Hi all,
Apart from the lone tattoo query (no, I haven't had it done yet) a while back, I haven't been on here for a VERY long time and want to start a new discussion, so here goes. (Warning: long posting!)

The major reason I haven't been on here is that I've been writing. A lot. I'm revising various shorts prior to sending them out when the Christmas post has died down, and I'm on chapter 11 of a novel. Of the stories I've been sending out recently, most are now coming back with little handwritten notes saying things like 'This is OK - send me more'. Which tends to suggest things are heading in the right direction.

And I was thinking to myself this morning: what would I be doing now, what would I be working on and at what stage, if I hadn't met Neil at the Norwich signing in 2001? Probably, still wrestling with an overblown fantasy trilogy which I'd been working on for years and wasn't getting any nearer to completing. I wouldn't be sending anything out. I might have given up on the whole thing, convinced that being any good at it was something that happened to other people.

To explain...It wasn't as if I hadn't read Neil's work, and been blown away by it, long before that signing. But it was actually meeting him that did it, and I've often wondered why that sparked it off. Since I hardly dared say a word to him then, it couldn't have been anything he said.

I think maybe it was just the fact that here was a Real Writer, who'd done something that I loved reading, and he was....a normal guy. Sort of. And nice. And, hey, I thought, if a nice, normal guy like this can be a Real Writer, and be damn good at it, then maybe, just maybe...

It was a confidence thing, I suppose. The last time I met him, last year, I did get the chance to talk to him and he encouraged me to keep sending the stuff out. And there's been a lot of useful stuff about writing he's come out with on the blogger. And actually reading his work, like reading anything, is helpful. (Much as I try not to be too influenced, some of my stories - not by any means all - have developed a darker quality to them, and those seem to be the ones that are getting the positive feedback. Make of that what you will.)

But it's not really so much influence as inspiration.

Any other writers out there who feel that way? Any comments, reflections, turning points of your own?

Hand-written notes on your rejection slips is an excellent sign...

I found Neil through his Sandman work. The series taught me two things. One - comics could be used as a medium to tell mature, complex stories that rival the best in other mediums. Two - that series did not have to be a constant repackaging of the same story over and over again.

Didn't give me the discipline to cosistantly produce works. That came a couple of years later on my own. So far, I've produced one script for a 200 page graphic novel and a 100,000 word novel. Started working on a new book last month.

On the other hand, Neil's journal and the Sandman Companion gave me some insight into the comic and book industries that was comfirmed amplified by other sources.

==============
He smelled of rhino hide and chemical lemon.

I just discovered Neil Gaiman's work about a month ago. I was recommended [Neverwhere] and just got around to reading it. Fantastic!

Back on subject: As a writer and a reader, I am very picky about what I let myself be exposed to (for literature). Normally, I do not read anything by modern authors (minus Ellis and Salinger, if you consider them modern) because I feel that they lack great imagination. Most modern authors have a tendency to take classic stories, twist them around, and call it their own. The sense of individualism and the very art of it all seemed dead. I have found Neil's work to be, as you have put it, realistic. He does not try to cloud up our minds with the over dramatic use of metaphors, nor does he try to rehash a style that died in the 1800s. His story was real, original, and a pleasure to read. I can imagine that the rest of his work is as well.

As a writer, I was very impressed with his work and it fills me with lavish joy to see this kind of work on the market. Gives me hope that perhaps my work might sit upon the same shelf someday.

-[DerangedElegance]

Neil reminds me that writing something completely 'out of the square' can still reach people, like me. In fact.. we desire it.

So, his existence gives me the courage to continue on through those strange expeditions into my mind, so that eventually I find my way out again, with something to show for it.

Thanks for having me..
Hel.

I consider myself a writer, although I seem to be quite far from the level of some people here (sending things out, dear god, that is frighteningly far...) I haven't been writing very much lately, either, on account of having quite a busy lifestyle. I have, however, been reading quite a bit, and a huge portion of all this reading has either been Neil Gaiman, or refernces to him (like educating myself in mythology and folklore).

Neil Gaiman serves as an immense inspiration to me. Since his stories, novels (graphic and non-graphic), poems (and whatever else he does) seem to be, for the most part, precisely what I want to read. It inspires me to try and create something of my own that could be in par with it. And by this, I mean the ability to write what I truly want to read (something that is alot more difficult than what it seems at first, for first is required an understanding of what it is that you really want).

His writing also taught me that it gives alot more essence and significance if you rely yourself on previous sources and play with them a little, instead of trying to base yourself on nothing but yourself (something which, more often than not, ends in post-modern redundancy). He inspires me to use my imagination to modify reality (and other familliar things) into what I'd have it be, and make something of it. To go all the way with where my imagination or associations lead me, because, more often than not, these are truly the best ideas you can get.

There's a wonderful quality in writing what is truly interesting to you, it produces the best quality of writing, since you become truly passionate about it.

Hooray for Neil ^_^

Well, as a writer who's just beginning to be published, I appreciate the people who write the books that inspired me to write. Not Neil, in this instance. But, in finally locating a copy of "Stardust" and reading it in about an hour, I find that his style is becoming hugely influential on the book I'm working on now. The trick here is that I'm incredibly cynical and less imaginitive, while he does that straight pure fantasy that you have to go into with more of a straight face than I can manage. But here is a man who does all that fantasy stuff and still keeps his sense of humor.... inspiration for us all. Yay, Neil! I named a character after you!

One of the stories i want to write has a Brotherhood of Borges made up of all the fictional versions of Jorge Luis Borges, one of my favorite writers. Neil has given me another Borges to play with, though one with no real personality.

Neil taught me that you can humanize guys like Shakespere and Batman and be highbrow without being pretentious or pedantic. You can also take something that would normally be of interest only to fellow comic book geeks and make it something EVERYBODY cares about (the death of Element Girl; Prez Rickard). I haven't managed to do that yet-- some of my writing has been critized for being too dependent of knowledge of literature, comic books, and Bob Dylan lyrics

in my writing endeavors, i have looked to a handful of writers and their works to help me study the craft, looking for the little tricks they pull to help the story move. none have i studied with as much pleasure as mr. gaiman. even when i take a break from writing, if i happen to be reading something that he's written, i find my mind swimming with bits of ideas that may or may not go anywhere, but nonetheless my imagination is excited. i regard him as my patron hero of storytelling. that is not to say that there are not other writers who have influenced me, or whose works i don't study, or from whom i don't borrow, or who haven't been influential to the media in which i work, i simply state that mr. gaiman's work holds the place as my favorite. in my ambitions, i hold his work as the goal to achieve, if i can someday write something that i regard as well as i do his work, then i will be happy and sublimely confident in my writing. i hope that day never comes.

I read Neil because he's clear and doesn't play tricks on the reader--surprises are one think, tricks are another.

I met him at World Horror Con some years back and he was pleasant, gracious, funny and had a good sense of self. An excellent role model for any writer, both on and off the page.

Well, I am also a writer, and I think that more inspiring than the fact that he is a normal person who made it as an author is the fact that he's bloody good at it. He is brilliant at what he does, not only the quality of writing but also his knowledge of mythology and such. The fact that he made it means nothing, look at Michael Crichton, a New York Times best seller who writes utter crap. Nothing inspires me to improve my work more than reading someone who is utterly brilliant, and Neil is that.

I find Gaiman very inspirational. Aside from his being one of my favorite writer's to read, I admire the way he is not pidgeonholed to any one sort of thing. He writes comics, novels, screenplays, short stories, etc. That sort of career is very appealing to me. I never want to be relegated to one area, placed in one box as you could say.

Well. I got interested in Neil via Terry Pratchett and my brother. We had both read Good Omens and loved it but never really followed up with looking for anymore books by him. Finally, my brother picked up Neverwhere and we were both bown away. (We found the BBC series and watched it too...come to think of it I should find it again and buy it). I read American Gods and have started on the Sandman comics but also bought (and absolutely adored) Smoke and Mirrors. I have a gallery of quotes going up my staircase and his is first (the 45 degrees to reality one in the introduction of Smoke and Mirrors). As soon as I can manage the $50 I am going to buy a used copy of Angels and Visitations. Needless to say, I am a great fan. I am currently working on my masters in history in Vancouver. I hadn't written any fiction in a long time (only history essays but they are fun in their own geeky way) but since reading Smoke and Mirrors I started writing again. I have always liked to imagine there is still some magic in the world and in Neil's stories you can actually believe it. I just hope I'm not overly academic. So even though it is more of a pasttime for me, I'm glad to have that release of creating stories. I loved reading an online chat with Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman saying that they read a lot of history! Maybe that's why I enjoy both of them so much, they combine two things that mean a great deal to me.

I've been reading Mr. Gaiman's works for two or three years now. I've read Coraline, Neverwhere, American Gods, Three books of the Sandman Series, and Smoke and Mirrors. I think he's a fantastic writer and his stories are very original with that folkloric quality to them that just fascinates me.

I am a writer myself, or plan to be when I get older. I would say that Mr. Gaiman, Frank Herbert, and George Orwell are the three authors I draw the most from in my own writing, and especially Gaiman. I love his work and I can't wait to see Mirrormask. He is always an inspiration.

i haven't been a fan for long, but after i read neverwhere, i decided to start collecting neil's books.
i think the thing that most impresses me about neil gaiman's writing is that he has fun with it. it's like wearing clothes; you can look good and be uncomfortable, or look good because you're comfortable. also, it's nice that he tries to make himself accessable to readers. i just have a lot of respect for people who deserve to be put on a pedestal but like it just fine down here with the rest of us.

Just the other day, a fellow writer asked me to name three writers who have most influenced me. I've had a very hard time.

Kurt Vonnegut was a no-brainer. The man is God.
There is a personal friend of mine, Fasih Sayin, who's had a LOT of influence on me in my early writing days.
And I HAD to mentioned Neil as the last writer, but that was a very weird thing to say: there is no Neil in my writing, really. Or hardly any, I think. I pretty much have my own voice; it's far from anything I've seen Neil doing so far (and not necessarily in a good way; he's so much smoother and more inspiring and all that, but that's not a surprise, really). Still, I had to mention him. What my friend said was this:

Gaiman is great, although I haven't seen his influence as deeply in your work. Then again, it might be a stretch to see his influence on me. While he's not a favorite, he's still had an impact on me, especially with the Sandman series. You're completely right about his strengths. He's a good person to learn how to put everything together.

I answered:

This is a fact: Neil Gaiman has a way of wording things and inventing half-truths that never fails to raise the hair on my arms. No one else does this consistently, reliably. I read the "I like the stars" rant in Brief Lives; I read the "the world is made of stories" rant in 1602; the whole damn epilogue of American Gods; the scenes with the dead sons around the dying man's bed in Stardust; and this is what happens to me: I have tears, real, actual tears sitting at the lower edges of my eyes (not rolling off; just sitting there), I get an electrifying sensation all over, my hairs rise up, and I will uncontrollably say "wow, wow, wow". I have no fucking clue how he does that; if I asked him, he'd give me some bullshit answer. He'd probably say "magic" with all honesty in the world.

And he might be right.

I'm constantly striving to achieve these Neil moments in my own writing; it's hard, oh so hard. I think I've done it ONCE <...> (some rambling about my own writing removed) This is what I'm trying to achieve in my writing, and hence I'd say that Neil HAS influenced me.

I thought this could be relevant to this discussion

Neil, to me, is unique breed of storyteller.

I started reading his stuff starting with a small Hellblazer story called "Hold Me". since then I've been hooked.

He's impacted my view on mythology, and since he's one of the few writers that genreally work (carefully) with mythos and the creation of such, he has my respect.

He impacted my life on another plane, along with Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, that comics don't have to be guys in spandex beating the hell out of "villians" which made me confident enough to start up two different graphic novels.

other than that, he's one of the people I can point to that is often overlooked in the grand scheme of literature.

which is nothing but an inspiration.

Can these graphic novels be read anywhere?

quote:

Originally posted by Bringa:
Can these graphic novels be read anywhere?

Currently in the process of finding artists due to being creator owned comics.

The scripts are finished.

and I've been given some go ahead, but I've been told to find artists.

Hey,
I'm a comic book artist/creator as well as Art Director/Editor of Mind's Overflow (an anthology pulp magazine), and I dabble in writing short stories, prose, and poetry. If you'd like, e-mail me (it's in my profile) and we can chat about you looking for an artist.

I adore Neil's work. Everything I've read has been wonderful, and I'm totally in awe of someone who can write in so many mediums. I write myself, and, like all other writers, I'm always looking for ways to improve. Neil inspires me to carry on with whatever it may be that I'm working on, and even though I'm only 18, I feel that I need to write to get satisfaction out of life.

quote:

he's one of the people I can point to that is often overlooked in the grand scheme of literature

And that is so true. Where I live, I don't know anyone who's even heard of Neil, which is a bloody shame...I think they're all missing out!