1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,898 [MUSIC PLAYING] 2 00:00:14,510 --> 00:00:17,270 Who are you writing this for? 3 00:00:17,270 --> 00:00:19,310 And what do you want to tell them? 4 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:26,220 I think there might be a bit too much theory kicking around 5 00:00:26,220 --> 00:00:28,770 in the world, that it has to be this. 6 00:00:28,770 --> 00:00:30,000 It has to be that. 7 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:30,340 It has to be that. 8 00:00:30,340 --> 00:00:34,060 But the first thing is writing is a voice. 9 00:00:34,060 --> 00:00:38,310 And so it's a way of recording the human voice. 10 00:00:38,310 --> 00:00:41,500 Whose voice is it that is doing the talking? 11 00:00:41,500 --> 00:00:45,180 And to whom are they speaking? 12 00:00:45,180 --> 00:00:47,580 Because there's always someone. 13 00:00:47,580 --> 00:00:50,580 So once upon a time, it was either 14 00:00:50,580 --> 00:00:54,480 an omniscient third person narrator 15 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:56,460 who would tell you about the characters 16 00:00:56,460 --> 00:00:59,010 and tell you what they were doing, and in some instances, 17 00:00:59,010 --> 00:01:00,000 what they were thinking. 18 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:00,390 what they were thinking. 19 00:01:00,390 --> 00:01:05,810 The he is she, you can either be a narrator taking a long shot. 20 00:01:05,810 --> 00:01:09,450 And the omniscient narrator knows everything. 21 00:01:09,450 --> 00:01:12,090 So the omniscient narrator can say, 22 00:01:12,090 --> 00:01:17,550 little did Red Riding Hood know, but behind the tree, 23 00:01:17,550 --> 00:01:19,650 there was lurking a wolf. 24 00:01:19,650 --> 00:01:22,260 And there was nothing that would please him more than eating 25 00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:25,470 not only Little Red Riding Hood, but also her grandmother. 26 00:01:25,470 --> 00:01:28,740 And that's what he was scheming to do. 27 00:01:28,740 --> 00:01:30,000 As the know-it-all narrator, you can say those things. 28 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,090 As the know-it-all narrator, you can say those things. 29 00:01:34,090 --> 00:01:37,080 But if you're not going to be that know-it-all narrator, 30 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:40,170 you can go to Little Red Riding Hood. 31 00:01:40,170 --> 00:01:45,450 She was happily picking flowers when out from behind a tree 32 00:01:45,450 --> 00:01:52,440 stepped a gentlemen clad in a rather hairy tweed suit. 33 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:58,260 Oh, my goodness, said Little Red Riding Hood, et cetera. 34 00:01:58,260 --> 00:02:00,000 So you're not necessarily telling all, 35 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:00,660 So you're not necessarily telling all, 36 00:02:00,660 --> 00:02:05,110 but you're seeing that encounter through the eyes of one person. 37 00:02:08,060 --> 00:02:14,100 You can move it around in whatever way you wish in order 38 00:02:14,100 --> 00:02:16,840 to tell your story. 39 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:21,200 We also have stream of consciousness that entered. 40 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:23,420 It's not exactly a first person narrative, 41 00:02:23,420 --> 00:02:26,520 but sort of the flow of ideas that goes 42 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:28,380 through the character's head. 43 00:02:31,050 --> 00:02:34,820 So who is talking? 44 00:02:34,820 --> 00:02:36,919 To whom are they talking? 45 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:38,210 Are they talking to the reader? 46 00:02:38,210 --> 00:02:41,000 Are they talking to somebody else in the book? 47 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:44,353 [MUSIC PLAYING] 48 00:02:47,230 --> 00:02:51,130 There's no rule that says you have to have one point of view. 49 00:02:51,130 --> 00:02:53,500 I think I've mentioned "The Sound and the Fury" 50 00:02:53,500 --> 00:02:56,370 by William Faulkner before, in which there 51 00:02:56,370 --> 00:03:00,000 are four different narrators and four different points of view. 52 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:01,810 are four different narrators and four different points of view. 53 00:03:01,810 --> 00:03:05,740 And some of them are first person. 54 00:03:05,740 --> 00:03:09,670 And some of them are third person. 55 00:03:09,670 --> 00:03:12,400 And the perspective keeps getting 56 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:13,860 further and further away. 57 00:03:13,860 --> 00:03:16,270 So the first person is-- 58 00:03:16,270 --> 00:03:18,620 you're smashed right up against that character. 59 00:03:18,620 --> 00:03:20,950 You're right in their mind. 60 00:03:20,950 --> 00:03:22,760 And then we move back a bit. 61 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:26,230 And by the end, we're seeing an overview. 62 00:03:26,230 --> 00:03:28,210 We're seeing a long view. 63 00:03:28,210 --> 00:03:30,000 The films and cameras really influence the novel 64 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:32,170 The films and cameras really influence the novel 65 00:03:32,170 --> 00:03:33,550 quite a bit. 66 00:03:33,550 --> 00:03:39,480 So this would be a novel in which the shot moves back. 67 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:43,674 you're looking at the same thing but from further away. 68 00:03:43,674 --> 00:03:46,596 [MUSICPLAYING] 69 00:03:49,530 --> 00:03:51,990 How do you decide who's going to tell your story? 70 00:03:51,990 --> 00:03:54,270 Learn by doing. 71 00:03:54,270 --> 00:03:59,130 You pick a likely candidate and start off. 72 00:03:59,130 --> 00:04:00,000 And if that is not going well, maybe you need to reconsider. 73 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:04,020 And if that is not going well, maybe you need to reconsider. 74 00:04:04,020 --> 00:04:06,600 So if it's not going well and you started it 75 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:09,990 in the third person, try switching to the first. 76 00:04:09,990 --> 00:04:11,540 If you started in the first person 77 00:04:11,540 --> 00:04:15,900 and that's not going well, try switching to the third. 78 00:04:15,900 --> 00:04:19,529 If that character isn't working out for you at all, 79 00:04:19,529 --> 00:04:25,080 maybe you need to come at it from the point of view 80 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:26,400 of a different character. 81 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:29,430 Maybe you've picked the wrong narrator. 82 00:04:29,430 --> 00:04:30,000 Writing "The Blind Assassin," I think 83 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:31,320 Writing "The Blind Assassin," I think 84 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:33,780 I had to start it three or four times. 85 00:04:33,780 --> 00:04:36,540 And each time, I had to start over again 86 00:04:36,540 --> 00:04:40,320 because I had picked the wrong narrator. 87 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:46,590 The first one I picked was a younger person telling 88 00:04:46,590 --> 00:04:50,730 the story of this older woman. 89 00:04:50,730 --> 00:04:53,600 Next came an attempt to approach her 90 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:59,040 through two journalists who were interested in the novel written 91 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:00,000 by her dead sister. 92 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:00,960 by her dead sister. 93 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:04,470 However, the two journalists started 94 00:05:04,470 --> 00:05:08,610 having an involvement, which took over the story. 95 00:05:08,610 --> 00:05:10,590 And theirs was not the story I was 96 00:05:10,590 --> 00:05:12,740 really interested in telling. 97 00:05:12,740 --> 00:05:18,670 So I defenestrated them. 98 00:05:18,670 --> 00:05:20,400 I got rid of them. 99 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:26,400 And then I had the woman start telling her own story. 100 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:30,000 And that's when the novel really started to move. 101 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:30,800 And that's when the novel really started to move. 102 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:34,670 You know how things are starting to move because you 103 00:05:34,670 --> 00:05:36,305 start writing faster. 104 00:05:36,305 --> 00:05:38,165 What I can tell you? 105 00:05:38,165 --> 00:05:41,780 [LAUGHS] This is moving. 106 00:05:41,780 --> 00:05:46,040 So instead of writing pages that you then throw out, 107 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:47,870 you start writing pages that actually 108 00:05:47,870 --> 00:05:49,160 seem to be going somewhere. 109 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:52,040 [MUSIC PLAYING] 110 00:05:56,370 --> 00:05:59,040 When you've decided on your point of view, 111 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:00,000 you have to also make some decisions about what 112 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:01,890 you have to also make some decisions about what 113 00:06:01,890 --> 00:06:07,020 that person is allowed to know, what they can legitimately 114 00:06:07,020 --> 00:06:09,360 be expected to know. 115 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:13,920 Let's talk a bit about "Dracula" and how that begins. 116 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:16,710 So "Dracula" begins with a man on a train, kind 117 00:06:16,710 --> 00:06:17,610 of an ordinary man. 118 00:06:17,610 --> 00:06:20,220 He's taking a journey, going to Transylvania. 119 00:06:20,220 --> 00:06:22,470 He's writing his journal. 120 00:06:22,470 --> 00:06:23,860 He has a wife called Mina. 121 00:06:23,860 --> 00:06:27,300 His noting the peasants and their silly superstitions. 122 00:06:27,300 --> 00:06:30,000 And there's a great recipe that he would like 123 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:30,360 And there's a great recipe that he would like 124 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:31,940 to give to Mina and blah, blah. 125 00:06:31,940 --> 00:06:33,910 And he's babbling on in this fashion. 126 00:06:33,910 --> 00:06:37,260 And it's really quite tedious because he isn't really 127 00:06:37,260 --> 00:06:40,440 noticing much around him. 128 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:43,500 But it's very suspenseful for the reader 129 00:06:43,500 --> 00:06:45,660 because the reader knows something 130 00:06:45,660 --> 00:06:49,380 that the character doesn't know. 131 00:06:49,380 --> 00:06:54,360 The reader knows that the title of the book is "Dracula." 132 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:57,180 So the man going along in the train 133 00:06:57,180 --> 00:07:00,000 has no idea what awaits him, but the reader does. 134 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:04,390 has no idea what awaits him, but the reader does. 135 00:07:04,390 --> 00:07:08,820 So it is like the Alfred Hitchcock saying, when somebody 136 00:07:08,820 --> 00:07:13,620 said, Alfred Hitchcock, how long can you hold a screen kiss? 137 00:07:13,620 --> 00:07:16,830 And he said something preposterous like two minutes. 138 00:07:16,830 --> 00:07:19,830 And they said, that's an awfully long time 139 00:07:19,830 --> 00:07:21,480 to hold a kiss on the screen. 140 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:23,310 And he said, ah, yes. 141 00:07:23,310 --> 00:07:26,600 But first I put a bomb under the bed. 142 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:30,000 So in many situations, the reader 143 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:30,360 So in many situations, the reader 144 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:33,000 knows more than the character. 145 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:36,120 And that's what creates the suspense. 146 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:38,430 In other situations, the character 147 00:07:38,430 --> 00:07:40,760 knows more than the reader. 148 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:44,070 That's a different kind of arrangement. 149 00:07:44,070 --> 00:07:46,950 Agatha Christie outraged everyone one point 150 00:07:46,950 --> 00:07:51,030 in her career by having the first person narrator turn out 151 00:07:51,030 --> 00:07:53,760 to be the murderer. 152 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:54,997 How dare she. 153 00:07:54,997 --> 00:08:00,000 [LAUGHS] So all along, the first person narrator knew something 154 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:01,320 [LAUGHS] So all along, the first person narrator knew something 155 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:03,240 the reader didn't know-- 156 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:05,610 namely, he was the one who did it. 157 00:08:05,610 --> 00:08:07,290 So there's a lot of misdirection that 158 00:08:07,290 --> 00:08:10,830 goes along with all of that. 159 00:08:10,830 --> 00:08:15,090 So one question you can ask yourself if you're writing-- 160 00:08:15,090 --> 00:08:17,640 does the reader know more than the character? 161 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:21,170 Or does the character know more than the reader? 162 00:08:21,170 --> 00:08:23,826 Or do they both know the same amount? 163 00:08:23,826 --> 00:08:26,156 And so it's going to be one of those three. 164 00:08:26,156 --> 00:08:29,558 [MUSIC PLAYING] 165 00:08:31,990 --> 00:08:37,059 There's something very useful about writing the same event 166 00:08:37,059 --> 00:08:41,250 from multiple points of view as an exercise. 167 00:08:41,250 --> 00:08:42,840 Let's do this. 168 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:49,140 Let's say this stapler is having a romantic encounter 169 00:08:49,140 --> 00:08:53,460 with this box, if you don't like people. 170 00:08:53,460 --> 00:08:58,755 But then along comes the mother of the box-- 171 00:09:01,500 --> 00:09:02,990 the point of view of the stapler, 172 00:09:02,990 --> 00:09:05,010 the point of view of this little box, 173 00:09:05,010 --> 00:09:07,260 and the point of view this box. 174 00:09:07,260 --> 00:09:09,489 Stop that. 175 00:09:09,489 --> 00:09:11,954 Hi, honey. 176 00:09:11,954 --> 00:09:13,930 Go away. 177 00:09:13,930 --> 00:09:15,990 So is your story going to be better 178 00:09:15,990 --> 00:09:18,360 from the point of view of the stapler 179 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:20,670 or from the point of view of the large box 180 00:09:20,670 --> 00:09:23,460 with a big knob on top? 181 00:09:23,460 --> 00:09:25,640 I'm choosing the stapler.