Finding Your Voice

Preview

When you're a writer, starting out, the idea of your voice, of your style is huge. You want to know what your voice is. You don't really know. I once, years ago, ran into a quote from Jerry Garcia where he said, "style is the stuff that you get wrong. If you were actually playing the guitar perfectly-- if you were making music perfectly, there would be no style." And I thought this was such a great quote and remembered it, and years later, went to find it on the internet. And the only place I could ever find it was me saying it in interviews. So maybe he never said it at all. But I do think that a writer's voice, which is huge, which is important, which is actually the thing that the reader responds to more than anything else-- the end of the day, is a result of getting to the point where you discover this is what you sound like. And the problem, I think, that a lot of young writers have is they don't sound like anybody yet. I know when I was a young writer, I didn't really sound like anybody. What I did was sounded like everybody else. And it's what you do when you're starting out. You imitate. You find voices that you like. You go, "this person is doing something great." I would look at writers like Ari Lafferty or Harlan Ellison, Roger Zelazny, Ursula Le Guin. I go, "I love this thing that they do. I'll try and do that." It was very strange. I wrote a children's book when I was, what, 22? It was the first thing I ever wrote. It exists only in my attic and in manuscript. And it's not very good. But after "Coraline" came out, I thought, "hang on. I have that children's book in my attic. I wonder if it's any good?" And I went off. I found it. I read it to my daughter, Maddie, who at that point was six or seven. And at the end of the day, I sent it back up to the attic where it resides and will reside until the crack of doom. What really fascinated me about it was there was about a page and a half somewhere toward the end that read like me. It read like-- the rest of it, it read like Noel Langley and Roald Dahl. It read like every children's author I'd ever read. And it's all coming back out again. There's nothing really original. I haven't figured out how to do anything. And that's great. And that's absolutely fine, because you don't have to get it right at the beginning. You start out by making mistakes. You start out by getting it wrong. The most important thing you do is just write. But there was just a page. And I looked at it. I thought, "that's me. That actually reads like me." And seeing that felt wonderful, because it was the idea that, yeah, 22-year-old Neil-- actually, the voice was there. I just had to do a whole lot more writing. [MUSIC PLAYING] I think mistakes may be the most important thing for a writer. The question of how do you find your mistakes is very easy. You do stuff. The process of living, the process of trying to create, the process of getting out there and doing something is always a ...

Unleash your imagination

Award-winning author Neil Gaiman has spent more than a quarter of a century crafting vivid, absorbing fiction. Now, the author of Stardust, Coraline, and The Sandman teaches his approach to imaginative storytelling in his online writing class. Learn how to find your unique voice, develop original ideas, and breathe life into your characters. Discover Neil’s philosophy on what drives a story—and open new windows to the stories inside you.

Reviews

4.7

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars.

I have learned it all. Neil Gaiman is an absolutely wonderful teacher. And I am well pleased.

A fellow student

I've been writing for a few years now, but I learned so many valuable things in this class that I can't wait to use going forward!

Tim R.

I loved this masterclass. Now I'm going to actually listened to everything from the beginning all over again. Neil Gaiman said some things I needed to hear once, and maybe I need to hear them twice.

Silvia L.

The advice of experience, given with poetic analogy and a magical wisdom, imparted by someone "successful" and "respected" who doesn't place commercial concerns before creative ones. Priceless.

Rich C.

Comments

Patricia F.

I love his humble, encouraging, authentic nature. Biggest reveal for me was that even he , early on, had fits and starts and didn't finish projects. So important not to feel so alone in that, like it was always a dirty, shameful secret that meant maybe I'm not a "real" writer. This was incredibly liberating. Thank you, Neil. So grateful for your honesty.

2 likes

Clara F.

Very helpful. As a new writer, looking through my own works to analyze "voice" is fascinating. It seems my characters have more consistent perspectives than I do. Perhaps that's because I have more experience with dialogue than narration.

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John M.

My thought was to read an author I admire, before trying to in his voice. It instantly read like a bad Christopher Moore first draft. I would say that is a great thing, but it also sounded like me. It makes me wonder where the Venn diagram of "adopting a voice" and outright mimicry overlap.

1 like

Alanna

I think trying out different voices is the most fun I've had so fun! Being a Ravenclaw I naturally made the homework three times longer and tried out re-writing a passage of an abandoned story of mine as Salinger, Austen and Hemingway. So much fun to pull their styles apart and see what makes them tick, and compare them to my style and each other. Also interesting for me that I found Salinger's style really easy to slip into, whereas Austen and Hemingway took a lot more thought to imitate. Really enjoying these lessons!

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Sarah S.

This lesson is brilliant. I took a bit writing it, realizing how little writing I actually do outside of my novel. Consider myself woken up.

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A fellow student

I love this lesson. I think it's so true in the way that we learn anything in life, it starts out as imitation and then eventually generalizes and gathers it's own attributes or attitude. I love this because I can hear the words in my head of some of my favorite scenes and pin point that moment of imitation in my own writing. I feel that my voice changes depending on what type of writing I'm doing: Fiction, short story, creative non-fiction, etc.

1 like

A fellow student

I feel like he's touching viewers' soul, I started his lesson a little worried of being too shallow for general audiences but now completely convinced he's teaching us how his soul endured his career and guiding us in finding our own path.

2 likes

Patti H.

I love how Neil always makes me feel better about myself. Where I saw failure I'm now seeing growth and lessons learned. It's so refreshing.

4 likes

Arjun I.

The art of 'finding ones voice' is truly an expedition that is undertaken with a lot of baggage and a lot of tools of the trade only to realize that you can only ever find it by getting down on your hands and knees and digging through the muck of your own consciousness. And if and when you find it, the hard-part begins. I particularly enjoyed the bit about the necessity to finish things that one has started. I've decided to write a short-story for a local story-competition. I hope I can finish it in time. After this class, I think I probably will. If for no other reason than to learn more from my mistakes.

2 likes

Nanette C.

I listen for the music or the dissonance in the words. I act out my characters--training in theatre either warped or helped me. This class may not help me. I am loving it anyway. Thank you.

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