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The only commitment
a writer needs

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is the commitment of
the seat of his pants

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to the seat of his chair.

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

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I one or two writers
who write standing up.

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But actually sitting
down is really important.

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

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

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

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

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

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I can think of giving you.

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And I think basically
I want to offer you

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

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The first thing I
would say is that I

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

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

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One you would call maximalist.

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And the other you
would call minimalist.

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Minimalism would mean that
you have a very tight focus

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on one beautiful
strand of story,

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like one hair from the
goddess of literature.

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And you turn it in the light.

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And you see how it
catches the light.

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Very, very simple and pure
piece of storytelling.

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Very, very simple and pure
piece of storytelling.

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That can be extraordinary.

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At the other end
of the spectrum,

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the maximalist
spirit is one which

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tries to scoop up enormous
armfuls of the world

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

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Henry James used to
call books like that,

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he used to call them
loose, baggy monsters.

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

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And they're not
necessarily monsters.

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

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

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They're encyclopedic
books, books which

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try to be everything books.

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It seems to me that you can
either write an everything

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

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

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But you have to find
your own ground.

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

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Think about, which
is your temperament?

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Is it your temperament to
tell a single pure story?

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Is it your temperament to
tell a single pure story?

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Or to go with a
wheelbarrow and try

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

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

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on the minimalist side.

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

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

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So try and think
which side you're on.

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That's the first tip.

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The second question
you should ask yourself

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is whether you are
better served by planning

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something out very carefully
or by allowing yourself

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space to improvise.

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And again, there
isn't a right answer.

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

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There are writers who
benefit enormously

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from the comfort of a
carefully worked out scheme.

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from the comfort of a
carefully worked out scheme.

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And there are
writers who benefit

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

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up as they go along.

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And again, think about
which, temperamentally,

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is closest to your nature.

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And then try and
stick to that path.

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

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

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it should feel deeply
necessary to you to write it.

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

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Don't write it to be famous.

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

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Write because it comes from
some very deep place inside you

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that you really, really,
really need to express.

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

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

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There's a zillion
books out there.

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

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there are to read.

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So nobody needs your book.

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If you're going to
add to the mountain,

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make sure it feels
essential to you to do so.

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Make sure that you
can't not write it.

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

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Write the books that
you can't avoid writing.

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The fourth thing
I would say to you

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is try to do
something dangerous.

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I don't mean physically
dangerous to you.

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I mean artistically dangerous.

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Take risks.

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There's a thing
I've always loved,

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

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the great matador works
closest to the bull.

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I mean, I don't like
bullfighting either.

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I mean, I don't like
bullfighting either.

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So it's not about that.

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

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

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you make has to be perfect.

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Otherwise, you get
a horn in your side.

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And it'll be disastrous.

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

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But it's also kind
of not exciting.

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

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Try and find a way of
taking the risk that

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Try and find a way of
taking the risk that

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

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

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Take the risk.

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I seem to be talking
about Hemingway a lot.

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Because he's good
at writing tips.

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But he was asked--

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

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

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He was asked about commitment.

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Writers are being always asked
about whether they should have

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political commitment, social
commitments, whether they

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

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And he said, the only
commitment a writer needs

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is the commitment of
the seat of his pants

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to the seat of his chair.

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

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There are writers--

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I one or two writers
who write standing up.

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But actually sitting
down is really important.

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But actually sitting
down is really important.

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

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

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until you've done some work.

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

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

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

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

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identified some kind of a
problem in your storyline,

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the solution almost
always is to cut that out.

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

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

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to think, OK, that doesn't work.

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Take that out.

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Let's get on.

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You might well
find that the book

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is clarified if you
have the willingness

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to discard what's not working.

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

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is that writers are
people who finish books.

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

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It may seem like a
truism, but there's

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an awful lot of
people who, in a way,

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may have a book in
their head to write,

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but they never get it written.

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

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Also, in my
experience, every time

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Also, in my
experience, every time

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I have got to the
end of a manuscript,

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I have immediately been
able to see what it needs.

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To have the whole thing
there in front of me,

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I can see, oh, I need less here.

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I need more there.

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I need to explain that more.

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I've gone on too
long over there.

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It suddenly becomes clear.

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So make sure that
you finish the book.

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And then you will be a writer.