Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 10

[armanya]

Challenge #10
In your own space, talk About A Creator/Someone Who Inspired You.

You know, I always tend to struggle with questions like this, because I tend to find it difficult to pinpoint specific people who inspire me. But, the reason I did these challenges in one day is because I decided I wanted to talk about Neil Gaiman for this.

I was gifted American Gods by someone I dated almost 10 years ago - and at the time I had kind of fallen out of the habit of reading, but I instantly fell in love with the book. I went on the buy and read several other books of his (at the time the only other one I had read was Good Omens).

At some stage I found his blog and started to really appreciate him as a person and his insight into writing. There's been many times I have felt discouraged by my own writing when things he have said have inspired me to just write anyway. 

Some quotes and things from him I've found especially inspiring:

Know safely what the rules are, and then break them with joy.

The process of writing can be magical — there times when you step out of an upper-floor window and you just walk across thin air, and it’s absolute and utter happiness. Mostly, it’s a process of putting one word after another.

If you like fantasy and you want to be the next Tolkien, don’t read big Tolkienesque fantasies — Tolkien didn’t read big Tolkienesque fantasies, he read books on Finnish philology. Go and read outside of your comfort zone, go and learn stuff.

"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.

The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before.

Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.

Basically his whole NaNoWriMo peptalk, but especially: 

You write. That’s the hard bit that nobody sees. You write on the good days and you write on the lousy days. Like a shark, you have to keep moving forward or you die. Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

His 8 Good Writing Practices, particularly #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.

His "Make Good Art" Speech, select quotes:

The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can.

When you start off, you have to deal with the problems of failure. You need to be thickskinned, to learn that not every project will survive. A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles, on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it, and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you: appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love. And you have to accept that you may put out a hundred things for every bottle that winds up coming back.

The one thing you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can. The moment that you feel that just possibly you are walking down the street naked… That’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.

I hope you'll make mistakes. If you're making mistakes, it means you're out there doing something. And the mistakes in themselves can be useful. I once misspelled Caroline, in a letter, transposing the A and the O, and I thought, “Coraline looks like a real name…”

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.

But, mostly, I find a lot of comfort in this one: 

As far as I'm concerned, the entire reason for becoming a writer is not having to get up in the morning. It's not writing when you don't want to, and writing late at night if you want to. I'm a fairly undisciplined writer.

Because I, too, am an undisciplined writer, and I always kind of felt that I couldn't be a published writer because of that, so it is incredibly encouraging to see a successful writer who works in a similar way. 

And, for good measure, here are some of my favourite quotes from his works, because reading great lines from other writers always inspires me (plus, a lot of these are just generally inspiring, too): 

Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world. (The Ocean at the End of the Lane)

It is sometimes a mistake to climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt. If you do not climb, you will not fall. This is true. But is it that bad to fail, that hard to fall? (The Sandman)

"Not only are there no happy endings," she told him, "there aren't even any endings." (American Gods)

Fear is contagious. You can catch it. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to say that they're scared for the fear to become real. (The Graveyard Book)

When angels go bad they are worse than anyone else. Remember Lucifer used to be an angel. (Neverwhere)

When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. 'It's all right' we whisper, 'I'm here, I love you.' and we lie: 'I'll never leave you.' For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad. (Midnight Days)

 

And I also want to throw out some love to fannish creators and say that every single one inspires me! Fandom is just and endless source of inspiration for me, the way people make free art just because they love things so much. When you think about it, it's amazing. ♥

Comments

[sperrywink]

Wonderful tribute to Neil Gaiman!!

I remember in college when everyone was reading Sandman, but it was American Gods that turned me onto him too.

I love the quote about angels. Thanks for sharing!

[armanya]

Thank you! American Gods is still my favourite. The theme of that book just hits so many of my interests.

You're welcome. :)

[scripsi]

I adore Neil Gaiman. For me, it was Neverwhere which was my gateway. :)

[armanya]

Neverwhere is awesome too. Well, all his writing is. American Gods is still my favourite, the theme of it really appeals to my interests.

[scripsi]

I have yet to read something by Gaiman I didn't like, and American Gods is definitely one of his best books! :)

[spikedluv]

What a great post! I have a new appreciation for Neil Gaiman because of this Tumblr (probably a lot of reposts from Twitter) presence. He sounds like a very cool person to know. I'm bookmarking this post so I can check out some of the links you've shared here.

[armanya]

Thank you! He does seem like a very cool person. I love reading his answers and posts on Tumblr, too, and the way he engages with fans.