Neil Gaiman's Advice to Writers

Although Stephen King's advice changed my life where my writing is concerned, one of my favorite writers on writing is, and will forever be, Neil Gaiman.

If you want to know why, watch this:

Some things Neil Gaiman says in the video:

"You have to finish things — that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things."

"Tell your story. Don’t try and tell the stories that other people can tell. Because [as a] starting writer, you always start out with other people’s voices — you’ve been reading other people for years… But, as quickly as you can, start telling the stories that only you can tell — because there will always be better writers than you, there will always be smarter writers than you … but you are the only you."

Those quotations, and the video, are from Neil Gaiman’s Advice to Aspiring Writers over at Brain Pickings.

(I've made a Neil Gaiman playlist; it can be viewed here. It contains all the videos, below, and a few others.)

Here are a few more videos featuring Neil Gaiman:

1. Neil Gaiman talks about his book The Ocean at the End of The Lane.

2. Neil Gaiman on AtGoogleTalks discussing his book The Ocean at the End of The Lane.

3. Neil Gaiman on the Late Late Show (10th anniversary of American Gods)

4. Neil Gaiman talks about what great art is.

Enjoy!

Photo credit: "WonderCon 2011 - Doctor Who panel with writer Neil Gaiman" by Pop Culture Geek
under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Anne Rice's Advice On Writing

This morning I sat down to write a post on book promotion and ended up with a post about Anne Rice's advice on writing. I love doing research on the internet!

As part of my post on book promotion I wanted to link to one of Hugh Howey's informative blog posts where he gives his advice on how best to sell one's work, but then I came across his link to Anne Rice's advice on writing.

Of course I stopped what I was doing and listened to it. I mean, come on, it's Anne Rice!

I'm glad I did.

The video is only 12 minutes long and you don't have to watch it, you can let it play in the background while you do housework or surf the web.

A Summary Of Anne Rice's Advice On Writing

The first half of the video is Anne Rice saying that there's no one way to write, just write! Starting at around 6:04 she gives a couple of tips:

1. Go where the pain is

I couldn't help it, immediately that scene from The Princess Bride flashed through my mind. You know the one.

Anyway. The idea is to go where it hurts. Find a memory that hurts so much you can't breathe. Write about it. Explore it.

Anne Rice wrote Interview with the Vampire after her daughter passed away. I've often thought that the writing of Interview may have helped her deal with the pain of her loss.

2. Go where the pleasure is

What excites you? Where would you like to be? Where would you like to go?

Write that book. Write what's interesting to you. Write the story you most want to read.

What is the best advice about writing you ever received?

Here's a link to a great article by Hugh Howey: Making a Living as a Writer.

Photo credit: "Untitled" by Thomas Leuthard under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.