Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING]

N. K. JEMISIN: One of the things that I

liked about science fiction and fantasy

when I was younger was the fact that my parents had been giving

me lots of books of African-American history,

trying to make sure that I understood

where I had come from.

But with science fiction and fantasy,

I could figure out where I was going.

And that's the thing that I really wanted to know.

I think I was like any child who reads science fiction

and fantasy imagining myself going into space

and doing cool space stuff.

Books were the only way that I could see myself in space.

And even then, I had to really work

at it because the books weren't putting me there.

It was only my imagination that would.

When I began my career as a writer,

people were up front with me about how hard it would be.

What I don't think people said to me

is that if you were legit good, if you work and hone

your craft, you will eventually break in.

Because you're a good writer.

If you aren't good yet, work hard.

Get better, and then keep trying.

And you will eventually make it.

Yes, you're going to doubt yourself.

Yes, you're going to be afraid.

Yes, you're going to struggle.

Yes, it's hard, but it's worth it in the end.

ANNOUNCER: For the 2018 Hugo Award

for Best Novel, NK Jemisin.

[APPLAUSE]

NK JEMISIN: The stars came closer for all of us.

The stars are ours.

Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I decided that I wanted to become a professional writer

when I hit 30 and had a baby midlife crisis.

Anybody that's older than 30 is laughing right now.

I'm laughing at myself.

The idea of a midlife crisis at 30 is hilarious.

But anyway, I hit 30 and realized

I was not happy with the direction of my life.

And I'd been a voracious reader up to that point.

I continued to be a voracious reader.

I've been one my whole life.

And I was reading books that weren't as good as the stuff

that I was doing.

Like I was writing stuff and realizing, you know,

this is actually pretty good.

And here's this published book that someone

got paid actual real money for.

And I can do that.

I can be at least that good.

So I just decided at that point that I wanted to try.

I have been an educator kind of throughout

my professional life.

As a career counselor, I taught counseling-related classes,

classes on how to go forth and live

in the world as a professional.

And now as a fiction writer, I enjoy doing the same thing

but living as a professional writer.

And so if I can, through sharing my expertise,

make another person's journey a little easier,

or even if I can just sort of help them understand

that what they're experiencing is not abnormal, it's just,

you know, this is how it is.

If you are just beginning that journey, just kind

of learning how to just plain old

write sentences and things like that,

you may not find this super useful yet.

But if you have refined your writing to the point

that, you know, you're starting to look at other people's

fiction and published novels, and you're like,

well, I can do that, or I can at least get close to that,

or maybe I can do better than that,

if you're now starting to feel like the next step is

publication, this is for you.

We'll be covering how to build a world pretty much

from scratch literally from the planet level

on down to the people.

We will talk about individual characters

and how to develop characters that

are interesting and complex for which I'll

be using my own techniques that are kind of derived

from psychology and my own background as a psychologist.

We'll be using examples of my own work

to demonstrate ways to get across information, ways

to explain character, ways to engage readers with the plot.

We'll be using other examples of work

as well to try and talk about how

to become a professional writer and how

to survive in this business.

At the end of the day, we are all members of a society.

And we've all got to cope with--

with that society's problems and ills and issues

The publishing world is literally just

a microcosm of that.

The literary world is literally just a microcosm of that.

The same difficulties we have in finding good representation

among characters, the same difficulties

that we have in our day job workplaces in being seen

and heard if you are of whatever background

and being seen and heard and treated equally if you're

from a marginalized background, those same problems

exist in publishing, in fiction, in the writing itself.

And this is one of the reasons why you as an artist

can help to change that by making sure

that you do a better job of depicting

the world within your books than has existed

in the world around you.

Even if you're able to only achieve,

you know, kind of moderate success as a writer,

you got your voice out there.

You got your story out there.

You-- you helped to change the profession by your existence.

I'm NK Jemisin, and this is my MasterClass.

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