of ticking the boxes.

it's just a question
of ticking the boxes.

First kiss on page 32.

Having a tiff on page 57.

First sex scene on page--

and that's how those
things are done.

But I'm assuming that's not
necessarily the kind of writing

that you yourself want to do.

We're going to talk now about
Lewis Hyde's book "The Gift,"

which is the only book I ever
recommend to aspiring writers.

There are a lot of books that
will tell you how to write.

There are a lot of
books that will tell you

how that author has
approached writing.

"The Gift" is not about that.

It's not even about
writing in particular,

although it started because
Lewis Hyde said to himself,

I'm a poet why aren't I rich.

I'm a poet why aren't I rich.

So he kicks off from that.

And he explores the idea--

which is true-- that there
are two ways of exchanging

things in our society,
but only one of them

is ever usually discussed.

And the one that is
usually discussed

is the commercial one.

You give money, you
get the commodity.

The other way is gift giving.

And the set of rules for
gift giving are different.

So an artistic
creation of any kind,

So an artistic
creation of any kind,

whether it's a painting,
whether it's music,

whether it's a book, they have
to move through the commodity

economy that turns into a
book that you buy in a store.

And then it moves
into the gift economy

if the person loves the book.

So gifts are reciprocal.

And there are responsibilities
that go with them.

You must either
reciprocate it or pass it

along to the next person
who then passes it along.

And then he situates artistic
creation in the gift realm.

And then he situates artistic
creation in the gift realm.

And that's why we say
a person is gifted.

We don't say they are
commercially endowed.

We say they're gifted.

Sometimes the artist is gifted
by heredity and circumstances.

But in addition to
that, the artist

is always gifted
by other artists.

Whether those artists are--
as is often the case--

no longer living
in the usual sense,

no longer living
in the usual sense,

or whether those artists are
older artists who are mentors,

you then have to
work with the gift.

If you choose to do so, you have
to do the labor of the gift.

You have to do the practicing.

You have to do the slogging
work of learning your craft

and being able to fully
utilize the gift that you

and being able to fully
utilize the gift that you

have been given.

So with books, there
are four possibilities--

good books that make money,
bad books that make money,

good books that
don't make money,

and bad books that
don't make money.

And of those four, the
one you really don't want

is the fourth.

You know, to write a bad book
that doesn't make money that's

really, pretty horrifying.

really, pretty horrifying.

But a good book that does, a
bad book that does, at least you

gets some compensation.

It's a bad book, but at
least you made some money.

A good book that
doesn't, at least

you know the book is good.

But there's no inevitability
in the world of art.

It's all pretty risky.

You can be very talented.

You can be very gifted.

You can do all of the work.

You can make a wonderful thing.

And it disappears into the void.

And it disappears into the void.

Maybe later someone
will discover it.

And this often happens, too.

For the artist, it has
disappeared into a void.

But then later, somebody finds
it, looks at its potential,

and receives it as a gift.

And after the artist's death--

look at the painter van
Gogh, never made a penny,

never sold a painting, now
universally appreciated.

never sold a painting, now
universally appreciated.

So those things can happen,
but nothing is inevitable.

Some extremely
successful books were

rejected by numerous publishers
before somebody finally

saw the beauty of
them And one of those

was the Harry
Potter series, which

was I think 20 publishers
or something turned it down.

And another one was Malcolm
Lowry's "Under the Volcano."

And another one was Malcolm
Lowry's "Under the Volcano."

This happens.

Not everybody can
see immediately

that this is a wonderful
thing to publish.

The Bronte sisters
were very discouraged

originally with their
collection of poems.

The reviewing history of "Jane
Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights"

is very interesting.

So "Wuthering Heights,"
now universally

acknowledged as
a work of genius,

acknowledged as
a work of genius,

was scorned by many,
especially when it turned out

that it had been written
by a woman, which was then

considered very immoral.

One of the worst things
that happened to me was I

did write an early novel
that never did get published.

It was "Before the
Edible Woman" which

did eventually get published
after some adventures.

So I wrote the novel
and I typed it out

So I wrote the novel
and I typed it out

on my little manual typewriter.

And then I gave it to
somebody who can actually type

and they retyped it.

And I sent it out and
nobody wanted to publish it.

Although one publisher did
take me out for afternoon tea.

And he said, could
I change the ending?

And the ending of this
novel was ahead of its time.

It was 1964.

And the central
female character was

And the central
female character was

deciding whether to push
the central male character

off a roof.

Very ahead of its time.

And I said, no, I didn't think
I could change the ending.

And he leaned across the table
and patted my hand and said,

is there anything we can do?

In other words, you're
obviously quite crazy.

Maybe we can help you with that.

So that was an early
publishing experience of mine,

So that was an early
publishing experience of mine,

but nothing daunted.

I'd set out to write
my next novel which

was quite different in tone
and even more peculiar.

To know the story of how
"Treasure Island" got written,

it's a wonderful story.

Robert Louis Stevenson was
at the end of his tether.

He was broke.

He was broke.

He was ill.

He was living with his parents.

He had just gotten married.

And he had recently burned
up his first three novels,

because he thought
they weren't any good.

In the household, there
was a 12-year-old boy

who liked to paint pictures.

So Robert Louis Stevenson,
to keep him company,

was painting pictures with him.

And he painted a watercolor
picture of an island.

He painted a map.

And because it looked
like a tropical island,

he put some palm trees on it.

he put some palm trees on it.

And then he put some
buried treasure.

And it was such a good map.

And they got so
interested in it,

that he started to
write a story about it.

And that's the first chapter
of "Treasure Island."

It's this map that's in the
sea chest in the Admiral Benbow

Inn.

And he started reading the
story he was writing out

loud to his family group.

And they were quite
interested in it.

And they wanted to know more.

And a friend of his, who was a
publisher, came to visit him.

And a friend of his, who was a
publisher, came to visit him.

And Robert Louis Stevenson
showed him the manuscript.

And the publisher said
this is wonderful,

I want to publish it.

And Robert Louis Stevenson
got writer's block.

So then he had to get out
of his writer's block.

He managed to do that
and finished the book.

And he sent the manuscript
off, including the map.

And the publisher lost the map.

But so firmly was it
imprinted on his mind,

But so firmly was it
imprinted on his mind,

that he recreated it.

So the map you see in "Treasure
Island" is the second map.

It's not the originating
map, the one that

kicked the whole thing off.

It's the remembered map.

Then he went on to become
an international success.

Isn't that a good story?

What separates fiction
writers from other kinds

of storytellers?

What separates written
down stories from,

What separates written
down stories from,

for instance, an opera, a
ballet, a play, a painting?

Well, for one thing, with
a written down story,

there's always a gap in time
between the person writing

the story and the person
receiving the story.

If it's, for instance, a play or
an opera being performed live,

the performance and the
recipient of the performance

the performance and the
recipient of the performance

are in the same place
at the same time.

So you get the critical
response right away.

And that frequently means
that the storyteller

will change the story to
please the audience who

is right there.

However, if you're writing a
bookie book, a bookety book,

in which the person is
going to receive the book--

it's got all the pages
in there already--

you can't do that.

you can't do that.

If you're writing a book, the
time in which you're writing it

and the space in which
you're writing it

are always different from
the time and space in which

the reader is reading it.

As Emily Dickinson put it,
this is my letter to the world.

It's a letter.

You write it.

You mail it.

Maybe somebody gets
it at the other end.

So I recently did
a project called

"The Future Library of Norway."

And this is a project by an
artist called Katie Paterson.

And this is a project by an
artist called Katie Paterson.

And it involves a
forest of trees that

will grow for a hundred years.

And in each of those
years, a writer

will submit a manuscript--

made of words, anything, novel,
poem, play, memoir, letter,

a single word--

in a sealed box to "The
Future Library of Norway."

And they will all
accumulate for 100 years.

And in the hundredth year, all
of the boxes will be opened.

And in the hundredth year, all
of the boxes will be opened.

And enough trees will be
cut from the forest that

has grown to print the
anthology of "The Future

Library of Norway."

So I was the first
writer for this.

And you get an
invitation like that

and you either say, you're
crazy, or you say, I'm in.

And people then say,
well, why would you

write a book that nobody
can read for 100 years?

For me, it's the great unknown.

But it's a very
hopeful gesture that

But it's a very
hopeful gesture that

means somewhere, in the future,
there will still be readers.

There will still be people.

There will still be
a forest in Norway.

There will still be a library.

And every act of writing
assumes a future reader.

There is no such thing
as readers en mass.

it's only ever a single reader.

it's only ever a single reader.

So you may have
in mind the reader

that you want to interest.

That's your audience.

It's not a bunch of other
people who say things

like I never read
science fiction

or I only ever read books by
a man or any of those things.

That's not your reader.

Your reader is someone that
you hope will get the jokes,

be led along by the clues that
you will have sprinkled here

and there, understand the
depth of your character,

and there, understand the
depth of your character,

be intrigued by
the turns of fate

and circumstance in
your book, and will

cry at the appropriate
places, laugh at the others,

and come out of the book
thinking, wow, what a book.

That's your reader.