All language subtitles for Masterclass Salman Rushdie Teaches Storytelling and Writing - 19.Seven Useful Tips for Writers

The only commitment
a writer needs

is the commitment of
the seat of his pants

to the seat of his chair.

In other words, just sit
down and do your work.

I one or two writers
who write standing up.

But actually sitting
down is really important.

Sit down and don't get up
until you've written something.

So now that we're coming towards
the end of this conversation

we've been having,
I thought I'd try

we've been having,
I thought I'd try

and sum it up by offering you
some of the best bits of advice

I can think of giving you.

And I think basically
I want to offer you

seven tips that you might use as
you think about your own work.

The first thing I
would say is that I

believe that there are two ways
of writing really, really well.

believe that there are two ways
of writing really, really well.

One you would call maximalist.

And the other you
would call minimalist.

Minimalism would mean that
you have a very tight focus

on one beautiful
strand of story,

like one hair from the
goddess of literature.

And you turn it in the light.

And you see how it
catches the light.

Very, very simple and pure
piece of storytelling.

Very, very simple and pure
piece of storytelling.

That can be extraordinary.

At the other end
of the spectrum,

the maximalist
spirit is one which

tries to scoop up enormous
armfuls of the world

and try and put as much of the
world as you can fit in there.

Henry James used to
call books like that,

he used to call them
loose, baggy monsters.

In my view, they don't
have to be loose or baggy.

And they're not
necessarily monsters.

But it gives you a sense
of what they're like.

But it gives you a sense
of what they're like.

They're encyclopedic
books, books which

try to be everything books.

It seems to me that you can
either write an everything

book, or you can write a very
pure simple something book.

And the middle ground, to my
mind, is less interesting.

But you have to find
your own ground.

I'm just saying, think
about those two extremes.

Think about, which
is your temperament?

Is it your temperament to
tell a single pure story?

Is it your temperament to
tell a single pure story?

Or to go with a
wheelbarrow and try

and scoop up the whole world
and put it in your book?

I mean, myself I have been more
often on the maximalist than

on the minimalist side.

But some of the writers I most
admire, like, for example,

W. G. Sebald, are on
the minimalist side.

So try and think
which side you're on.

That's the first tip.

The second question
you should ask yourself

is whether you are
better served by planning

something out very carefully
or by allowing yourself

space to improvise.

And again, there
isn't a right answer.

The only right answer is,
which is right for you?

There are writers who
benefit enormously

from the comfort of a
carefully worked out scheme.

from the comfort of a
carefully worked out scheme.

And there are
writers who benefit

from being allowed to kind
of wing it, to make it

up as they go along.

And again, think about
which, temperamentally,

is closest to your nature.

And then try and
stick to that path.

The third thing I would
say is, whatever you write,

The third thing I would
say is, whatever you write,

it should feel deeply
necessary to you to write it.

I mean, really, don't write
it just to make money.

Don't write it to be famous.

Those are, in my view,
terrible reasons to write.

Write because it comes from
some very deep place inside you

that you really, really,
really need to express.

And I've always thought
the world is full of books.

And I've always thought
the world is full of books.

There's a zillion
books out there.

And none of us in a lifetime
will read all the great books

there are to read.

So nobody needs your book.

If you're going to
add to the mountain,

make sure it feels
essential to you to do so.

Make sure that you
can't not write it.

If you can find a reason for not
writing a book, don't write it.

Write the books that
you can't avoid writing.

The fourth thing
I would say to you

is try to do
something dangerous.

I don't mean physically
dangerous to you.

I mean artistically dangerous.

Take risks.

There's a thing
I've always loved,

that in one of Hemingway's
bullfighting books, he says,

the great matador works
closest to the bull.

I mean, I don't like
bullfighting either.

I mean, I don't like
bullfighting either.

So it's not about that.

But what he's saying is that if
the bull is passing by so close

that it brushes your thigh as
it goes past, then every move

you make has to be perfect.

Otherwise, you get
a horn in your side.

And it'll be disastrous.

But if the bull is far away
from you, it's not dangerous.

But it's also kind
of not exciting.

So try and find a way of
working close to the bull.

Try and find a way of
taking the risk that

Try and find a way of
taking the risk that

means that your book has a
high risk of not coming off.

But if it does come
off, it's extraordinary.

Take the risk.

I seem to be talking
about Hemingway a lot.

Because he's good
at writing tips.

But he was asked--

I think it was in his
interview for the Paris Review.

I think it was in his
interview for the Paris Review.

He was asked about commitment.

Writers are being always asked
about whether they should have

political commitment, social
commitments, whether they

should write out of a sense
of commitment to some cause.

And he said, the only
commitment a writer needs

is the commitment of
the seat of his pants

to the seat of his chair.

In other words, just sit
down and do your work.

There are writers--

I one or two writers
who write standing up.

But actually sitting
down is really important.

But actually sitting
down is really important.

Sit down and don't get up
until you've written something.

That commitment, the commitment
to sit there and not get up

until you've done some work.

A thing I was told, actually,
by a film director--

and I think it applies
just as well to books--

is that if there's
a problem, if you've

is that if there's
a problem, if you've

identified some kind of a
problem in your storyline,

the solution almost
always is to cut that out.

One has a desire to get
in there and fix it.

But a lot of the
time, it's just easier

to think, OK, that doesn't work.

Take that out.

Let's get on.

You might well
find that the book

is clarified if you
have the willingness

to discard what's not working.

And the seventh, and I think, in
a way, essential thing to say,

is that writers are
people who finish books.

That's to say, they
get to the end.

It may seem like a
truism, but there's

an awful lot of
people who, in a way,

may have a book in
their head to write,

but they never get it written.

So just make sure that you don't
stop until you get to the end.

Also, in my
experience, every time

Also, in my
experience, every time

I have got to the
end of a manuscript,

I have immediately been
able to see what it needs.

To have the whole thing
there in front of me,

I can see, oh, I need less here.

I need more there.

I need to explain that more.

I've gone on too
long over there.

It suddenly becomes clear.

So make sure that
you finish the book.

And then you will be a writer.