a writer's advice

Back in the days when I wrote things, I used to much prefer writing poems to short stories. For some reason I got the rhythm and structure and stuff of poems but I could never flesh out a story properly. All the characters were sucky and really, if I'm being honest, just reflections of me. Narcissist much? Yes. I admit it. Absolutely.

So today, when I was reading Neil Gaiman's blog (which is a fantabulous blog and one that I go to almost everyday and really wish he posted everyday...) one of his readers asked him about characters and this was his response:

When I was a young writer I would come up with stories, and then put characters into them. And the character would often feel like, in Thurber's words, "a mere device".

I think the breakthrough for me came when I started writing comics -- because I believed in them. Because sometimes I would be using characters I hadn't created, but simply cared about. And over the next few years I learned that if you cared enough about a character, what happened to them was interesting.

I'm not sure that's much of an aphorism, but it's important to care about them, about who they are and what they do. And (for me) for them to be people I would want to spend time with -- I don't really care who's side they are on, and they can be monstrous on the outside or, worse, on the inside, but you have to want to spend time with them. If you met one of these characters socially would you talk to them, or make an excuse and flee?

(As a sidenote, I think the years I spent as a journalist doing interviews for magazines really helped as well. I learned a lot about speech patterns, and ways of describing people, and letting their words describe them. But more importantly, I learned that if you are actually interested, and not faking it, people will tell you anything, and you will take pleasure in their company. So talk to people, especially people you would normally avoid talking to. Find out their stories. Figure out how you would put them into stories, if you would, or just describe them with a few words.)

And honestly, I feel like I've learnt more from those few paragraphs than all the hours of discussion in university. Maybe it's time to put the advice to good use. Short stories... eek. Scary. Fun.

God bless all writers, but especially Neil.