Writing Tips: Neil Gaiman

Here are some tips on writing from novelist and screenwriter Neil Gaiman:

1 Write.

2 Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.

3 Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

4 Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to
friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.

5 Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

6 Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.

7 Laugh at your own jokes.

8 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 it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

[Originally posted March 11, 2010]

3 thoughts on “Writing Tips: Neil Gaiman”

Never really knew what it was that I didn't enjoy about people's feedback and #5 explicitly states what it is: They don't just tell what's wrong, they tell you what to do.

I think an addendum to that tip is to also not break down your story to others until you've actually written it. I've made the mistake of talking about a story in the past and then feeling obligated to sticking with the story as I told it rather than letting it become what the characters told me it should become.

Also like #6. At some point you just have to move on. Heard that bit of advice on this page far too many times to not know it by now.

Liked these, especially #5, which i hadn't thought about before.

And really identify with Carlos' statement about "feeling obligated" to stick with the story as he first told it. Usually that story doesn't work (for me), but leads to something else if I let it.