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  • The elves came...

  • damn elves never show up...

  • -_-

    i never got any imformation

  • Forget novels, try writing a decent, quality short story and see how hard that is. The advice is true, you have to just keep moving things along and spend the time at the desk, and eventually you will finish. But it is not easy.

  • WOW YOU SO CRAZY

  • the elves only show up when you take large doses of Psilocybin mushrooms. But Neil Gaiman seems to have an already expanded mind so drugs are probably useless to him.

  • I've only ever had the opposite kind of elves. I'd go to sleep after writing something brilliant, amazing, something that would change the world! I'd wake up with a lot of crap on the page and an empty bottle of whiskey. The elves ruined my work! $#@%)*$@% Elves...

  • My elves were is not connected enough to my family name, so I is left out. What you do about this fucked kid, eh?

  • Thanks Neil

  • This was extremely special needs kind of stupid

  • Scientologist scum. :'(

  • It's true that the most important thing is to begin and the then continue to do the hard work.

  • It's true that the most important thing is to begin and the then continue to do the hardd work.

  • I... I think I love him.

  • "The Elves that Come in the Night and Finish Your Stories For You."

    I think I just found Neil's next Doctor Who episode.

  • Damn...that was good advice

  • damn! i trusted those elves

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  • sweetness! XD this could really help me out with the book im writting... i just hope it turns out great

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  • Neil is not gay man

  • Oh the elves.

  • This is a great advice. And you know what I discovered? A broken heart, nowdays, is printed in various novels and awarded with literature awards. It's interesting, my opinion.

  • I'm waiting for those elves. They shown up. I think they are on strike.

  • American Gods. Read it.

  • This man is a God.

  • @SupportRonPaul2012 Get the fuck out of here retard. 99% of you Paulbots haven't even read the constitution. Ron Paul relies on the support of a huge number of ignorant, politically misinformed kids that get their political education from YouTube documentaries. One of my favorite things to do in the world is approach a Ron Paul supporter and say, "Name six of the founding fathers." And you know what? They never can.

  • @SupportRonPaul2012 This is a video where Neil Gaiman is giving advice for writers. Most of us writers and artistic nuts are politically indifferent. So fuck off, and let us be our nerdy little selves.

  • There are now 10 that didn't like this video. I don't see why there some good advice there but sometimes it's so difficult to find what to write about.

  • Excellent advice!  The secret is: keep writing!

  • Well it's about time someone took the time to BELIEVE in the brilliance of young writers! Thanks for sharing, Neil!

    Caleb Breakey

    Refining Young Writers into Rockstars

  • I am currently writing a story,I just suck =( Its Basing on my life

  • Ah, Neil Gaiman: my muse.

  • Blah-blah-blah. They say the same crap. Read. Write. Submit. What of it? We all know this.

  • @JeffersonDinedAlone It isn't crap. It's the truth. If it sounds a little shopworn, it's because the truth apparently can't be repeated often enough, when there are always people looking for magic alternatives.

  • @manthasagittarius If you want to do something, you do it. Pretty self-explanatory. For anything.

  • @JeffersonDinedAlone Perhaps for you, on good days. Ever teach writing? 

  • i would really like to meet this man =)

  • @impartialSanity I concur. I am one of the rare I guess you can say. Imagination is a great thing to have when writing. Yet, as I imagine worlds and characters, I also feel the suspense, humor and etc. when I do write as well. Even my publisher is amazed at how I can think and have feelings and emotions towards what I write. And how I write that into my book or poetry. Don't get me wrong though. I do agree with what you said. You do have to live in order to write. And write in order to live.

  • Thank you, Neil <3

  • I don't need to write to write. I got a muses scroll and se gave me the ideas but then i didn't feel like writing them down so i made a pact with shakespeare so he got all the ideas but i got half the credit. I tried getting the elves to help me, but I wanted plays, not songs, and sonnets not free verse. I don't know why modern elves are so fond of free verse, but they are, so I have a muse and a bard instead of a night-elf.

  • Go get your heart broken?!?!? What a sadist.

  • @redeemerslove Actually, he's completely correct. Something like that helps stir up emotions and give experience and such.

  • @sauske772 Look up the term utilitarianism. USING feelings to write? He is a sadist.

  • @redeemerslove You cannot write about feelings convincingly unless you've had them. This doesn't mean he WANTS you to experience loss of any sort, or to go find ways to hurt yourself in order to write, but that he wants you to LIVE. Being an active participant in life gives you such a rich pool of experience to draw from; being passive, not really risking anything or trying anything, often leaves you empty. Some people get by on pure imagination, but they're very rare indeed.

  • @ImpartialSanity He said to go out and get your heart broken. As a certified counselor, I can say that is sadistic. You WANT someone to get their heart broken? I WANT them to have a good, peaceful life. There is alot of sickness in some writers.

  • @redeemerslove I would hope that a certified counselor would be capable of distinguishing between a literal command/suggestion and an illustrative thought. Beyond that, your idealism is...stomach turning. Unless a person has underlying issues, a broken heart is little more than a short pain and an educating, strengthening experience. You can sit there and be afraid of deeper emotions but, for the sake of your patients, I would suggest educating yourself further regarding their importance.

  • @ImpartialSanity You comments have no psychological merit.

  • @redeemerslove Sounds to me like the response of someone backed into a corner. Was it the jab about being capable of distinguishing between something literal and something illustrative? Or was it the idea that you're swimming in the shallow end of the vast and infinitely deep psychological pool? How about I go to the local University and ask the resident psychologists and psychiatrists about it, as well as your basic lack of understanding regarding the meaning of sadism?

  • @redeemerslove How ridiculously literal you are. Yes, I know you're a therapist, and wearing it on your sleeve as advertising, but "SADIST"? The man means you can't write what people want to read unless you have a depth of feeling that comes from intense emotional experience. If you read much -- you do read? -- you'll see that the majority of literature is not about happy experience, but sorrow, anger, disgust. Why, do you suppose, people want or need to read that? Go think about it.

  • Neil Gaiman's comic books... -3 He's the most amazing author! ^___^

  • Practical advice for writers, I think.

  • I actually have a staff of elves working for me.

  • i <3 him. best author ever.

  • @loverofbooks111 ...dude... i dont think i said anything against Neil Gaiman... i think you replied to the wrong person O_o

  • @darkestnights77 i did i did i did and im so sorry! thats why i removed the comment! im really sorry! :( total mistake i swear!

  • @loverofbooks111 haha, that's ok :) just be more careful next time ^_^

  • @darkestnights77 will do :)

  • Finally somebody who knows something. I don't read this man's work but he knows what it means to be a writer and that is "to live." Go out and live in the real world. Then you have something to write about.

  • Neil Gaiman is creepily and hilariously awesome...

  • I've met those elves, they are mean.

  • I've never read anything by this guy, but I'd say that's all excellent advice. I may have to pick something by him up now. He seems cool.

  • @MckyMseNTarotCrds If you haven't read any of his books yet I recommend Coraline. It is one of the most chilling books I've ever read that left me reeling days after returning it to the library. It was that amazing.

  • @EeveelutionStorm Is it a novel or a graphic novel? If I'm thinking of the same person, I actually mentioned this guy to my gf shortly after viewing this clip and leaving my comment. She knows all the "new" writers. All I ever seem to read are people that have been dead for twenty years. I'm thinking I remember her telling me Gaiman writes graphic novels. Is that what Coraline is? Yes, of course I could just look it up online; but you brought it up, so tell me, haha.

  • @MckyMseNTarotCrds It's both. It's a novel AND a graphic novel. I've only read the novel but it is amazing. It's hard to find though. Check the lcoal libraries. He writes a lot of stuff. Kids, books, teens books, graphic novels, horror novels ect. Basically anything goes with him.

  • @EeveelutionStorm Thanks. I do read a lot of short stories by living authors but I could probably count on my hands the living authors I've read entire books by. (King, Murikami, Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates, a few more I guess). I'm an avid reader, but it always seems to be the old stuff. Oh, the Jonathons, Lethem and Foer. I do like both of them. My gf got me to read some book called The Corrections by some "hot" writer, and I hated it. I'll check this guy out, though.

  • @MckyMseNTarotCrds "Hot" Writers also tend to be the ones writing teenage wangst that is horribly written. I also tend to read titles and authors not many people have heard of. If you like unusual books authors I recommend are definietly Neil Gaiman, Neal Shusterman and Rick Yancy. (The Monstrumologist is incredible!)

  • @EeveelutionStorm Fuck yeah Shusterman. I'm convinced the best thing he's ever written is "Unwind". It's such a great book.

  • @sauske772 Unwind is such an awesome book! Shusterman also wrote the epically awesome Skinjacker Trilogy.

  • @EeveelutionStorm It's a trilogy now? I remember hearing about the second book, but I never read it. I didn't even know there was a third.

  • @sauske772 Yep! It was finished recently just last month. The second and third books are called Everwild and Everfound respectively. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL books!

  • @EeveelutionStorm Hmm. I'll look 'em up!

  • @sauske772 I guarentee you'll enjoy them if you were curious of what was after Everlost.

  • @EeveelutionStorm I am curious. Can't wait to pick them up.

  • @sauske772 You'll love them then. Neal really out did himself from Everlost with the next two books.

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  • Reminds me of Alan Rickman for some reason.

  • personally i didn't find this video helpful lol but hey i like him as a writer, except for the fact of the nasty topics.

  • @FlairesTears The world isn't all flowers and rainbows, my friend. Nasty things are much more common.

  • I met Neil Gaiman and I asked him since he was the Dream King whether he could cure my insomnia. He just told me to write more if I couldn't sleep.

  • listen to the man-go get your heart broken.

  • Obviously, the nine people who dislike this are the elves that come in the night and finish people's stories for them. There aren't many of them, they're working their asses off and they can't help everyone. Still, they would like to receive *some* acknowledgment.

  • So down to earth and eloquent!

  • I liked Neil Gaiman but the thing that I can't stand is that when he writes about masturbation.

  • Just letting everyone know that I am a first time published author. My book Rasciss tells the story of Hollowawk a man who literally defied death and now must face the wrath of petty gods. Come onto my channel and check out the promo video I made for Rasciss, leave a comment and if you like what you see than please pick yourself up a copy and let me know what you thought about it!

  • Gaiman funds Scientology.

  • Darn you lazy elves!! God i love neil gaiman so much. what kind of idiots would dislike this?!

  • @14597ojai I liked him but I really wished he wouldn't write about masturbation and things...

  • It's true. As an artist and a writer, I procrastinate a lot! It's a very bad habit that I need to get rid of.

  • Wow. He is tremendously well-spoken.

  • damn he reminds me of snape

  • @Yunero id call him the anti-snape. physically and audibly like him in every way, but incredibly nice

  • @Yunero yeah hes so alan rickmans little brother lol x

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  • Ive read American Gods and Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and I was blown away what's the advice Stephenie Meyer giving to young writers write your dreams?

  • Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and Stephenie Meyer all giving us writing advice. Hilarious.

  • @HardforJesus Well, they're all getting paid, so their advice can't be completely without merit.

  • @CaeFromMidnight Sort of like a hooker telling us how to avoid VD.

  • who are these 8 wankers who disliked this?

  • @TheGreyhoundBoy wannabe writers who don't like having their hypocrisy exposed

  • @TheGreyhoundBoy ppl who want to hear something unique.

  • @TheGreyhoundBoy The same one who disliked what you said.

  • @TheGreyhoundBoy Let's hope it's only due to the poor quality of the video.

  • @TheGreyhoundBoy ... Perhaps they, the illiterate.

  • Mhm.. I am a young writer who writes short stories and full novels of which I have had some of my short stories published to small teen magazines. And other times have been pushed away. for I know at the time my Grammar wasn't the best (It still isn't the best) I have a dream, and that is to continue on writing. I take classes to better my skills, I take a lot to hoist myself high above. I really truly love his mythological novels the best(American gods, and The anansi brothers)

  • coraline was creepy and awesome SO HE WIIINNNSSS! yay

  • I'm a college student and I developed a website--chainwrite, a collaborative writing website, to try and promote writing creativity for all people in a fun way. I hope for it to bring out the great imagination that lies within all people. Especially the ones who are ashamed to show it.

  • Neil Gaiman is one of my inspirations. :)

  • Neil Gaiman is actually the Sandman.

  • @kornflayx So true!

  • so true. I have just finished an MA in creative writing and most of my classmates, were potentially good writers but had nothing really interesting to say because they hadn't lived a lot.

  • i write horror/tragedy/fantasy kinda genre

    the characters are alwais dramadic

  • Neil and all his works have been my inspirations to be a writer. to seek that individual power to create beautiful worlds with wonders sentients, and by that same token, destroy them.

  • If the elves won't do it, can I pay the gnomes to? Elves...you stuck up bastards

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  • @jerrynog Roll up a Neil Gaiman novel and plug up that distended bile duct. Just kidding! :) Yeah you are soooooo right. Preach! I , like you, am simply transposing my own insecurities via the intertron. Love to love you.

  • nobody can't write a book, if he didn't read a book before

  • he's awesome.

  • build it word by word, that's a joke right? is he on about automatic writing

  • we found a reincarnation - pale house

  • build a what as big as bavaria...? A house? Out of matchsticks?

    i can't hear what he sez there

  • 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.  Such good, and true, advice!

  • @njmessmer08 ironically, the one who said that was originally Thomas Edison.

    Who basically stole credit for what Nikola Tesla did.

  • You hear that little beeping noise near the begging of the interview? That's someone getting a text on their mobile and it interfering with the sound waves of the camera's microphone.

  • Just curious : I'm sure that it's not easy to write / publish a book , but what would be an average amount of compensation that a travel writer would make from writing one ?

  • "Go get your heart broken and read some more"

  • Neil Gaiman is the greatest writer ever!

    American Gods, Anansi Boys and Neverwhere are just superb books!

  • @weichiang Absolutely. I still obsess over his short story "A Study in Emerald". That took more than just good ideas. That could never have been achieved without truly amazing skill, work and minute attention to detail.

  • I wonder what his next project would be.

    I hope he makes a sequel to Neverwhere or some story connected to American Gods, like what he did with Anansi Boys.

    I'm currently reading The Graveyard Book, and I have to say, Gaiman's literary works never cease to amaze me. May it be children's books or graphic novels.

  • Wasn't that an outstanding story?

    "A Study In Emerald" was one of the best (if not the best) Sherlock Holmes pastiches I've ever read,

    I kinda wish ASIE could be made into

    some kind of a short film but that would really be impossible due to the plot twists and the story structure that IMHO just really couldn't translate to a film.

  • Yeah, I think it's something that really wouldn't work- at least not as well- if it were done in any other way than the way he does it. If that makes sense...

  • @arwenae

    Not to worry, It makes perfect sense :)

  • i have kind of a curse, i'm not particularly good at narrative, and i don't usually have the patience to write it well, but i can write dialogue realistically without any effort. when it comes to narrative, i'm too tempted to just be excessively blunt and to the point, because i don't like getting descriptive when i don't have to be. kinda wish i had neil's mad narrative skills. X3

  • @whackadoodlydoo Hey, just wanted to mention that adding an occasional cuss word or two in the climax of the story adds more suspense, but I try not to do it that often.(It doesn't take much to offend people these days.)=P

  • i dont have any problem with offending people or cussing. i dont believe in "bad words." and if they get offended, they can get over it. it's a book. they didnt have to read it.

  • @whackadoodlydoo Yeah that's true.I like to add cussing at my most suspensful parts of the story.

  • I saw the view count and just though "word count." That's what 5 digit numbers are to me right now.

  • it doesnt take that long to write a novel if you just keep chipping away at it every day. 500 words a day over 3 months and youve got yourself the 1st draft of a novel!

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  • how long did it take you to write the books?

  • Depends on which one...I rewrote them a few times, but overall, about two years. Why?

  • I was wondering what age you were when you started and I'm also writing so I wanted to compare my speed to yours

  • Again, it depends on which book. The one I'm getting published, I was 13.

  • Yes, I wrote things when I was 15 as well, things that I like to keep buried where they remain hidden from the light of day.

    Writing isn't like music or painting which are built primarily upon technical skills and what is aesthetically pleasing. Writing requires a level of introspection which comes with years and experience, something which I quite frankly don't believe can be simulated.

    Look back at your stuff in a couple of years, I think you'll see what I mean.

  • And you've remained so modest and respectful. Good for you.

  • Congrats on your accomplishment, but I disagree saying that what he is saying is a rip-off. Think about this, his advice obviously does not apply to you. Many people aren't gifted to write 500 page debut's at 15 based purely off imagination and skill. Evidently, you are gifted. If you possessed so much "skill" I would assume you would know you obviously are good at writing for a 15 year old and also be aware that not everyone can do what you can. IF what you are saying is the truth.

  • Of course, all this advice doesn't apply to older writers ;)

  • I'm currently writting a book, if anyone is interested in reading it you're welcome to it.

  • I am! I'm 14 and writing a book!

  • What's your book about?

  • Hard to explain...been lazy about writing it lately lol...

  • It's okay, can you send it to me in a message? I'll send you mine in a message.

  • Send my story? It's only like 10 pages right now...inspired by Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts...

  • So?

  • It would be weird to read in a message, but whatever.

  • what's it about?

  • Its about a bounty hunter that lost his memory and is trying to find th answers, I was inspired by american gods by neil gaiman.

  • awesome! I'm waiting for my copy of American Gods to arive :)

  • Oh it's amazing, you'll love it. I super recommend it :)

  • Sometimes Very Rarely do the Elves come and finish your work for you.

  • I share the information on my channel that helped me become a published author. Go to my playlist and search for writing vids.

  • It seems from looking at advice from writers is you really just have to sit there and get to work. There is no magic pill. I need to start doing this instead of procrastinating and saying I'll do it when I get inspired.

  • LOL i agree with that but watching these videos tend to keep me motivated and fresh in mind

  • What a pretentious hack!

    Neil Gaiman is to writing comics what Rob Liefeld is to drawing them.

  • He is a very good writer. I hope to reach his level of success one day. I'd also like to meet him. He's right, though. You have to just write and write from your heart. Anyone that has a good story can write a bestseller. The words will come naturally as you go along.

  • hey did you write?

  • I need someone to read my paper.

  • Hello. Yes, I do write. I've written three novels, the first of which is being published. What kind of paper are you talking about? A High School paper, a college paper? I do mostly pieces of fiction, but I've learned to edit essays.

  • ok, how on earth somebody can be so gifted? I mean he's handsome and he's talanted these two things don't go together very often. And oh, the way he nods in the end... there's something noble about it. So precious... or is it just me?

    thanks for posting this! ))

  • Here's some advice... stay away from Scientology boy here. Neil Gaiman funds the Scientology cult and lies about it.