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I write most of my stories in the first person, | 0:00:22 | 0:00:24 | |
and I put myself centre stage | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
in almost all of the stories that I write. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:28 | |
Sometimes I call the main character Michael | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
because I can't think of anything else, I'm that pathetic. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:33 | |
I do put myself at the heart of a story, | 0:00:33 | 0:00:36 | |
particularly if I have to feel that I'm there. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:39 | |
For instance, I wrote a book called Private Peaceful. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:41 | |
I wrote this book because of one thing I came across in a museum. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:45 | |
I went to a place called Ypres in Belgium, | 0:00:45 | 0:00:48 | |
which is the site of a terrible battle in the First World War. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:52 | |
There's a wonderful museum there called In Flanders Field. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
I was walking out of the museum in tears, | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
because it's such a powerful evocation of the futility of war, | 0:00:58 | 0:01:02 | |
as Wilfred Owen called it. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
So, you come out feeling wretched, | 0:01:04 | 0:01:06 | |
and the last thing I saw was a little letter in a frame on the wall, | 0:01:06 | 0:01:10 | |
and it said "Dear Mrs so-and-so, | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
"we regret to inform you that your son, Private so-and-so..." | 0:01:13 | 0:01:17 | |
with a number, | 0:01:17 | 0:01:18 | |
"was shot at dawn for cowardice, on such and such a date, 1916." | 0:01:18 | 0:01:24 | |
Just above the little letter was an envelope ripped open. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:31 | |
And as I saw the rip, my mind went straight to the mother, | 0:01:31 | 0:01:37 | |
I could see her standing there, | 0:01:37 | 0:01:39 | |
knowing that it was bad news, and then discovering, | 0:01:39 | 0:01:41 | |
not only was her son dead, but the manner of his dying. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
How terrible that must have been. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:46 | |
And then I thought "Hang on, it's not just good enough to feel this, find out more about it." | 0:01:46 | 0:01:50 | |
I went to the man at the museum and said, "How many soldiers were shot for cowardice | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
"in the First World War?" | 0:01:54 | 0:01:55 | |
And he said "Over 300, and that's just on our side." | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
And you just, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:00 | |
you just can't imagine a world where that sort of thing could happen. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:04 | |
I found it shocking, and then what I discovered was | 0:02:04 | 0:02:08 | |
that all these years later this country had not pardoned them. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:12 | |
I thought "Write a story about it." How do you write a story about it? | 0:02:12 | 0:02:16 | |
Somehow you have to find the voice that shines the camera, | 0:02:16 | 0:02:20 | |
if you like, at the story in the most powerful way you possibly can. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
In this particular case, what I decided to do | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
was to tell the story from the point of view of one soldier. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
There were two soldiers in my story, brothers, | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
and you don't know in the story which of them is going to get shot. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
What you do know is that in the morning, at six o'clock, | 0:02:37 | 0:02:40 | |
when it always happened, something terrible is going to happen. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:44 | |
And you are with one of the soldiers, and I tell it in the first person. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:49 | |
I'm going to read you just half a page. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
This was my attempt really to become a 17-year-old young man, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:56 | |
writing, speaking in 1916. | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
It begins... | 0:03:00 | 0:03:01 | |
Five past ten. They've gone now, and I'm alone at last. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:09 | |
I have the whole night ahead of me, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
and I won't waste a single moment of it. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
I shan't sleep it away, I won't dream it away. I mustn't, | 0:03:15 | 0:03:21 | |
because every moment of it will be far too precious. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
I want to try and remember everything, just as it was, | 0:03:24 | 0:03:29 | |
just as it happened. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:30 | |
I've had nearly 18 years of yesterdays and tomorrows, | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
and tonight I must remember as many of them as I can. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:38 | |
I want tonight to be long, as long as my life, | 0:03:38 | 0:03:40 | |
not filled with fleeting dreams that rush me on towards dawn. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:45 | |
Tonight, more than any other night in my life, | 0:03:45 | 0:03:49 | |
I want to feel alive. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:51 | |
It's tumbling upon things, you know. I was lucky enough, | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
privileged enough, 35 years ago to meet, in my pub at home, | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
in Devon, a soldier who'd been to the First World War. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
I knew he was an old bloke, he was in his 80s by then. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
I knew he'd been there, but I didn't know any more about him, and I hardly knew him, really. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:17 | |
I sat down, and had half a pint with him, and I asked a question. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
I said, "What regiment were you in?" | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
He said "I was in the Devon Yeomanry." | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
And then he said something wonderful, which I never forgot, he said "I was there with 'orses." | 0:04:24 | 0:04:29 | |
I said "What do you mean, with horses?" He said "Well, cavalry." | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
And then he started talking, and we started talking. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
He told me what it was like to be 17, to leave these shores, to go across | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
with the Yeomanry, and find himself in this appalling, appalling war. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
How he felt petrified, | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
and how he found comfort in talking to his horse each night | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
when he went to feed it. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
And he would talk to that horse as if it was his best friend, because it WAS his best friend. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:57 | |
And he meant it. | 0:04:57 | 0:04:58 | |
I felt, "This is the most extraordinary thing I've ever heard." | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
Someone who talks to a horse. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
Then I thought "I'm not sure anyone has told the story of a horse," | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
and maybe if you told it through the horse's mouth, | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
you could tell the story, not just of the British side, | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
or the German side, or the French side, | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
but a story of the universal suffering of the First World War. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:19 | |
You have to forget, when you're sitting in front of an empty page, I think, that you are writing. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:24 | |
What I've discovered is the best way to do it | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
is to do what most kids like doing, which is to talk a story. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:30 | |
You talk it, from your head, where the dreamtime has been, | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
down your arms, through your fingers and onto the page. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
You let it flow, mistakes and all. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
You don't worry about the spelling, you don't worry about punctuation. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:42 | |
I'm sorry, but you don't. You just get the stupid thing down there. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
I think it's rather like an artist sketching. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
When an artist is sketching, it's letting the line flow, | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
capturing somehow the image of it. That's what I do when I first write. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:55 | |
I tell it down onto the page, and then craft it afterwards. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
What I want to talk about this morning in this circus tent, | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
outside a big castle, is happiness. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
In relationships, people go, "Oh, I just want to make you happy." | 0:06:17 | 0:06:21 | |
Or "Why are you dumping me?" "I don't know, I just want to be happy. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:25 | |
Right? Or, as I read in the paper yesterday, | 0:06:25 | 0:06:29 | |
"Excuse me, sir, why are you kayaking off this 30-foot waterfall?" | 0:06:29 | 0:06:33 | |
"I don't know, it just makes me happy." | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
I want you to do one thing - write, it might be a lie, | 0:06:35 | 0:06:39 | |
but write "I am happy." | 0:06:39 | 0:06:41 | |
That's all you need to do. "I am happy." | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
Now, I want you to cross out the word happy, because it's rubbish. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
OK, I want you to replace the word "happy" | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
with something that means happy. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
For instance, I am a golden pinball machine, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
or I am a diamond toilet seat, or I am a huge roast dinner, | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
or I am a paper bag full of lights, | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
or... What's your favourite thing in the world? | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
I am Pokemon. Is that your favourite thing in the world?! In the world! | 0:07:04 | 0:07:09 | |
Oh, my God! | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
A lot of the time in school, poetry is presented as something | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
that is studious, or something that you have to decipher, | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
like a crossword, or something that belongs on dusty shelves, in the past. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
So, that's perfect. I am a Dorito. I am a pizza, with what on top? | 0:07:23 | 0:07:27 | |
-Pepperoni. -Bubblewrap, amazing. -Tomatoes. -I am a shoe. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
A few more. A few more. Father Christmas. Moo cow. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:36 | |
Say eating hamburgers makes you happy, you wouldn't say | 0:07:36 | 0:07:41 | |
"I'm eating a hamburger." | 0:07:41 | 0:07:43 | |
You would just say "I am a massive hamburger." Do you understand? | 0:07:43 | 0:07:47 | |
Yeah, cool. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:49 | |
Because a lot of the time, especially in poetry, | 0:07:49 | 0:07:50 | |
people think it's a bit like, it has to mature, like cheese, | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
and you can't really be taken seriously until you're 40, and you've got a beard. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
I am money in a bag, it feels better than, I am money, doesn't it? | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
Like a sculptor, you need a block of stone in order to carve | 0:08:04 | 0:08:07 | |
something out of it, you know? | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
You don't want to be afraid of writing rubbish. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
Just get rid of the empty page, just write whatever comes into your head. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
-Chips to the power of two. It's all in the details. -And ketchup. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:20 | |
And, is happy cows part of it? Or is that a second one? | 0:08:20 | 0:08:24 | |
Of course, of course, I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
Nothing is right or wrong, you know? | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
We wrote as many images as we could, and made a big poem out of it. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:34 | |
I'm an annoying spot on someone else's nose. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
It was electrifying. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:38 | |
I am a Dorito, I am bubble-wrap I am music, I am mass destruction | 0:08:38 | 0:08:43 | |
I am pizza with pepperoni I am money in a bag | 0:08:43 | 0:08:47 | |
I'm a shoe | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
I'm a kite I am the annoying spot on somebody else's nose. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:55 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:08:55 | 0:08:57 | |
I'm a red lava lamp | 0:08:57 | 0:08:59 | |
I'm snowy days, I'm George Clooney in a leather Italian suit | 0:08:59 | 0:09:04 | |
I am a chipmunk I'm high-pitched singing voices | 0:09:06 | 0:09:09 | |
I am a turtle, I'm a piranha I'm an empty house thick with peace | 0:09:09 | 0:09:14 | |
I'm a strawberry I'm a candy unicorn, I'm a carrot! | 0:09:14 | 0:09:17 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
I'm Spongebob, I am Pingu I am Father Christmas | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
I am a plethora of tall mountains I'm a rubber duck | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
I'm a Mexican moustache I am a Lego man | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
I'm a moo cow | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
I AM THE TUNA THAT YOU FIND IN SANDWICHES! | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
Woo! That's you, that's you, I didn't write any of that. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
I'm a novelist, and that means I have to write something long, | 0:09:56 | 0:09:59 | |
and continual, continuous, and I have to do it every day. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:04 | |
I think poets work in a slightly different way. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
This may be why there is such a lot of First World War poetry, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
but no First World War novels. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:10 | |
You can't write a novel in the trenches. You can't guarantee | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
you're going to be there the next day, never mind being able to finish chapter 3, or whatever it is. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:18 | |
Because writing a novel is not a sprint, it's not something you do in a hurry, | 0:10:18 | 0:10:22 | |
it's something you do over a long time. So, if you get discouraged, | 0:10:22 | 0:10:25 | |
when you're doing a long piece of work, don't worry, accept it. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
That's part of the job. That's part of what writing is, | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
this feeling that you don't know what to write next, and you're bored, and you're fed up, | 0:10:31 | 0:10:35 | |
you hate it, you wish you'd never begun. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
Good, you're doing the right thing, that's what it's like. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:41 | |
I write about fantastical worlds because I'm lazy. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
I can't be bothered to go and do the research about the real world. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
It's much easier, much less effort, to sit at my desk and make it up. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
I never pick a plan for a novel when I'm writing. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:56 | |
But I do look forward to bits that I'm going to write. | 0:10:56 | 0:11:00 | |
I do think that when those two characters meet up, | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
I will enjoy that that bit. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:05 | |
Put yourself into the scene, what would you see if you were there? | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
What is important about what you would see if you were there? | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
The story is always the governor. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
In the book I'm holding here, The Amber Spyglass, | 0:11:13 | 0:11:16 | |
which is the third part of His Dark Materials, | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
there was a passage I was looking forward to writing. | 0:11:18 | 0:11:22 | |
It's a passage when two important characters meet for the first time. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
The two characters that I'm talking about in this case were the boy Will, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:30 | |
and the bear, Iorek Byrnison. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:31 | |
Now, Will is a boy from our world, a very ordinary boy, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
there's nothing special about him. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:36 | |
He hasn't got a special destiny, or, or special powers, or anything like that. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:41 | |
He's discovered a weapon, a knife. It's called the Subtle Knife, | 0:11:41 | 0:11:46 | |
a knife that can cut through anything. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
Now, Will and the bear have never met, | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
they've never come face-to-face, but this is when they do. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
Will put his rucksack down and hoisted the helmet up on its end. He could barely lift it. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:07 | |
It consisted of a single sheet of iron, dark and dented, | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
with eyeholes on top, and a massive chain underneath. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:13 | |
It was as long as Will's forearm, and as thick as his thumb. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
"So, this is your armour," he said. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
"Well, it doesn't look very strong to me. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:22 | |
"I don't know if I can trust it. Let me see." | 0:12:22 | 0:12:25 | |
He took the knife from the rucksack, | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
and rested the edge against the front of the helmet, | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
and sliced off a corner as if he was cutting butter. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
"That's what I thought," he said. He cut another, and another, | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
reducing the massive thing to a pile of fragments in less than a minute. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:41 | |
He stood up, and held out a handful. "That was your armour," | 0:12:41 | 0:12:45 | |
he said, and dropped the pieces with a clatter on the rest by his feet. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
"And this is my knife, and since your helmet was no good to me | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
"you'll have to fight without it. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:54 | |
"Are you ready, bear? I think we are well matched. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:58 | |
"I could take off your head with one blow of my knife, after all." | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
Utter stillness. The bear's black eyes glowed like pitch, | 0:13:03 | 0:13:07 | |
Will felt a drop of sweat drop down his spine, and the bear's head moved. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:12 | |
He shook it, took a step backwards. "Too strong a weapon," he said. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:17 | |
"I can't fight that. Boy, you win." | 0:13:17 | 0:13:19 | |
Will knew a second later that people would cheer and whoop, | 0:13:20 | 0:13:24 | |
so even before the bear had finished saying the word "win", | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
Will have begin to turn and call out to keep them quiet. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
"Now, you must keep the bargain, look after the wounded people, | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
"start repairing the buildings. Let the boat tie up and refuel." The bear spoke quietly, | 0:13:33 | 0:13:38 | |
in a voice that seemed to throb as tightly as the ship's engines. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:41 | |
"What is your name?" He said. "What do you seek?" "I'm Will Parry. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:46 | |
"You're going up the river, and I want to come with you. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
"I'm going to the mountains, and this is the quickest way. Will you take me?" | 0:13:50 | 0:13:54 | |
"Yes. I want to see that knife." | 0:13:54 | 0:13:55 | |
"I will only show it to a bear I can trust. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:00 | |
"There is one bear I've heard of who's trustworthy, | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
"he is the king of the bears, a friend of the girl I'm going to the mountains to find. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:06 | |
"Her name is Lyra Silvertongue, the bear is called Iorek Byrnison." | 0:14:06 | 0:14:12 | |
"I am Iorek Byrnison," said the bear. "I know you are," said Will. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:18 | |
Write whatever you like to read. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:21 | |
If you're interested in writing professionally, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
don't think of the market for one second. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
Publishers always want to say, | 0:14:26 | 0:14:27 | |
write something that was like the bestseller last year. We want another bestseller, | 0:14:27 | 0:14:31 | |
therefore you write one like the one that is gone before. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:34 | |
I'd say the opposite, write only what you think. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
Nobody else will be interested in the world but you, but write that, | 0:14:36 | 0:14:40 | |
as that'll be the thing that will come deeply and truly out of you, | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
and what will make the most impression on other people. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
I think one of the most useful things that anyone ever said to me | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
was a literary agent, and she said, "We wouldn't expect | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
"a violinist to pick up a violin | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
"and start playing a Bach sonata, and yet we do expect | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
"writers to write this peerless prose without anything." | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
You're allowed the nuts and bolts, | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
just in the same way that a musician will have to practise their scales. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
With writing, as well, you can write about things, | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
you can write about familiar things before you make yourself | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
go off and do the really scary, difficult stuff. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:30 | |
Even just getting home from school, and getting straight on the phone to friends, | 0:15:30 | 0:15:34 | |
if that's something that gives you pleasure, and is an important part of your life, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
then that's something you can use to write about. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
That's a starting point. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:42 | |
Some writers like to plot it out, and know where they're going, have a lot of the stuff filled in. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:49 | |
I remember Hilary Mantel saying that when she first started writing | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
she used to have a yellow Post-it notes on the wall, saying what was going to happen at each stage. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:57 | |
And some writers just like to dive in, start swimming, | 0:15:57 | 0:15:59 | |
and hope they don't sink, and that's what they like. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:02 | |
I think it's horses for courses. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:04 | |
I wouldn't want to say you've got to do it this way, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
it's all about giving people permission to find the way to write that works for them. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:10 | |
Go off, and in the next two days, just note down a bit of conversation | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
that you've overheard between two people, | 0:16:16 | 0:16:18 | |
and then use that as a starting point for a story or a play, or, you know, something. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:23 | |
There's material all around us, all the time. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
Dive right in to the character you are writing about, | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
or the situation you're writing about. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
That's the only way to forget you as the author, as the writer. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:38 | |
So, you think to yourself "OK, what is this character? | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
"How does this character eat? How does this character think? | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
"How does this character tie their shoe?" | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
Or whatever, that was just an example. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:48 | |
The only way to escape from yourself, | 0:16:48 | 0:16:50 | |
is to lose yourself in whatever you are writing. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:52 | |
Some people write because they want to be heard. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:57 | |
Some write because they have something they really want to say, | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
and some write because they just can't stop themselves. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
Some people write because they want to change the world, | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
and they're all really valid reasons. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
You only need to know why YOU want to write, | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
you don't need to know why anyone else wants to write. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
We're going to concentrate on holidays, a holiday that you've been on. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:20 | |
It might be like the holiday when you were three years old, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
or one when you were ten. Any kind of holiday. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
It could be a terrible holiday, or a really great holiday, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
it doesn't matter. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:32 | |
The idea was to get the children writing some stories, | 0:17:32 | 0:17:35 | |
it's as simple as that. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
-Hey, Daniel, what are you doing? -Belgium, innit. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
-What did you see in Belgium? -Trees. -There? -Yeah. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:45 | |
You see trees and houses. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:47 | |
We tried to start by giving them quite structured tasks to do, which would then lead in | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
to an exercise where they literally had to sit down and write out a story. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
We went into the village, and we were in the shop, | 0:17:55 | 0:17:59 | |
and it was really strange because they had all these puppets, | 0:17:59 | 0:18:02 | |
and randomly one of them started going "I love you," | 0:18:02 | 0:18:06 | |
and then started laughing in an evil accent. It was so weird. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:11 | |
That's fantastic, that's great. Often there's real gems there. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
You wouldn't necessarily get one with a beginning, middle and end, | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
but you might get a great phrase or image, | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
or something funny, or a great little character observation. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
I could feel the comfort softness of the ground below | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
and taste the barbecued food through the hallway. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
The idea of what they could see, feel, hear and taste. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
I remember smelling the fresh mountain tops, | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
so pure it reminded me of peace. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:35 | |
And then we gave them a genre. It's a comedy, or whatever you get given. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
And your celebrity, your celebrity is your main character in your story. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
Simon Cowell was one, Beyonce was another, and they had to put | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
those three elements together - | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
their memories, the genre, and the famous person, and turn it into a story, simple. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:53 | |
-Right, what do we think? Kissing. -You could have people being tragic. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
-Tragic. Death. -We're going to do a tragic love story. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:04 | |
A tragic love story, that's what we're thinking. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
You can write about anything. There are no no-entry signs. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
It's not like this really complicated thing, | 0:19:11 | 0:19:14 | |
that only famous people can do. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:16 | |
Simon Cowell sped down the gloomy, menacing streets | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
of San Juan, Ibiza, looking for that pathetic, greasy villain, | 0:19:20 | 0:19:25 | |
Louis Walsh. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:26 | |
Louis was happy dancing the Macarena with a teacher called | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
Miss Hughes, who yet just met at Oceania. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
I don't know why that's funny! | 0:19:34 | 0:19:37 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
OK, calm down. "Oh, look!" exclaimed Miss Hughes, "There's Simon Cowell." | 0:19:40 | 0:19:45 | |
Louis took one look, turned, and ran to Simon's Roller outside. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:49 | |
Swiftly, he hotwired it, and raced off into the night, | 0:19:49 | 0:19:53 | |
and crashed the car. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:54 | |
"Got you now," smiled Simon, and quickly texted his mum | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
the news that Louis was being done for drunk-driving | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
knowing that the News Of The World would be reading the text | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
within minutes, and he would get his popularity back for a start. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:09 | |
Now, what I want you to do, I want you to think of the two sides of your personality. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
One side of you might be pretty helpful, really want to just... | 0:20:21 | 0:20:26 | |
The other side you might just want to stay in bed for ever. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:31 | |
One side of you might really want to be kind to people, | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
and really care whenever you see anyone else in pain. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
The other side might feel angry, and aggressive and | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
"Oh, these people are so annoying!" | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
OK, so, I want you to give a name to the two sides of your personality. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
It might be something simple like Jack and John, | 0:20:48 | 0:20:50 | |
or something more complicated. Don't think too much about names, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:54 | |
and write me a poem, each, telling me what they get up to. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
Go. There might be a moment when the two sides of you have to meet, | 0:20:57 | 0:21:02 | |
or they come into conflict, or something happens, | 0:21:02 | 0:21:06 | |
or there is a situation where one of them has to take charge. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:10 | |
If any of you are really trying to rhyme it, and your getting this thing | 0:21:10 | 0:21:14 | |
where you get "dog, log, fog..." just break out of the rhyme, because otherwise | 0:21:14 | 0:21:18 | |
the rhyme ends up controlling you. I generally say don't bother rhyming. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:22 | |
If you've finished, you can just sit there and stare into space, and think about how cool you are. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:30 | |
OK, cool. Let's hear some. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
Charlie likes to sing in the rain And dance away yesterday's tattooed pain | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
but Ron likes to pick people up And dangle them 70,000 feet from a purple crane. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
-Right. -Oh God. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:42 | |
Bill looked in the mirror Ben stared back, giving each other glares | 0:21:42 | 0:21:46 | |
Bill liked talking to carrots | 0:21:46 | 0:21:49 | |
Ben liked wrestling bears | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
Bill loved riding his unicorn along the sea | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
Ben liked using a plant pot as a head. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
Woo! | 0:21:56 | 0:21:57 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
It might not be perfect poetry, | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
but actually it's poetry you can't write when you're older. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:05 | |
This isn't the best poem I've written. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
Sorry, you must never apologise before you read anything, ever, ever. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:11 | |
I'm not sorry for anything, OK? | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
Yeah, this poem says quite a lot about me, it doesn't rhyme, | 0:22:15 | 0:22:18 | |
but yeah, don't expect anything too much. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:20 | |
I'm sorry. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
I take all that back! | 0:22:25 | 0:22:27 | |
My soul is burning fiercely, never connected | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
The embers are burning the metaphorical bridge | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
the gateway of separation | 0:22:33 | 0:22:34 | |
I'm bathed in a dark loneliness Yet I'm surrounded by friends and loving family. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:39 | |
It was just lovely to see them all laughing, | 0:22:39 | 0:22:42 | |
whilst writing really quite serious, and funny, and poignant stuff. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:48 | |
My voice projects to you this very moment | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
To say our blueprint is the same Let's put a full stop to the hate | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
And let's put a full stop to the fighting. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
You know when you close your eyes, just before you fall asleep, | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
and you have that kind of cinema rolling on your eyelids? Yeah? We all have a different cinema, | 0:22:59 | 0:23:04 | |
a different film playing, | 0:23:04 | 0:23:07 | |
and all of those pictures and memories, and dreams, and kind of, | 0:23:07 | 0:23:12 | |
mad thoughts that you personally link stuff together, | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
that's your material, what you use to write. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
What's the point of feelings otherwise? | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
We're full of this stuff, but where do we put it? | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
Poetry gives us a place to put it. Thank you very much. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:27 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
You've been amazing. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:31 | |
One of the things that happens when you are a writer, | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
and you kind of say to yourself that you are a writer, | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
is that you get more faith in your own process. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:46 | |
You think that after I've tackled this rubbish idea a few times, | 0:23:46 | 0:23:51 | |
and after I've applied all of my best tricks to it, it will get better. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:55 | |
There isn't any point in rattling around with the idea | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
that you might be a writer one day, it might suddenly happen. You've got to start writing. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:03 | |
What I wanted to write about is, | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
we've all been today in this amazing castle. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:10 | |
It's quite a strong place, with a strong personality, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
it's something that's worth writing about. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
We're going to be writing a poem, and for me, | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
the basic unit of what a poem is, is an image. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
When you use a picture out of your senses, | 0:24:22 | 0:24:27 | |
out of your concrete information about the world, to bring your idea alive. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:31 | |
The other basic unit of a poem is a comparison, an analogy, | 0:24:31 | 0:24:33 | |
when you say something IS something else, or is LIKE something else. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:38 | |
We're going to be thinking about the things that this castle is like. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:44 | |
If this castle was an animal, what kind of animal would it be? | 0:24:44 | 0:24:51 | |
Try and be really specific. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:53 | |
If this castle was a kind of food, what sort of food would it be? | 0:24:55 | 0:25:00 | |
If it was a pudding, what kind of pudding? | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
If it was a joint of meat, what sort of meat are we talking about? | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
I want it very specific. I want the adjectives in there. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
I want the colour, I want the smell. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
If this castle was a time of day, what time of day is it? | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
Is it a late-night place? Is it the middle of the night? | 0:25:18 | 0:25:25 | |
Is it noon, is it late afternoon? Is it stormy? | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
Is it a tranquil afternoon? Is this castle spring? Is it midsummer? | 0:25:29 | 0:25:37 | |
Late autumn? Is it in its winter? | 0:25:38 | 0:25:40 | |
It is the dusk, just before the sunset, about 6pm, | 0:25:50 | 0:25:54 | |
and the wedding cake looks like a rusty old bus. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
Honey badgers roam the gravel driveways amongst the Ford Kas | 0:25:58 | 0:26:02 | |
with their leather smell, and Rolls-Royces, | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
parked up calm as sloths. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
The turkey has been thoroughly stuffed, the curry is thick | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
with raisins, and if you listen hard, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:14 | |
the castle is breathing like a dragon, | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
and whispering, "off with his head," | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
and, "Save me, I'm going to collapse." | 0:26:20 | 0:26:23 | |
Nothing is real, and the English breakfast tea tastes cold but sunny. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:28 | |
A silver plate crammed high with mussels, | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
chips and lamb chops is carried past by an old, deaf butler. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:34 | |
His hearing aid isn't arriving until Tuesday. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:38 | |
Everything is covered in dust, but the dust is clean, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:43 | |
clean as the silver back of a gorilla. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
Clean as the slice through the meat of a wild boar, | 0:26:47 | 0:26:51 | |
when it's bleeding with red wine sauce. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
Darlings, let's sit here together, and smell the cigars. | 0:26:54 | 0:27:00 | |
Cos nobody outside can reach us, and we can stay | 0:27:00 | 0:27:04 | |
until the sun goes down, wearing old cardigans, eating sherry trifle. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:10 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:27:12 | 0:27:13 | |
I think if you are a writer, you have to live a really interesting life. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:21 | |
You have to talk to people, listen to people, go places, | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
read books like crazy, fiction, non-fiction, | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
watch telly, watch movies. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:30 | |
Simply drink the world into your head, | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
so that you have this huge well full of the events of your life. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
One of my favourite stories when I was a kid was about | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
two siblings who shared a bedroom. They hate each other, | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
and they put a skipping rope down the middle of the bedroom. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
So, one of them gets the window, and one gets the door, which immediately raises problems. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:50 | |
I've never been able to find it again, but it's really stuck with me. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:53 | |
Memory is very important. And the memory of what we felt like at a particular age. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:59 | |
Memory of what was the first kiss you ever had, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
the first time you ever heard a piece of music | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
that later came to mean a great deal to you, things like this. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:08 | |
If you keep those memories fresh you will be able to draw on them. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:28:51 | 0:28:57 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:28:57 | 0:29:01 |