From Neil Gaiman's MasterClass
Introduction
Meet your new instructor: Neil Gaiman, one of the most prolific storytellers of our time. In his first lesson, Neil explains why he loves to teach and how he wants to encourage you to tell stories that matter.
Topics include: Introduction
Meet your new instructor: Neil Gaiman, one of the most prolific storytellers of our time. In his first lesson, Neil explains why he loves to teach and how he wants to encourage you to tell stories that matter.
Topics include: Introduction
Preview
For the last five years, I've been teaching at Bard College as professor of the arts. And each year I get to teach a total of about 24, 25, 26 students. I love the teaching process. I love getting to work with students. I love getting to show people ways to write, show them how to get deeper, how to learn. It's an absolute delight to me. But you don't get to reach a lot of people. The joy of doing something like MasterClass is going, well, I can say the same things that I would say to them to millions of people because I know that there are millions of people out there who want to write because they come to me and they ask me and they tell me and they ask questions and I try and answer those questions on Tumblr, on Twitter, on my blog. But this just seems like an incredibly efficient way to just say everything that I have to say to everybody. What I'm trying to do in this class, and I'm going to mix my metaphors outrageously here, is I want to teach you first of all how to find the tool shed. I want to take you down to the tool shed, and I want to show you some of the tools that are hanging on the walls of a writer's tool shed. And I want to show you what that's for and say that thing there that's a dibber and that's hoe and that's a spade and that's a shovel, and you use them all for different things. But I also want to show you where the pitfalls are, some of the, yeah, don't do that because if you do that, it'll all just stop. So I want to take you into a lot of the nuts and the bolts and the hoes and the dibbers and the mousetraps and the doomsday devices, and I want to walk you through that safely and have you coming out of that gloriously garbled massive metaphor with actually a rather better idea of how to write than you had than when you started. In my class, I'm going to tell you that stories are important. I'm going to tell you what stories are. And then I'm going to tell you how to build them, how to make stories, how to make stories that matter. And I'm going to give you some tips, I'm going to give you some exercises, and most of all, I'm going to give you a little push forward that you might not have had. Hello, I'm Neil Gaiman. And this is my MasterClass.
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
I loved the class and intend to go through it twice more as I like to do things in threes. It sticks better like that.
I learned to keep writing and finish what we have already started. Send the work out to the world!
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!
I feel honoured to be listening to Neil's words of wisdom in his own sanctuary :).
Comments
I didn't know what a dibber was and had to look it up. What a great word! I'm looking forward to the encouragement that I badly need.
I liked it a lot and am excited to begin. This class is a birthday present to myself, and I’m just starting to gently tug at the ribbon!
I love that it feels like he's talking directly to me. Also, I grew up in the Hudson Valley about 30 minutes south of Bard College and I love that he is a professor there!
Great intro! Love it already. Really looking forward to this masterclass with the great Neil Gaiman! So exciting...
It was waaaay too long, Neil. Don't know what you were thinking. The cottage thing - shed, whatever. Good idea.
Looking forward very much to walking along with a Master and gain insight into the craft of storytelling and writing from his point of view.
Neil is one of those fine fellows one rarely meets but often hears about. He could read the phone book and make it sound intriguing. To hear him say anything more is like finding the pearly pearls strung on the pure gold of a writer's pirate treasure.
This just made me even more excited to get started. I love Neil's work so much, and I am looking forward to learning everything I can from anyone willing to teach me about the art of writing. I may not be a published author, but, in my heart I am a writer. It is who I am, I just haven't shown it to the world yet. Really hoping that Neil's class, among others, will give me the courage to take that big step. I don't think I'm good enough, but I have stories to tell, and sometimes, that's all that matters. Especially when that one person out there that needs to read it, finds it.
Very hopeful that Neil will help me tell stories that matter. That is my goal. Based my exposure to his work, I felt he would be a good guide. Hello to others here.
Lesson Plan
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This was given to me as mother's day gift, to remind me and encourage me to pursue my love of writing. I'm so very excited to see what this journey brings. Good luck fellow classmates!