Margaret Atwood's Top 5 Writing Tips

Okay, so my first question would probably be when did you first decide that you wanted to be a writer? When I was sixteen years old. A little younger than you are now. And that was what we call high school, which is what you're basically in and what made me decide to do that because I wasn't thinking about that and the year before, when they made a documentary about me again, they interviewed me one year before a teacher and usually your teachers would say "Oh yeah, I know she was bright etc.", but this one told the truth and said "She didn't show any particular ability in my class", which was true, but then I had a different teacher. the following year and apparently I don't think it was her who put the idea in my head because in 1956 in Canada no one was going to be a writer so there were no creative

writing

classes, we didn't learn it when we wrote things in At school they were essays .

But I think I started doing it and it was more fun than anything else, so I changed careers from science to

writing

and everyone thought I was crazy. Well... now you're laughing at them! Well I do not know. Most of them are dead. Which book of yours are you most proud of and why? What am I most proud of in what I have written? Oh. I never answer that question. And the reason I don't is because if I choose one of my books, the others will know and they will be very angry. "We spent all this time with you and you're just saying goodbye?" I don't choose between them.

I dedicated time to them. I must have been interested in them at the time. How are such deep stories and plots created? How does it come to mind? Well, you can have the idea for a novel in a fairly short period of time, but then you have to sit down and work on it. So what they say is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration, so the rest gets worked out and as you work it out, you often get more new and different ideas because the idea you originally started with is not the same. It's not working out the way you thought, so your biggest friend as a novelist is your trash can.

You throw away things that don't work unless you think there's something you could use later, in which case you put it away and that could be a long process. It can take you a year, two years, to develop an idea that you might have had. in five minutes, so we don't know where the ideas come from. In reality, they can come from anywhere, but it is the development of them that makes them involved and when you are working you know that you are looking at the structure. and you're looking at the rhythm. So here's a tip: if you're writing a murder mystery, place a dead body fairly close to the front.

It is worth remembering, otherwise people will say: "Where is the murder?" Many of his books contain emotionally draining scenes. How do you deal with this as a writer? Emotionally draining scenes? Let me tell you a story. When my kids were about 5, they said we were going to put on a play and they sold tickets to the play - $0.25, so we bought a ticket to the plyn. We went to work. There were two of them and the work began. They were having breakfast. is the reason for breakfast and they were saying things like "Could you have some more orange juice?" "Yes, is here." "I would like some milk, please." Here is the milk. "Could you give me some cereal?" There's the cereal.

This went on for a while and I said, "Is something else going to happen?" And they said no, and I said "well, in that case we're leaving!" And when you think of something else that's going to happen, we'll come back to see the rest. "A story is not just this. and that and this and that and this and that something has to happen and that something that has to happen should be a surprise to the person reading the book and often to you, the person writing the book and of course some of those things They're going to happen.

They're going to be emotionally draining scenes because if it was just one happy event after another, people will say, "Is something else going to happen?" ask ourselves how. We, the readers, would deal with it. So how is the character in the book coping? Do you think he or she is coping well? And if it were you, how could you? deal with it so that when you read the book they are there with the character? So..."Don't open that door!"...they open the door. "Do not go!" Come in!"...they come in. So you're wandering around all the time.

What would I do if I were that person? You know, if I were Harry Potter, how would I deal with the dragon that's about to be executed? Like that. So, although I'm not sure what the equivalent is in Canada, many of my sixth form friends who are taking English Literature are currently studying The Handmaid's Tale in their A-level studies. How do you think some of the Current and maybe future writers of tomorrow are studying your work? Well, they've been doing it for a while and I think we've seen some books and things that could be called relatives of The Handmaid's Tale because remember it was first published in 1985, which was quite a while ago and at that time quite a few people said "this will never happen!

This will never happen in the United States." Skip to 32 years later. What can I tell you? It's happening. Not exactly the same way and not with the outfits, but there has been a rollback of women's rights and a pushback and we're seeing that happen before our very eyes, so people, apart from the fact that it's a very good television series, that's why people got very invested in it. So, it didn't seem like a fantasy anymore. How do I feel about it? If there are no young writers there will be no future readers, so each group of young writers that is emerging continues the tradition of reading and writing, so they are part of a very long history, but of course.

If there were no young writers, the tradition would stop. That's why it's a good idea to encourage young writers if they are interested in the idea of ​​books and reading. More young readers and writers need to come. everything will come to an end. And wouldn't that be sad? Many of your novels are based in a dystopian society. We, as human beings, find comfort in believing that the future will be brighter than the present or the past. Do you believe this after Trump? Having seen the pushback, I'm actually quite hopeful because while there is a desire to turn back the clock, you also see a lot of people saying "no, that's not going to happen." but it is a struggle, you know that there are now two opposing forces and of course you are optimistic because the mere act of writing is an act of optimism.

Think of all the ways this is hopeful: First of all, you've set out to write a book; You think you're going to finish it. That's quite hopeful. So you think that once you finish it it will be good; That is also hopeful. Then you think someone will want to publish it: even more hope. And then you think that if it is published someone will want to read it, which is very hopeful, so simply writing something assumes that there will be a future reader. You don't write things if you think no one will ever read them. It could be you at some point in the future, it could be you reading your own diary that you wrote five years ago, but simply recording it means that you believe that in the future someone will read it and that's a pretty hopeful thing.

I'd like to ask you what your five best pieces of advice would be for young aspiring writers. How young? So, from 11 to 18 specifically. I noticed that each of you has a notebook. So tip number one: get a notebook! Write down things that come to mind that you think might be useful later. So that's number one. Number two: read a lot and read critically. That is, decide: 'I like this, I don't like that, why do I like this? What qualities do I like about it?' and notice how the writer is putting the story together and how he handles the language of the story.

So all writers started out as readers and you will select from all the writers you come across on your patch, so to speak; They are your special writers that you really like and you will learn from them because we have all learned from other writers. Number three: pay attention to your posture because typing is very difficult... typing is hard on your neck and back and you don't notice it as much when you're young but it will catch up with you and it's hard to type when you're in agonizing pain, so your back you exercise, you get enough exercise, you walk.

If you arrive at a block and you don't know where to take your story, there are two good things you can do, one of them is to go for a walk and the other is to go to sleep because during the walk when you are thinking about It is very possible that the answer will come to you. you in something else, and if you give your unconscious mind... you know, "I have a problem"... you go to sleep and wake up, you can often find the answer. But the other one, the fifth one, is don't be afraid to throw things away, and by the way, when you're writing, no one sees it except you, so don't worry about what other people might think while you're writing. writing it, if you later decide that this is not where you want to go, that this is not what you want to publish, there's the trash can.

You have complete freedom while you write. I love The Handmaid's Tale and I also watched the Hulu series and I'm really looking forward to what will happen in the second season. What was it like having to continue the story after finishing the book? Well, luckily I'm not the one doing it. There's a writing room that has about ten people in it and the director is a person named Bruce. And then there are other people, most of whom are women. Bruce said that he thought he had hired all these writers and thought they would agree with each other, but that wasn't the case since women are people.

So they analyze it, they have an overall story arc and then they break it down into scenes and they each write a scene and then they get it back and they all discuss it. So as a group activity, I can read the script but I don't have any control, so I don't have a veto. No novel writer ever does it when it comes to film or television because it's classic for writers to not like the product and imagine that if they had a veto - they might say "well, I don't know, I don't know." "I do not approve of this and we will cancel this multi-million dollar project." That's why they never do it, but I'm pretty close to Bruce Miller and we talk a lot on the phone, so I can contribute but I don't have the final say and when you do a series like that there's no one there. person... there's not one person who has complete control because when you think about all the people involved in it, for example, Elisabeth Moss is a producer, so she has a say.

And the producers, the directors and the people who edit have a say. You sit in the editing room and they may have shot a scene maybe five times and you have to watch each of those five times and decide which one you like best and then they choose that one and then there's someone who works with color. They are enhancing the color. So, yes, it's a multi-person company and any of those ties can be weak and I think we've been very lucky to have a great team and I'll mention the designer here, whose name is Anne Crabtree.

So the costumes that you see, the look of things, that's her work and she was very thorough, for example, she looked at 50 different shades of red before choosing that particular red. She again she looked at all the shades of blue and ended up with that kind of blue-green thing. They thought about every detail, for example in the commander's house you will see some paintings. Each of those paintings is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. So if you know that, you know that these people stole the paintings and placed them in their own house. And the artists' signatures on the paintings are the only thing you can read in that house that isn't in the commander's study, so of course I asked the obvious question.

I said, "Are the paintings real?" And they said "no, no, we got this good man in China to paint them for us." They did a really good job, so they thought about every detail, like what kind of cutlery, what kind of... the amazing scene in the first series where they give him this little meringue pie cookie, so they would have thought: " Okay, what are they?” drinking tea? Do you want a cookie?" It was a particularly poisonous thing, so they have taken every detail into account. They didn't want there to be any discrepancies, so something that wouldn't be there and in the second season they have been very faithful to the main idea of that nothing comes in and it doesn't have a precedent in real life, somewhere, at some point, then they have a research team that justifies it to me They'll say, "Okay, this is where it happened All those things with the." who are careful.

Thank you very much. Thank you and good luck with your writing and everything you are doing.