Summary of Margaret Atwood’s Masterclass on Creative Writing

26 key takeaways from the author of The Handmaid’s Tale

masterclass.com

1. Don’t just “express yourself”. Because that’s probably just your ego shouting. Instead, aim to conjure up some curiosity, suspense, and interest for the reader.
2. To be a writer, read more. When Margaret was a child, her family lived in the woods, where there wasn’t much to do except read, so she read tons. That’s what got her started writing comics, then short stories, then her first poetry book, then her first novel.
3. Reading is the most participative of the arts. The words on the page are inert until the reader takes it in and projects it in their imagination, then it becomes alive.
4. Write fast, like downhill skiing, then “re-vision”. Get it out as fast as you can onto the page, then you can go through it again and again in revision. Each time you go through it, you’ll see something different, and so you’ll think about it differently.
5. Immerse yourself. If you immerse yourself in anything, you’ll get ideas about it. But you must do the immersing first. When you deeply immerse yourself in life, you will find darkness, but interestingly, that’s what propels most writers, because then through their writing, they try to bring light to that darkness. It’s also why the most brilliant writers…