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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
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in-nihilo asked:

Hi Neil, what do you think of the common advice of "write what you know"? Does it have any relevance to sci-fi/fantasy writing, or should it be discarded?

neil-gaiman answered:

I think it’s brilliant advice. I wrote about people literally living in dreams because I knew about that, and I wrote about old gods and lost cities beneath the cities we know, and walls between this world and Faerie, and America, and escaping the other world on the other side of a bricked up door where your Other Mother wants to sew buttons into your eyes because I knew about all of that, and suspected I knew about it better than anyone else who could have written it did. Definitely write what you know.

neil-gaiman

Unless you think that "write what you know" means, only write things you've seen or experienced, and means that you should regard your imagination as an encumbrance, rather than as a way of telling the truth from another direction. That would make the world so much duller.

“I tell my students; I tell everybody this. When I begin a creative writing class I say, ‘I know you've heard all your life, "Write what you know." Well I am here to tell you, you don't know nothing. So do not write what you know. Think up something else. Write about a young Mexican woman working in a restaurant and can't speak English. Or write about a famous mistress in Paris who's down on her luck.’” — Toni Morrison 

neil-gaiman

‘As for “Write what you know,” I was regularly told this as a beginner. I think it’s a very good rule and have always obeyed it. I write about imaginary countries, alien societies on other planets, dragons, wizards, the Napa Valley in 22002. I know these things. I know them better than anybody else possibly could, so it’s my duty to testify about them. I got my knowledge of them, as I got whatever knowledge I have of the hearts and minds of human beings, through imagination working on observation. Like any other novelist. All this rule needs is a good definition of “know.”’ - Ursula K Le Guin (read the whole essay here).

ursula k. le guin Write what you know
neil-gaiman

cannot-think-of-a-cute-name asked:

Hello!! I'm so excited for a second season of Good Omens, and I'm getting curious about the timeline. Is the second season going to take place pre-covid, or post? Or even during? I'm very curious to see how shows and movies handle the topic of quarantine going forward! I know you like to keep us guessing, but I was wondering when the short from lockdown would fit in with everything!

It’s set around now.

neil-gaiman

enchantedcass asked:

It's okay if you never get to this but, I just wanted to tell you that Good Omens, the book, back in the day, was one of the first ways I could make peace with my religious trauma, and as I get older and have come out as gay and trans, so many of your books have shaped me as a person and a writer, and now the show and your unapologetic defense of the characters' gender and sexuality and it just really means so much to me and gives me hope as a writer and as a person. I know this sounds cheesy but, i really mean it. Thank you. So much.

You are so very welcome.

neil-gaiman

whispy-witch asked:

weirdly enough, people are asking about whether david tennant has already gone ginger for the show. they should've asked about the fennec foxes, obviously. you did tell us they'd be playing crowley. so, the real question is - is the top fox getting a dye job, or are all of them getting one, or is crowley perhaps gonna be more of a sandy blonde this season?

We will make the fennec foxes ginger by special effects. Or perhaps just put the gingerest one on the top.