All language subtitles for Masterclass Salman Rushdie Teaches Storytelling and Writing - 17.Develop Your Relationship With Writing

I find that when
you're alone in your room

with just you and the piece of
paper or the computer screen,

your mind works in a way that
it doesn't work at other times.

Because the act of
writing opens the mind,

opens windows in
the head, which let

in all kinds of stuff that
isn't normally available to you.

Out of that, you
can make your story.

When I was starting out, I--

I had a very bumpy start.

You know, it really was
by no means plain sailing.

I mean, I left university
at, you know, the age of 21,

wanting to be a writer.

And to be frank, I wrote a
lot of garbage, you know.

I wrote one, two, three
novel length works

I wrote one, two, three
novel length works

that were never published.

And-- and I'm now profoundly
grateful that they

weren't published,
because they would

have been deep embarrassments.

And they would have affected
my literary reputation very

adversely.

But I was-- you know,
I was writing a lot.

These are three quite extended--

like, 300, 400 pages
in a couple of cases.

You know, and they weren't good.

You know, and they weren't good.

And meanwhile, all around
me was this generation

of young writers who were
finding their way very early,

you know.

Writers like Ian McEwen, and
Martin Amis, and Julian Barnes,

and Kazuo Ishiguro, and so on.

It seemed to me that they knew
what they were doing right

from the beginning.

And I was lost, in a way.

And at a certain
point, I understood

And at a certain
point, I understood

that part of the
reason why I was lost

is that I had grown
up in one culture,

and I was living in another.

And I didn't quite
understand my relationship

with either, either
the culture that I

had grown up in or the
one that I was living in.

And that I really needed to work
that out for myself, you know.

And in other words, to work
out who I was, you know.

Because if you're not
clear about who you--

Because if you're not
clear about who you--

who you are, then--

then you're not clear about
what-- about how to write.

Because the writing should
come out of your deepest self.

What you are saying,
essentially, in a book,

is you are saying to the
world, you're saying,

this is how I see it.

I see it like this.

This is-- this is
my take on things.

And you want to feel that
whatever it is that you've done

will resonate with people.

So I mean, I would say the
essential judge can only

So I mean, I would say the
essential judge can only

be yourself.

And it can be whether
you feel that you've

been as honest and
truthful as you could be.

One of the things
I think you really

need to be if you're
going to be a writer

is to have a real
determination to be a writer.

Put it like this.

I-- I left university in 1968.

I-- I left university in 1968.

Midnight's Children
was published in 1981.

That's very close to 13
years of learning how

to become a writer that was--

and writing something
that people want to read.

So for me, it took
me more than a decade

of stumbling around
in the dark in order

to finally find my way.

I mean, if somebody
was to ask me now,

would you be prepared to spend
13 years of your life trying

would you be prepared to spend
13 years of your life trying

to learn to do something
without any guarantee

that you will be any
good at it at the end,

you know, I would probably
find that to be not doable,

you know.

And yet, that younger
self of mine--

actually, I'm
rather proud of him,

that he had that
determination to hang in there

and try and try, try again,
and keep going, you know, and--

and eventually get there.

and eventually get there.

If you want it to come
easily, then you're

probably in the
wrong line of work.

You know, if you're willing
to accept the difficulty,

and the rejection, and, you
know, the bruises to your ego,

and the feelings of
doubt, and self-criticism,

and feelings of a
loss of self-worth,

all that stuff that happens when
your writing is not going well

and when it's not recognized,
when you yourself feel you

and when it's not recognized,
when you yourself feel you

haven't done it, you haven't
really done anything worth

doing yet--

that's the hardest part
about starting as a writer.

And you need to have
in you that real

need to do it, which will
drive you past those obstacles.

And if you don't have that
real need to do, then really,

truthfully, do something else.

You know, because this is hard.

And you want-- you need to be
the kind of person for whom it

matters so much that you're
willing to hang in there

matters so much that you're
willing to hang in there

and stick with it
until you get there.

One of the things that all
writers talk about is--

is writer's block moments when--

where nothing
seems to be coming,

you know, when there's
an empty space where

your next book should be.

When you finish a book,
many writers, including me,

When you finish a book,
many writers, including me,

have that feeling
that, oh my god,

I'll never think of another one.

You know, that this
is all there is.

I'm finished.

And that's-- that's natural.

You know, because your
head is full of a book.

And then it empties out.

And for a while, it feels like
there's just an empty space

with nothing in it.

And you can feel that that--

that nothing will ever
come back, nothing will--

that nothing will ever
come back, nothing will--

nothing will fill up that void.

And sometimes there have
been quite substantial gaps,

you know, like, as long
as a year sometimes,

when-- when I haven't known
what the next project is.

And you could call
that writer's block.

But what I call it is actually
a very creative phase.

Because what it
allows you to do is

to think in a completely
free form way.

And so every day, you
sit down at your desk.

And you think, what's
in my head today?

And you think, what's
in my head today?

And you just let--

let something come out.

Just let it come
out, whatever it is,

you know, in whatever
form, however fragmentary.

You know, you just
allow your imagination

a kind of open season,
without censorship.

Just let it come out.

And-- and very often,
the next day you

look at what you wrote before.

And it's all garbage.

You know, and you
go on with that.

You go on writing garbage.

You go on writing garbage.

You know, and what I've found
is that through that very open

minded period of--
of allowing your mind

to go wherever it wants, without
restraint, what eventually

begins to happen is
that something sticks.

You wake up the--
in the morning,

and you're still thinking
about the thing you

were thinking about yesterday.

And then the next day, you're
still thinking about it.

And then I ask myself, why am
I still thinking about that?

And then I ask myself, why am
I still thinking about that?

What is it about that that is
the thing that I don't just

immediately throw away?

And out of that little
germ that has shown up,

very often the next book comes.

The thing that-- that your
imagination throws up,

that sticks.

I find that when you're
alone in your room

with just you and the--

and the piece of paper,
or the computer screen,

whatever it is, your
mind works in a way

whatever it is, your
mind works in a way

that it doesn't
work at other times.

Because the act of
writing opens the mind,

opens windows in the
head, you know, which let

and all kinds of stuff that
isn't normally available

to you.

You know, and out of that,
you can make your story.

So I don't call it
writer's block anymore.

I think of it as a--

as a period in which your
mind, your imagination,

is given free rein.

And out of that, eventually,
if you have the confidence

And out of that, eventually,
if you have the confidence

to hang in there and keep
going, the next thing will come.

I'm always looking
for something I

haven't done before, you know.

And I think that's not a bad
way to think about your work,

you know, that if--

if you do something,
and it works out,

and people like
it, et cetera, it

doesn't mean you should
spend the rest of your life

doing that thing over
and over again, you know.

Try to-- each time you write
something, try to move on.

Try to take a step
in a direction

you haven't been before.

And-- and, for me,
that's a question

that I ask myself every
time I begin a project.

What can I do that I--

that isn't just
repeating what I've done.

In most of my books,
central characters

have been of
Indian-Pakistani origin.

You know, at least the--
the main characters tend--

they have been.

they have been.

I wanted to challenge
myself to see

if I could have a central
figure, a narrator figure, who

didn't have that
background, you know, and--

and to see if I could
make that convincing.

In my novel The
Golden House, I had

a narrator who I made
deliberately very unlike me.

First of all, he's much,
much younger than me.

He's-- he's a--
he's a young man.

And secondly, he is a born and
bred New Yorker, as opposed

And secondly, he is a born and
bred New Yorker, as opposed

to somebody like
me who arrived here

after a long period
of life elsewhere.

So he's not like me in either
race, or age, or belonging.

You know, and in that novel
where many of the major

characters are, in fact,
immigrants like myself,

I wanted there to be--
deliberately wanted there to be

a narrator who was not like
that, you know, who was a--

a narrator who was not like
that, you know, who was a--

if you like, who was a local
and looking at the world

and looking at the other
characters through the eyes

of--

of a young man who was--

who had no history
in other countries.

You know, who was
born and bred in--

in America, and specifically,
in New York City.

That was quite a challenge.

First of all, to write
about somebody who was maybe

40, 45 years younger than me--

40, 45 years younger than me--

you don't want him to
sound like an old man.

You know, you want--

you want him to
sound of his time.

And that creates issues of--

of slang, of usage, and
even just of knowledge.

I mean, what are the things
that somebody who's 25

knows and thinks about?

You know, which may
not be the same things

that somebody my age
knows and thinks about.

To create credibly somebody--
and to speak through the voice

To create credibly somebody--
and to speak through the voice

of somebody who's much, much
younger than you, you know,

is--

I mean, that was a challenge.

It gave me a certain
kind of freedom

to write through the voice
of this ambitious young man.

I felt that it made the book
have a quality of youthfulness,

which I liked.

I liked the kind
of energy that you

can-- that you can
give to somebody who's

trying to make their way
in the world, and is--

has very ambitious
dreams for himself.

has very ambitious
dreams for himself.

I mean, he's a young filmmaker.

And-- and he envisages himself,
you know, as a great filmmaker.

But he hadn't made
any films yet.

So that person on the
threshold of life,

you know, somebody
trying to begin

and having all kinds
of dreams about what he

might be able to do, that was--

it was a kind of liberation
to me to be able to--

in a way, to return to something
like my own much younger self

in a way, to return to something
like my own much younger self

before I'd published anything
with all kinds of dreams.

So I was able to
connect him to--

to my memories of
my beginnings, you

know, but in a completely
different context and setting.

Well, before I was writing
my novel Shalimar the Clown,

I was going through
a process like this.

I was going through
a process like this.

And I wrote down one
day a murder scene.

You know, I wrote
down an account of a--

a dead man on the
floor on the road.

And standing over him,
a man with a knife.

And the only other
thing I knew is

that the-- in the
house behind them

lived the daughter
of the dead man.

And I didn't know who they were.

And I didn't know who they were.

I didn't know-- who
is the dead man?

Who is the murderer?

Who is the daughter?

I had no idea.

I just-- this image came
to me, and I wrote it down.

And then it stuck.

And I find myself
thinking, what is this?

And explaining it
to myself, learning

who they were, these creatures
that my imagination had thrown

up, led me to that novel.

Because the novel grows
out of that scene,

once I could begin to
understand who the dead man was,

and who the murderer was,
and who the daughter was.

and who the murderer was,
and who the daughter was.

And what I found is the
moment at which I solved

the mystery was I
realized that there

was one character who was not
in the scene whose presence

explained what was happening.

There was-- there was
a second woman who

had been the lover
of the murdered man,

the wife of the
murderer, and the mother

of the girl in the house.

So this-- the absent
woman was the thing

that linked the
three figures that I

that linked the
three figures that I

had and explained the story.

You know, it became
a revenge tragedy.

And so I found myself
writing a revenge tragedy.

But it literally came out
of this process, which

you might have called
writer's block, you know,

a process of stumbling
around in the dark

and not really knowing
what was going to happen.

And then in the
end, this happened.