Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A Little Writerly Advice - Neil Gaiman

I recently discovered a podcast called The Nerdist. It features Chris Hardwick interviewing various "nerds". Being such a huge nerd, I'm enjoying this podcast like crazy.

Last night, I listened to the episode with Neil Gaiman. For those who don't know, in addition to all the books he's written, he also penned an episode of Doctor Who earlier this year.

At the end, Chris asked him to give writers who were just starting out some advice. Neil had a lot of good advice, but the first thing he said really hit me:
"If you only write when you're inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you'll never be a novelist."
He then goes on to explain that you will never be able to tell the difference between the scenes you wrote when you were inspired and the ones you wrote because you had to get your words in.

So, my friends, that is my little nugget of advice for you. I hope you can be inspired all the time, but if you can't, get that butt in the chair and write anyway!

LINKS
  • Click here to get to the podcast. If you only want to listen to the question about writing, it starts around the 1:04:00 mark.
  • Follow Neil on twitter - @neilhimself
  • Read Neil's books!

5 comments:

  1. Huh. That's so true! Thanks for sharing his link!

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  2. That's great advice. And I need to check out this podcast!

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  3. I LOVE Doctor Who. :D

    I also love discovering cool stuff like this!

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  4. What great advice! I'd better get my butt in chair and write:)

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  5. Love The Nerdist! I try to remember to catch it but now I definitely will!!! Great advice!

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