I Took Neil Gaiman's Masterclass (On The Art Of Storytelling)

Regarding writer's block, if you don't have a story to get out of you, then I feel you aren't a writer.

Regarding description, there is no need to twist a description just a little to make it memorable. It all depends upon what your goal is.

I was in a writer's group, and people in the group had this half-baked idea that you had to physically describe every room. It was their weird, simple-minded rule that they reflexively applied to everything. And it was WRONG.

You have to figure out what your goal is, and use description to serve your goal.

In Salinger's "Catcher In The Rye", when Holden goes to visit the teacher in the beginning to tell him he's leaving the school, Salinger doesn't describe anything at all about the teacher's house, because it's irrelevant. So you, the reader, fill in the detail automatically and unconsciously. Which is fine --- the focus is on the ACTION and DIALOGUE.

In Steinbeck's "To A God Unknown", Steinbeck provides elaborate descriptions of the physical landscape, and of the actions of the animals in this rural and farm setting, and the animal's actions as a reaction to the changing seasons. It's not just because he's setting a visual scene --- it's because he wants to first ground the reader in nearly every chapter in NATURE --- he is establishing the patterns of NATURE in each season, because the actions of his characters are being DRIVEN by nature, they are part of nature. He's making the reader feel and sense and experience the actions of the humans as being inextricably tied to, and the product, of physical nature and the seasons, JUST LIKE THE ANIMALS. So he sets out what season it is, describes what's going on in that season, and then describes what the farm animals are doing in reaction to that particular season --- the animal's actions are driven by whatever season it is. THEN he talks about the human characters in relation to all of what's going on with the farm. It's not just some random act of "describing the setting".

Hearing this guy spew this BS is helping me to realize the best way to learn to write is to reason everything through on your own, and to never listen to these ridiculous rules of thumb.

He clearly doesn't understand the idea of "show don't tell". He doesn't get it. It's not a random decision, and the approach shouldn't be that "you are God" and YOU decide based upon your whim or feeling. The decision on whether to show or tell is dependent upon whether the action or characteristic that you are presenting is a sufficiently important part of the plot, or the development of the character, or whether it is a foundational event.

So, here's an example.

In a story I'm writing I have a young couple who live together. In chapter 2 is the first time they are together interacting. This is an important chapter that is establishing the basic areas of conflict between them. In one scene in this chapter they are eating dinner in the kitchen, and then they are going to move to the living room and have a fire and eat dessert and coffee while they chat.

I had this whole sequence of dialogue where they discuss cleaning up the dinner plates, getting the fire going, getting the ice cream plated and making the coffee, and moving to the living room. So I was SHOWING all this through chronologically walking through the dialogue and each action. But in the end it took up too much space to SHOW this, so I canned all that showing and just told the reader "once we finished eating dinner we took dessert and coffee into the living room and sat with out legs entwined on the sofa in front of the fire."

In the same story the male character becomes really taken by a painting in a traveling exhibit at the art museum, and he goes to see it three days in a row during his lunch break. This is a critical part of the story, and I need to ground the reader deeply into the fact that he's taken with the painting, the secret reason he's taken with the painting, and I need to show what his obsession is like. I don't want to TELL the reader this --- I don't want to just say he became obsessed with the painting. I want to SHOW this through his actions, and his recounting of his feelings, and through the dialogue he has with several other people about it. It's not some RANDOM decision, and I don't just decide "I'm god and my whim determines whether I show or tell". I have utilitarian reasons for choosing one or the other.

Let your characters go out and bump into things? Let them make mistakes? This sounds like the approach of someone who doesn't know what they are writing about --- who has no goal. If you have mapped out your plot and story, then you construct your scenes to efficiently and directly move the plot and story forward. You don't fool around with "letting them bump into things". I don't know what he's talking about with this one --- it sounds like a half-baked idea.

Regarding the idea of giving characters distinct voices and characteristics, so you remember the character. This is completely subjective. In "The Great Gatsby", Fitzgerald goes to town in doing this. But he does this, in-part, because he wants you to SEE the characters in a very specific way. He wants you to visualize them in your mind the way HE wants you to see them. But the problem that presents is that his characters almost become cartoonish. Steinbeck does this in The Grapes of Wrath. And, again, in a way his characters can seem cartoonish. So they become very vivid, you see them clearly the way Steinbeck wants you to, but they seem cartoonish.

By contrast, some authors give more abstract treatment to their characters, providing very little description or thin detail. And what happens is your mind fills in the visual details. Same with voice or speaking characteristics. If you don't remember these characters by the detail the author provides about their manner of speech, or their appearance, then you remember them from their actions and thoughts. Which is fine. A good example again is Steinbeck --- his "To A God Unknown" is more abstract than "Grapes", it's more of a mythical treatment, and it works very well to provide more abstract characters. Although, I must say, the brothers are a bit hard to distinguish and remember in that story, so he would have benefitted not necessarily from physical descriptions or voices, but simply from elaborating on the brothers more, giving us more experience with each.

If you have a small number of characters then it's obviously far less important to distinguish them in those ways.

This man's comments seem to be coming from someone who feels like he's a fraud, and doesn't really know what he's talking about. it's difficult to listen to.

I find his writing to be mediocre. I have never really read fiction (other than in high school and college), so I have never had the problem he describes of imitating other voices and having nothing to say. I have a hell of a lot to say, and I just began writing, and over about 5 years I've taught myself A LOT about writing. And I never have a dearth of ideas. The motivation to write just emerges from within --- I have an endless font of things to write about. So I would question whether he is a native writer if he struggles to find things to write about.

Amazing thanks for sharing. I learned from you, learning from him

Everyone’s favorite tumblr man speaks his words- I am struck to tears

I am not a fan of public transportation. However, I got a lot more stories because of my travels ... including my near incarnation at grand central; good thing I had street smarts.

Real question... I been watching this video for the last 4 days on your page,

Would you say it's worth buying the $120 price tag or will you continue to do recap videos?

Thank you for this

“Show don’t tell” came out of the Iowa Writers Conference and was supported by the CIA to discourage writers from naming and explaining systems of power. The podcast “citations needed” did an episode on it.

<3 Characters can be everything but perfect ?! Don't show but tell !? x-) ;-) <3 Creating a perfect story through an unperfect characters, decisions, placements etc. x-) <3

<3

Write, finish, read more variety, and have experiences

The best story come from a real place. Not a literal real place but something real too you emotionally

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Neil's Masterclass. I've been interested in it for a while, but the Masterclass subscription price is...intimidating. This helps me see that yes, I really do want to take it and I think it'll be worth the price. (Also, it's only 4 hours? That's way less time than I thought. I can pay attention for 4 hours...with breaks.)

Sara gets access. She’s hired.

'school play, dramas and boredom' an exercise I picked up from YT about desensitizing your brain to modern technology, TV, social media, smart phone, algorithms etc. Is to get a chair, place in front of a wall in your home about a metre away, so long as you cannot see anything around you other than this wall, for 60 minutes. Allegedly for the first 30mins your brain can go ABIT crazy desperate to make you give it something to work on, so visual, it doesn't give in by looking around, if you do and see anything other than the wall you need to start over. After the first 30mins and because you give it no stimulation, it starts to entertain itself and can come up with all sorts of ideas and creativity, day dreams etc. Once the exercise is complete your brain should be primed to be super focused on the next (following) task you give it. This may be like the school play bordum idea. If 60mins isn't long enough, try longer.

Hey, thank you for making this video. I haven't finished it, but the taste you present is well... incredible. Also listening to this in the background: The Cinematic Orchestra Arrival of the Birds & Transformation, was worth it. The best thing I've ever done for writers block was to write a description and anything, even it is incredibly boring.

I started writing because I’m autistic and I felt like I couldn’t communicate except through writing so I poured my truth into that first book. It is 100% emotional truth while none of what actually happens happened.

Nine minutes in - force yourself into a state of boredom, that your mind needs to escape into fantasy. Me - advantage introvert

funny you talking of 4 or 5 drafts when listening to Lee Child saying he never makes any drafts, he just starts writing, makes it up as he goes along and it is what it is. finished done no edits no changes.

Did you ever see Roald Dahl's writing space? It was a 100 year old gypsy caravan, magical.

The concept of taking a crowd around you and imagining how each person would react to a sudden incident is very good. This hit me in real time when covid was announced and my friends, relatives, neighbours all reacted in totally different ways. This ranged from me refusing to wear any mask at all and making it my hill to die on to neighbours wearing masks indoors when totally on their own. It was so fascinating to observe how utterly different we all thought, and still do, about the same incident. Now swap covid for an alien invasion or communist takeover and you have a hundred new novel ideas.

Just want to say this is a great refresher. I watched the Masterclass years ago, felt I should go back to it, but haven't had the time. Your video is hitting so many of the major points I wanted to review.

The only good fetus is a dead fetus, they should be kept in a formaldehyde jar where they can't do anyone any harm

I think it's important to realise that you never truly want to master the art of writing because you want to get better and better each time you write and see where you land. Strive to be better, not the best.

I have taken that class twice. I love it.

I always wanted to take this masterclass but it is so expensive in my country. Thank you so much for this review, I feel really inspired right now

This is genius! Please do more of these masterclass reviews :)

Great video! I commend the time you took to seamlessly include the high-def clips with your insights. Thank you :)

Kudos to you. There is a sincerity and conviction in your presentation which is compelling and interesting. Down the road I hope you will pass along what you know and have learned to students. You have a flair for this. Thanks for time spent in making this video. The Master Class subject is someone I can only take in small doses as a speaker. In backhanded compliment fashion, your clips and comments make him sound more interesting and likeable than ever. Will look into more of your videos and Touche!

Do you write every day?

I read his books since I was a child but couldn't watch his writing class. But as someone who's currently struggling with both depression and writing block (so I'm depressed and can't write but I wanna write because I thnk that would help my mental health but I can't etc.), him saying "You can't fix a blank paper" really stood out. Okay, almost everything stood out, but still. You can't fix a blank paper and him saying that sometimes it's okay to tell instead of showing when this is like the main rule of the writer community... I love that so much. He never ceases to amaze me and I will probably rewatch your video a lot of times.

I was captivated by your beauty for an hour and I think I need to rewatch the video.🤣

How much is the class? thanks for sharing.

I wish you'd shown him on 1.5 speed in this video

Thank you! I’ve been wondering about this Masterclass for so long and thinking if it’s worth the money. All your insights and notes about it are really helpful.

One of the most impactful things he said for me was "live your life with the arrogance of a 7 year old boy. I work full time at a martial arts school and let me tell you, 7 year old boys are some of the most arrogant and self confident people you will ever meet. But I wish I had the same level of even a fraction of that level of determination and confidence

These masterclass summary videos are unbelievably helpful, thank you!

Writing or Authoring is being a God. Not only do you create people. You get to F with them and save them.

Imagine a school play audience full of aspiring writers

Sounds like a combination of Neil Gaiman's course and Alan Moore's will give you the majority of what you need to get any good story off the ground. Dip into other writers you love to round it off! I'm finally buckling down to get the first third of my new story into shape tomorrow morning. Or tonight if I can't wait.

At first I thought the thumbnail said 'I took Neil Gaiman's glasses' and I thought 'Why?!'

Then I realized Neil Gaiman doesn't actually HAVE glasses lol

My apologies for my previous comment. I've deleted it. It's an important lesson for me about subtext. I didn't think about the different interpretations. My intentions were innocent and I'm sorry.

It is definitely weirdly inspirational and as a neurodivergent writer its especially amazing he can tell me things I tell myself that usually overwhelm me in such a way that it motivates me and doesn't burn me out preemptively.