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Here's a thread of the best things I've learned from Neil Gaiman's ( @neilhimself) masterclass on writing, storytelling and creativity.
1. You have a million bad ideas as an artist, it's your job to get them out so the good ones can follow.
1. You have a million bad ideas as an artist, it's your job to get them out so the good ones can follow.
2. You get ideas from confluence, from two things coming together, from things you have seen, thought and experienced. You can then collide these things. Things that you see a thousand times can be viewed in a slightly different way to give you something new.
3. Your job is to get the bad sentences out, and the stories that aren't any good yet. But, you never get them out by saying 'I'm going to write a terrible story now', as you'll think it's an excellent story, and it may be, but the most important thing is that you get it out.
4. Mistakes are the most important thing. To find them, you keep creating.
5. Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page.
5. Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page.
6. Your learning becomes quantum when you finish things. You learn more from finishing a failure than from writing a success. And you certainly learn more from finishing a failure than from beginning something fantastic that you then stop.
7. After you've written 10,000 words, 100,000 words, 1,000,000 words, you're going to have your voice. Your style is the stuff you can't help doing.
8. Be prepared to be truthful, say things about who you are, and don't be afraid to be judged. You have to be willing to do the equivalent of walking down the street naked, to show too much of yourself, more than you're comfortable with.
9. Your influences are not necessarily the things you think they are. Look at what you consume outside of your given craft.
10. Style is the stuff you get wrong. If you play music perfectly, there is no style.
10. Style is the stuff you get wrong. If you play music perfectly, there is no style.
