Writing Tips Learned From Neil Gaiman

You love American Gods, don’t you?

I found it a great book too. Neil Gaiman has managed to create an awesome story, full of interesting characters.

I’ve been very curious about Neil’s work and decided to take part in his storytelling masterclass. Here’s what I had learned.

Write to express, not to impress

Be honest about your writing. People react very well to sincerity. Try to make characters as real as you can. As a writer, you describe yourself. Use everything you know to your advantage, create a credible and real narrative.

Focus on the character’s emotions and avoid technical mistakes. You don’t want your characters to have flaws you didn’t plan.

Don’t expect inspiration to strike you out of the blue

Instead of waiting for the right moment, build a lot of habits that will help you stay inspired. Store all that inspiration in a safe place. Be ready to introduce everything in your story, when needed.

Always ask “What happens if?” and “What happens next?”. These two powerful questions will help you create better stories.

Love the writing process itself

Don’t put extra pressure on yourself. You don’t have to do everything well from the beginning.

Keep writing even when you cannot perform well. By taking out the bad ideas, you will make rooms for new ones. Use bad writing as a learning process.

Repairing your texts provides a great learning opportunity. You cannot learn how to write better if you do not write.

How do you keep the reader involved

There are no rules you can break. do anything you think of to keep your reader captive in the text.

Start the text with a clear topic in your mind and focus on your intrigue. Don’t avoid inserting conflicts in your stories.

Keep in mind that the desires of your characters are the motors of the story. The greater your characters are, the better your story is.

How to start writing

The best way to start is to write short stories. mute the inner critic and start writing. You’ll have enough time to correct your text afterward.

Don’t worry if you have a lot of directions in which you can continue the story. After you had written 3/4 of it, you will still have one to three directions you can follow. But that’s normal.

The way the characters speak

Try to replicate the rhythm of real conversations. In speaking, people don’t use punctuation signs and often do mistakes.

You cannot write in that manner, but find a way to be close to that. To achieve this, you first need to be able to listen to real conversations. Listen and analyze everything you hear.

About the descriptions

Make the readers imagine by using the “show, don’t tell rule”. Learn to hide details in the text. Don’t write down how characters feel, the readers will figure this out by themselves.

Activate more than one sensor when writing descriptions.

How to beat writer’s block

If you cannot write anymore, take a break. After you relaxed, read the text as if it was the first time you’d seen it. Try to figure out what caused your blocking and try to get over that moment.

Editing the text

After you have finished writing, start reading your text again, with a fresh set of eyes. This way, you will have the right mindset to perform corrections.

Closing words:

Do the best you can, but don’t try to reach perfection. Perfection is an ideal, not something you can achieve.

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