3 Writing Lessons From Neil Gaiman Every Writer Should Hear
Neil Gaiman is one of those rare writers who can insert himself into any genre and do it well. From taking on Gods and falling stars to genies and pirates, his imagination knows no bounds and he continues to be one of my literary icons.
In addition to the unforgettable worlds and characters he creates, Neil Gaiman remains very down-to-earth in his approach to writing. When asked to give advice or asked about his process, he almost always has a joke to prove that writing is, in fact, bizarre which he follows with very sound advice. Here are some of my favorite tidbits from Neil Gaiman that have absolutely helped me become a better writer.
Where do you get your ideas?
In a session for Wheeler Centre in 2011, Neil was asked this terrible question and had the undeniably perfect response, but not before telling the person who asked this silly question, “Writers are awful to people who ask us [this question]. We don’t just get mean, we get mean in a writer-y way, which means we’ll make fun of you.”
He goes on to give a very honest answer:
“…We don’t really know and we’re terrified the ideas will go away. So every writer I know has a funny answer. Harlon Ellison used to say he got them from a little idea shop in Schenectady…The truth is, I think, for me, inspiration comes from a bunch of places; desperation, deadlines, a lot of times ideas will turn up while you’re doing something else, and most of all I think ideas come from confluence…They essentially come from daydreaming. Writers tend to train themselves to notice when they’ve had an idea. It’s not that they have more ideas or get inspired more than anyone else, we just notice when it happens a little bit more.”
Neil Gaiman, in lovely Neil Gaiman fashion, goes on to give an example how ideas flow into one another, posing the question, “What if a werewolf bites a chair?” I highly recommend watching the entire interview.
The only rule that matters.
In an article for The Guardian in 2010 titled “Ten Rules For Writing Fiction”, they asked many authors what their rules were. Neil Gaiman’s became widely shared and referenced from it as they are short, sweet, and to the point. For example, rule number one is just, “Write.”
The last one, at least in my opinion, resonates the most with me and is one I think more writers need to hear and remember:
“The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell is as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.”
He also said, “Know safely what the rules are, and then break them with joy.” So, rules are made to be broken!
Write things you care about.
“I get puzzled and lost when people start asking me questions about what they should be writing ‘for the market’; there is no ‘market’! Nobody in the whole world of marketing would have ever woken up one day and said, ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ is exactly what the world needs!”
Daniel Handler, his interviewer for this session with BAM, continues his sentiment saying, “…when you’re starting out as a writer, you think there is literature and there is the stupid scribble that I am doing and that there is no room for it. It turns out, there is. It turns out the world of literature is infinite and wide.”
Write your story, and the market and community of readers will reveal themselves to you. That is something I tell myself because, for me at least, writing with the intention of reaching a certain market will always hinder me. Write the first draft, get the story down, yank it out of your head, and then when it comes time to sell it, there are multitudes of other marketing aspects to factor in but as you are writing, just write!
