Salman Rushdie Teaches Storytelling and Writing | Official Trailer | MasterClass

We need stories. We need stories to understand ourselves. We are the only creature that does this unusual thing of telling each other stories in order to try and understand the kind of creature that we are. When a child is born, the first thing the child requires is safety and love. The next thing that the child asks for is, "Tell me a story." I've been writing now for over 50 years. And this is the first time I've done anything like this. You will learn the lessons I had to find out the hard way-- character, plot, dialogue, rhythm. I do think language has a musicality. There's all this stuff about three-act structure, exactly how you must allow a story to unfold. My view is it's all nonsense. The first and only rule is be interesting. Make it as vivid as you can. Bam! As an exercise, write 300 words about the place without using any adjectives. If you can't say that somewhere is beautiful or green, what it forces you to do is to tell a story about it. I'm going to read from this manuscript I wrote in my mid 20s. It was a failure, so much so that I never showed it to anybody until this. (The sky is nude today, encasing his documentary in a very un-February blue.) You see, I don't even know what that's about. I had a very bumpy start. And to be frank, I wrote a lot of garbage. Part of the reason why I was lost is that I had grown up in one culture and I was living in another. And I didn't quite understand my relationship with either. I really needed to work out who I was, because if you're not clear about who you are, then you're not clear about how to write. Whatever you write, write because it comes from some very deep place inside you that you really, really, really need to express. Just make sure that you don't stop till you get to the end. I'm Salman Rushdie, and this is my MasterClass.

Channel: MasterClass

Views: 1,611,455

Rating: 4.8270512 out of 5

Keywords: masterclass, master class, writing, salman rushie, sir salman rushdie, novelist, story telling, character development, compelling characters, developing fictional characters, creative writing, booker prize winning author, booker prize winner, writing dialogue, writing tips, how to edit a book, editing for publication, how to flesh out a plot, how to build a plot, award winning author, how to write a book, how to write a novel, tips for writing, salman rushdie masterclass

Id: RPDOioWeByo

Length: 2min 33sec (153 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 15 2020