So, the job of the writer is not to supply the ideas,
it is to be patient enough to find the ideas.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
David and Goliath is a concept we all know--
an arrogant big dude who thinks he's fighting a sword fight,
and David changed the rules.
But then I stumbled across this paper
that had been written by an Israeli endocrinologist, who
had suggested Goliath has this really
rare medical condition which causes
you to lose your eyesight.
Why do giants lose?
Because they can't see.
They're so big and strong and powerful,
they lose the ability to kind of properly
appreciate the world around them.
It's not just a story about David's courage and greatness.
It's a story about Goliath's blindness.
You can find gold in the smallest of details
if you're willing to be patient.
We're going to talk about suspense, structure, research,
humility, characters, puzzles, and semicolons.
One of the mistakes I think writers make
is they spend a lot of time thinking
about how to start their stories and not a lot of time thinking
about how to end them.
Knowing my ending makes the beginning super easy, right?
It's totally clear what I have to do and totally clear
what I shouldn't do.
Your first goal is to be pure and simple,
to write at an eighth grade level,
but with ideas that are super sophisticated.
All good nonfiction writing is about going out and finding
someone else and inhabiting their world
and representing it to readers.
It is giving us a window into other people's hearts and souls
and minds.
I'm Malcolm Gladwell, and this is my MasterClass.
[MUSIC PLAYING]