Lessons from the Masters -- MasterClass

What I've Learned from MasterClass

Hey everyone! I have teamed up with Wattpad and MasterClass to share with you some learnings from my MasterClass instructors on tips & tricks to navigate writer's block and ways I find inspiration in my creative writing process. MasterClass offers an immersive online experience that allows you to take lessons from the world's best in writing, culinary, film and more. You can learn more about MasterClass here! #Sponsored

When I was around twelve years old, I wrote a poem that I called The Masters Under Masterpieces. It was about the length of two sonnets, had no cohesive rhyme scheme, and there isn't even a couplet worth plucking out and pasting here for you to read. But the message, though coated in adjectives and lofty metaphors, was pure: I wanted to learn all I could from literary geniuses. The masters under the masterpieces, if you will. I wanted to know what they knew, in hopes that their expertise might rub off on me.

At that point, of course, there was no real way for me to learn from them other than by reading their works. And when you only have highly praised, award-winning final drafts to go off of, and no supplemental information beyond that, it becomes all too easy for your impressionable young mind to decide this must've been their first draft, actually. You might decide that these writers are total prodigies and have some innate talent that you yourself lack.

Twelve-year-old me certainly fell prey to this thinking! I used to assume that concepts like pacing and dialogue were all things these writers did not have to think twice about. I assumed their best ideas came to them on a whim, fully formed, with no need to stop and outline. Even when I read handbooks that assured me all about how most writers experience blocks, I used to place "the greats" out of that category. Surely, they don't go through these things, I'd reason. No, they don't have these struggles.

But oh, they do. And they will actually tell you all about it, if you give them the chance. Luckily, MasterClass has given a whole selection of writers that chance, and for that, I am eternally grateful!

When I first discovered this service a few years ago, I was astounded. Here it was! The exact thing twelve-year-old me so badly begged for in forced iambic-pentameter! It was there in the title and everything: An actual class with the masters! So when I was given the opportunity to try MasterClass out, it was a no brainer. Of course, I wanted to. Since I have never been one to tie myself down to certain mediums or genres, I instantly queued up a few lessons from three very different female writers I've always greatly admired: the esteemed poet and novelist Margaret Atwood, television show-runner extraordinaire Shonda Rhimes, and the legendary Judy Blume.

Right away, I realized that no matter what you're writing, be it dystopian fiction like Atwood, TV screenplays like Rhimes, or young adult fiction like Blume, basics are basics, and everyone covers them in different ways. Story, character, and dialogue were the first few things each MasterClass session discussed, and I was curious to see how opinions would differ from class to class.

And they most certainly did! For example, Shonda Rhimes insisted that dialogue in scripts feel realistic, with characters starting sentences and not finishing them, or talking over one another's points. She went so far as to encourage eavesdropping on strangers' conversations to try to better emulate them. But Margaret Atwood contrasted that opinion directly in her lesson. She mentioned how realistic dialogue, with all its stammering and meandering, can bog a story down, and that characters should instead speak with clear purpose.

At first I was troubled by the way their lessons contradicted one another, but then I compared a few pages of my sci-fi novel with one of my television spec scripts and discovered that they were both right, in their own ways. For television, realistic dialogue does make characters seem more human and, thus, likable. For dystopian fiction, concise and to-the-point dialogue helps concepts be clearly understood by the reader. Writing varies based on the genre and mode you're writing in and these two writers know their own terrain very well. It got me thinking about how the other MasterClasses writing instructors might teach on this one subject. For instance, Aaron Sorkin's dialogue is so quintessential to him, people refer to it as Sorkinesque! I can't wait to hear his methods next.

Besides comparing, another thing I loved doing with the MasterClasses was combining them. Since I'm a writer of YA science fiction, Atwood's lessons on setting up your novel's world paired quite nicely with Judy Blume's lessons on effectively writing for younger audiences. As far as dialogue goes, Blume agreed with Rhimes that it should be realistic, and going over examples from her novels helped me evaluate my scripts just as much as reviewing screenplays. The teachings I combined the most were the ones on writer's block.

At this point in my life I am well past my old false belief that great writers never struggle with their work. Still, at times it is easy to think that you are alone in those struggles. So hearing directly from Shonda Rhimes how tough her writer's block used to be absolutely floored me. Did you know that she's convinced herself that writer's block doesn't exist, and that's how she gets her work done now? I'm going to try that! Within the same vein, learning how Judy Blume affirms herself and her talents whenever she's faced with rejection left me with a newfound confidence in my own rejected work. And perhaps most important of all, being told firmly by Margaret Atwood that I must press through and overcome "completion fear" helped me finally finish a draft I'd been putting off for years.

All I wanted when I was twelve was to learn from the masters, and my time so far with MasterClass has been better than I could've ever imagined. I genuinely cannot wait to discover what the other authors and screenwriters have to teach me. But you know what? Reading over that poem again, perhaps I ought to take a poetry lesson next...

xxx

I've decided to give away two one-year MasterClass subscriptions. If you're interested, please comment either on this post (or on my posts on Twitter and Instagram), and I will randomly select and send passes to two people! Ah!! How exciting!!!