1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,831 [MUSIC PLAYING] 2 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:16,876 The middle of the book-- 3 00:00:16,876 --> 00:00:18,780 always the most difficult part. 4 00:00:21,670 --> 00:00:23,440 You've got the beginning. 5 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:26,390 You have an inkling of what the end is going to be. 6 00:00:26,390 --> 00:00:28,960 But how are you going to get through the middle? 7 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:30,000 More to the point, how are you going 8 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:30,490 More to the point, how are you going 9 00:00:30,490 --> 00:00:33,040 to get the reader through the middle? 10 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:37,100 I was talking last night to a script 11 00:00:37,100 --> 00:00:40,280 writer who happens to be the showrunner for "The Handmaid's 12 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:41,360 Tale." 13 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:44,000 And I said, well, there's going to have 14 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:47,910 to be a season three because you left us with at least 15 00:00:47,910 --> 00:00:49,530 five cliffhangers. 16 00:00:49,530 --> 00:00:52,040 And he said, that's my thing. 17 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:54,740 I can really do cliffhangers. 18 00:00:54,740 --> 00:00:58,970 So in the days when novelists were writing 19 00:00:58,970 --> 00:01:00,000 in serial form inside of three chapters 20 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,120 in serial form inside of three chapters 21 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:03,950 or so had to end on a-- 22 00:01:07,037 --> 00:01:08,680 and what next? 23 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:11,740 And that, too, is the secret of Sheherazad, 24 00:01:11,740 --> 00:01:14,170 telling the 1,001 nights in one night. 25 00:01:14,170 --> 00:01:17,980 She always ended when dawn appeared, 26 00:01:17,980 --> 00:01:24,280 things were not resolved, and the central character was 27 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:29,190 in peril or about to open a forbidden door. 28 00:01:29,190 --> 00:01:30,000 So you needed to know what is going 29 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:31,830 So you needed to know what is going 30 00:01:31,830 --> 00:01:35,150 to become of these people. 31 00:01:35,150 --> 00:01:36,860 Even if it's somebody who's saying, 32 00:01:36,860 --> 00:01:39,890 my life was just a mess, and I sat in my room all day 33 00:01:39,890 --> 00:01:43,790 staring at the wall, that, too, is a cliffhanger. 34 00:01:43,790 --> 00:01:46,160 How is he going to get out of that room? 35 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:48,020 Or is he just going to be in there forever 36 00:01:48,020 --> 00:01:50,230 staring at the wall? 37 00:01:50,230 --> 00:01:55,400 Something has gone off the rails and needs to be resolved. 38 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:58,270 How are you going to get your characters out 39 00:01:58,270 --> 00:02:00,000 of the difficult situations we hope you have put them into? 40 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:02,154 of the difficult situations we hope you have put them into? 41 00:02:02,154 --> 00:02:04,998 [MUSIC PLAYING] 42 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:13,190 What they say about writing longer books-- 43 00:02:13,190 --> 00:02:18,140 not poetry, but longer books, fiction, nonfiction, memoir-- 44 00:02:18,140 --> 00:02:23,570 it's one part inspiration and nine parts perspiration. 45 00:02:23,570 --> 00:02:25,580 So writing is work. 46 00:02:25,580 --> 00:02:29,330 It's something you work away at. 47 00:02:29,330 --> 00:02:30,000 And that includes scratching things out, moving parts of it 48 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:34,760 And that includes scratching things out, moving parts of it 49 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,620 around, making it better. 50 00:02:37,620 --> 00:02:39,860 Let's speak of it in terms of furniture 51 00:02:39,860 --> 00:02:42,080 arranging in your house. 52 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:45,420 You put the sofa there. 53 00:02:45,420 --> 00:02:49,250 Then no, it might look better over here. 54 00:02:49,250 --> 00:02:51,560 Maybe it's the wrong sofa. 55 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:53,420 Maybe we can put this sofa upstairs 56 00:02:53,420 --> 00:02:57,680 and then put this other different one here. 57 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:00,000 Sometimes you take a turn down a corridor, and it's a dead end. 58 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,320 Sometimes you take a turn down a corridor, and it's a dead end. 59 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:05,720 It leads nowhere. 60 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:08,800 And at that point, it's not a question 61 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:11,440 of resolving the difficulties in the middle. 62 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,640 It's a question of realizing you ought 63 00:03:13,640 --> 00:03:15,620 to be writing a different book. 64 00:03:15,620 --> 00:03:17,810 However, things where you needed to 65 00:03:17,810 --> 00:03:20,270 resolve the difficulties in the middle-- 66 00:03:20,270 --> 00:03:21,740 I would say just about every book 67 00:03:21,740 --> 00:03:25,790 I've ever written is that sort of thing-- 68 00:03:25,790 --> 00:03:28,070 or the moment when you realize that something 69 00:03:28,070 --> 00:03:30,000 you thought about your character isn't true. 70 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,430 you thought about your character isn't true. 71 00:03:31,430 --> 00:03:33,450 Something else, on the other hand, is true. 72 00:03:33,450 --> 00:03:38,390 And then you have to backtrack and work it 73 00:03:38,390 --> 00:03:40,540 through in a different way. 74 00:03:40,540 --> 00:03:43,250 There's no shame in backtracking. 75 00:03:43,250 --> 00:03:45,080 There's no shame in revision. 76 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:49,970 There's no shame in realizing that you got it wrong 77 00:03:49,970 --> 00:03:54,860 or that there's a better thing that you can do that's better 78 00:03:54,860 --> 00:03:56,450 than what you have done. 79 00:03:56,450 --> 00:04:00,000 And those pages can just go away. 80 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:00,606 And those pages can just go away. 81 00:04:00,606 --> 00:04:03,582 [MUSIC PLAYING] 82 00:04:07,060 --> 00:04:08,530 The ending that you think is going 83 00:04:08,530 --> 00:04:10,990 to be the ending is often not the ending. 84 00:04:10,990 --> 00:04:12,970 And of course, it's quite usual for you 85 00:04:12,970 --> 00:04:16,000 to write the ending some time before you actually 86 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,399 write the part leading up to the ending. 87 00:04:18,399 --> 00:04:19,810 That's normal. 88 00:04:19,810 --> 00:04:21,310 As you approach the end of the book, 89 00:04:21,310 --> 00:04:23,590 your writing pace can get quite a lot 90 00:04:23,590 --> 00:04:28,540 faster if you know what ending you were heading towards. 91 00:04:28,540 --> 00:04:30,000 So you can actually find yourself 92 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:30,310 So you can actually find yourself 93 00:04:30,310 --> 00:04:32,447 writing quite a few more hours a day 94 00:04:32,447 --> 00:04:34,780 than you did at the beginning when you're working things 95 00:04:34,780 --> 00:04:38,890 out and thinking a lot rather than necessarily just writing. 96 00:04:38,890 --> 00:04:41,310 You can get too speedy. 97 00:04:41,310 --> 00:04:43,605 You can skip over things. 98 00:04:43,605 --> 00:04:47,980 You can not go into enough depth at such moments. 99 00:04:47,980 --> 00:04:52,960 But usually, your primary reader, 100 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:57,070 whoever it is you show the book to, or your editor will say, 101 00:04:57,070 --> 00:04:58,810 this went too fast. 102 00:04:58,810 --> 00:05:00,000 I needed to know more about this. 103 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,590 I needed to know more about this. 104 00:05:02,590 --> 00:05:06,730 I think the lesson is going to get the book finished, and then 105 00:05:06,730 --> 00:05:07,540 read it through. 106 00:05:07,540 --> 00:05:10,790 And if it goes too fast at that point, add more in. 107 00:05:13,340 --> 00:05:15,440 Remember, there's always revision. 108 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:18,242 [MUSIC PLAYING] 109 00:05:21,990 --> 00:05:24,180 So the difference between a book and life 110 00:05:24,180 --> 00:05:28,860 is that in life, there is no "the end." 111 00:05:28,860 --> 00:05:30,000 There are different stages. 112 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:30,990 There are different stages. 113 00:05:30,990 --> 00:05:31,980 People get born. 114 00:05:31,980 --> 00:05:33,860 They live. 115 00:05:33,860 --> 00:05:36,010 They die and all of those kinds of things. 116 00:05:36,010 --> 00:05:39,000 But there isn't any final "the end," 117 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:41,970 whereas in books, there is. 118 00:05:41,970 --> 00:05:45,730 There's an arbitrary end of the book. 119 00:05:45,730 --> 00:05:49,750 And that ending can either be a closed ending 120 00:05:49,750 --> 00:05:51,850 or an open ending. 121 00:05:51,850 --> 00:05:56,860 And the 19th century tended to go in for closed endings, 122 00:05:56,860 --> 00:05:59,150 although not always. 123 00:05:59,150 --> 00:06:00,000 And our century tends to go in for more open endings. 124 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:06,740 And our century tends to go in for more open endings. 125 00:06:06,740 --> 00:06:11,110 So it's not necessarily Cinderella married the prince 126 00:06:11,110 --> 00:06:14,090 and lived happily ever after. 127 00:06:14,090 --> 00:06:16,760 It's not necessarily like that. 128 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:18,700 So what you do at the end is going 129 00:06:18,700 --> 00:06:21,100 to be something you're going to have 130 00:06:21,100 --> 00:06:24,990 to quite carefully consider. 131 00:06:24,990 --> 00:06:28,140 How much are you going to resolve? 132 00:06:28,140 --> 00:06:30,000 If it's a traditional murder mystery 133 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,950 If it's a traditional murder mystery 134 00:06:32,950 --> 00:06:37,090 and Hercule Poirot calls everyone into the drawing room 135 00:06:37,090 --> 00:06:42,700 and says, I don't have a clue, we'll all be very annoyed. 136 00:06:42,700 --> 00:06:44,950 We thought we were in the kind of book in which we're 137 00:06:44,950 --> 00:06:50,440 going to finally be told how the person skied downhill 138 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:53,800 in the middle of the night and murdered 139 00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:57,220 somebody in the conservatory with a wrench 140 00:06:57,220 --> 00:07:00,000 and then got away leaving no trace, except for. 141 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:01,480 and then got away leaving no trace, except for. 142 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:03,500 We think all of that will be explained to us. 143 00:07:03,500 --> 00:07:08,620 And if it isn't, we're going to be put out. 144 00:07:08,620 --> 00:07:13,130 So you're always dealing with readers. 145 00:07:13,130 --> 00:07:14,770 You're always dealing with what you 146 00:07:14,770 --> 00:07:16,305 think they may already expect. 147 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:23,390 And how much of that expectation you're going to fulfill 148 00:07:23,390 --> 00:07:26,490 is really going to depend on you. 149 00:07:26,490 --> 00:07:29,388 [MUSIC PLAYING] 150 00:07:33,260 --> 00:07:36,840 "The Handmaid's Tale" is an example of an open end-- 151 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:39,960 so reader's choice. 152 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:40,790 Reader's choice. 153 00:07:40,790 --> 00:07:45,330 Does she get any further away than Bangor, Maine, or not? 154 00:07:45,330 --> 00:07:49,940 Does she manage to escape over the border to Canada or not? 155 00:07:49,940 --> 00:07:53,390 Does she make it as far as England or not? 156 00:07:53,390 --> 00:07:54,170 We don't know. 157 00:07:54,170 --> 00:07:59,510 And people have been after me for 33 years to tell them. 158 00:07:59,510 --> 00:08:00,000 I have not been able to tell them 159 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:01,190 I have not been able to tell them 160 00:08:01,190 --> 00:08:04,700 because it is one of those instances in which we just 161 00:08:04,700 --> 00:08:05,960 don't know. 162 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:09,131 People want things to be tidy. 163 00:08:09,131 --> 00:08:12,270 It drives them a bit crazy when they're not, 164 00:08:12,270 --> 00:08:16,850 which is I think why there are policemen dedicated to solving 165 00:08:16,850 --> 00:08:18,155 cold cases. 166 00:08:18,155 --> 00:08:22,160 It just drives them crazy that they have not got the answer. 167 00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:28,640 How did I decide on how "The Handmaid's Tale" would end? 168 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:30,000 It doesn't end with our central character maybe getting 169 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:34,789 It doesn't end with our central character maybe getting 170 00:08:34,789 --> 00:08:37,460 rescued and maybe not. 171 00:08:37,460 --> 00:08:41,600 We do find out in the historical notes 172 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:44,790 that she made it as far as Bangor, Maine. 173 00:08:44,790 --> 00:08:46,910 So in fact, she was being helped. 174 00:08:46,910 --> 00:08:50,570 In fact, she was not betrayed at that moment. 175 00:08:50,570 --> 00:08:52,370 So we know that much. 176 00:08:52,370 --> 00:08:56,270 We don't know what happened to her after that. 177 00:08:56,270 --> 00:09:00,000 And my reason for doing that is that in history, 178 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:00,410 And my reason for doing that is that in history, 179 00:09:00,410 --> 00:09:03,380 when you're trying to trace historical figures, 180 00:09:03,380 --> 00:09:05,811 they often simply vanish. 181 00:09:05,811 --> 00:09:06,310 They vanish. 182 00:09:06,310 --> 00:09:07,643 Somebody burned down the church. 183 00:09:07,643 --> 00:09:10,390 The records were in it. 184 00:09:10,390 --> 00:09:14,020 Somebody escaped and changed their name. 185 00:09:14,020 --> 00:09:16,550 Somebody just disappears. 186 00:09:16,550 --> 00:09:20,590 So the fact that this character just vanishes 187 00:09:20,590 --> 00:09:26,430 is more like the norm than it is like an exception. 188 00:09:26,430 --> 00:09:29,610 Usually, people vanish out of history, especially 189 00:09:29,610 --> 00:09:30,000 in times of turmoil and catastrophe. 190 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,690 in times of turmoil and catastrophe. 191 00:09:33,690 --> 00:09:36,960 They often just simply aren't there anymore. 192 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:40,650 Researchers cannot trace them. 193 00:09:40,650 --> 00:09:46,170 It was all very tidy when people lived in their home villages, 194 00:09:46,170 --> 00:09:49,940 had their births and marriages and deaths recorded 195 00:09:49,940 --> 00:09:52,370 in the parish registry. 196 00:09:52,370 --> 00:09:55,870 But it's not the norm for history. 197 00:09:55,870 --> 00:09:59,620 So that's why I had her simply disappear. 198 00:09:59,620 --> 00:10:00,000 It's more likely that that would have happened than that it 199 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,440 It's more likely that that would have happened than that it 200 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:04,620 would not have happened.