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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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People say that writing
is a lonely occupation.

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But actually when your
characters come to life,

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you feel you're not alone.

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You feel you're
with these people.

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And they want you
to tell their story.

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What I found always
is that there's

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What I found always
is that there's

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a certain moment in the
preparation for a book when

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the character feels real to you.

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In other words, when you
feel that they're alive.

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This is what I mean by
starting to listen to them.

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It's as if they're
talking to you,

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and you're talking back to them,
and you're in a conversation.

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What do they need in order
to be fully themselves,

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and in order to be exactly
who they need to be

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at that point in the story?

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And I think, obviously,
there's a sense

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And I think, obviously,
there's a sense

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in which this is nonsense.

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The character doesn't exist.

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And it's all in
your head anyway.

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And obviously you're
doing it all anyway.

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I just think it's a useful--

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even if it's only a way
of fooling yourself,

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you know, it's a way of thinking
about what you're doing.

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You don't want to feel the
writer pulling the strings all

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the time.

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You want to feel
that the-- you know,

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the characters have a kind
of independent existence.

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You know, you want to feel
that Anna Karenina is herself

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and not just Tolstoy speaking
through her, you know.

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and not just Tolstoy speaking
through her, you know.

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You want to feel that the
characters in The Color Purple

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are themselves with their
own thoughts and feelings,

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and not just Alice Walker
projecting her vision

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through them.

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You know, and so this idea
of being in conversation

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with your characters
is a way of helping

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you to create characters
which don't look-- just feel

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like your puppets, you know.

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Which feel like they have
an independent reality.

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Which feel like they have
an independent reality.

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And that's very pleasing
to readers to feel that.

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You can write a
character biography

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if that's what works for you.

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You don't have to, but
if it works, do it.

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I mean, I write, in a
much more haphazard way,

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notes for a character.

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Even, like, phrases
they might use,

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repeated language
that they have.

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I just will write down, like,
a moment in their life that I

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I just will write down, like,
a moment in their life that I

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think I must remember,
because that's

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a significant thing that I
need to make sure happens.

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This whole process
of preparation

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is valuable and
necessary in the same way

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as in a historical
novel research

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about the historical period
is valuable and necessary.

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But there's a point at which
you have to put it aside.

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There's a point at which
you have to say, OK,

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now I'm going to imagine it.

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And you don't need to be
endlessly looking back

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And you don't need to be
endlessly looking back

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at your biodata, you
know, or your research.

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When you're actually
doing the writing,

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you need to-- you need to feel
you have it already within you.

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You know that stuff.

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And so you can just write it.

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You need to understand the
interiority of the character

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in those terms of--

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what has damaged them in
their lives, you know?

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I mean, we are all,
every human being,

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I mean, we are all,
every human being,

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carrying some kind of damage.

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You know, and it can be a
broken heart in a love affair.

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It can be that you feel
your father didn't love you.

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We all have bruises, you know.

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We all-- we all carry
wounds through life.

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And to some extent
those shape what we--

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what we find ourselves doing.

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Everybody in life has
something that pushes them

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Everybody in life has
something that pushes them

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in one direction or another.

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It can simply be the desire
to take care of your family.

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You know, it can simply be the
problem of earning a living.

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It can be racial prejudice.

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Or it can be some
deep need they have

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in life, some ambition, some
dream, some hope, something

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that they yearn for.

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that they yearn for.

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And you need to know
that about them.

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Because then that gives you--

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that's the story they need to
tell, you know, about whether,

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in the end, they
achieve their dream,

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whether the thing that they
yearned for comes to them,

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or whether it doesn't.

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And that's, in a
way, the difference

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between a happy
ending and a tragedy.

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between a happy
ending and a tragedy.

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If you go through your life
yearning for something,

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and you don't get it,
that's a sad life.

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And it can be very dramatic
in a novel for people

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to come very close to
the thing they want

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and then to be cheated
of it in some way.

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Or the other way around,
to be cheated of it

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and then to find their way
back towards getting it,

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whatever it may be.

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One of the answers to whose
story is you telling--

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One of the answers to whose
story is you telling--

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are you telling,
will be-- will have

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to do with your central
character very often,

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or your central characters.

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But there are specific things
that I think really help,

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which are very banal
things you might think.

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What clothes do they wear?

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How do they dress?

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Are they fashionable
or unfashionable?

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Are they fashionable
or unfashionable?

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Or just literally, what
kind of shirt do they wear?

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If somebody wearing
a Hawaiian shirt,

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that's not quite the
same person as somebody

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wearing a Yankees shirt.

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But in a way, it's easy to
start with the exterior things.

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It's easy to start with, what
does a character look like?

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Do they have a big nose?

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You know, are they bald?

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And as I say, what
clothes do they wear,

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and how do they speak?

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And work your way
inside, you know,

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And work your way
inside, you know,

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to try and see if those
exterior things, in some way,

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are defenses or expressions.

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You know, sometimes
somebody who is

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very flamboyant on
the outside will

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be doing it to hide
some real insecurity

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and uncertainty about
themselves underneath that.

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Sometimes it'll be because they
are flamboyant and extroverted.

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So it could be both.

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So it could be both.

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And you need to
decide which it is.

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And at that point, the
character will act, you know.

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And the story will move forward.

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One of the great lessons that
I was taught when I was still

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at university, when I was
studying history-- my history

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professor said to me
about writing history,

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he said, you should never
write history until you

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can hear the people speak.

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He said, because if you
don't know how they speak,

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He said, because if you
don't know how they speak,

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you don't know them well enough.

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And so you can't
tell their story.

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And I think, excellent
advice for writing history.

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But it also struck me as being
excellent advice for writing

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fiction.

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One of the questions
I ask myself always,

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about every character, large
or small, is how do they talk?

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Do they have an accent?

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You know, an accent can
reveal social class.

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It can also reveal race.

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And it could also
reveal regionality.

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You know, somebody from the
Deep South, from Mississippi,

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You know, somebody from the
Deep South, from Mississippi,

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isn't going to speak the same
way as somebody from Boston.

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Another question is, how--

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are they talkative?

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Are they the kinds of
characters who have a lot

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to say for themselves?

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Or are they quite silent and
hard to draw out, you know,

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people of few words?

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Ask yourself, what kind
of vocabulary do they use?

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Do they have-- do they
have a large vocabulary?

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Do they have-- do they
have a large vocabulary?

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Or do they have
quite a limited one?

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That also will
tell you something

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about their background
and who they are.

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Do they use bad
language, or do they

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resist the use of bad language?

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And if you go through that and
know that about your character,

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you've--

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you've got quite a long way
to knowing who they are.