anoveldreaming

[anoveldreaming]

characters who are so inauthentic. characters who only show what they want other people to see of them. characters who simply must have control over every part of themselves. do you even get it

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one of the reasons why "what if people went on a road trip and it was weird" is one of the oldest story types is that a lot of sense of personhood has been, historically, tied to place. the weird road trip says "what if we went somewhere else, where no one knows us, and tried out being a different person".

Odysseus, the famous liar, goes on a weird road trip & over the course of it becomes several different people, and then comes home & is all those people as well as himself, wearing the echoes of those other people

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what I really like about Pratchett's work among all the other things, is that he basically opens all his books with exposure and "here is an immuable, very eternal law upon which the world is built" and then he spends the rest of the book trampling on that law

"it is impossible for a woman to be a wizard, so we're going to follow this wizard girl's journey"

"dragons are gone forever and dormant, here be no dragons. say hi to this one lady dragon tho"

"nobody can resist elves. that's why Magrat is going to deck their queen in the face"

"everyone knows women can't fight"

"everyone knows golems don't have souls. they all have names and personalities and-"

"all dwarves are men. then they were introduced to gender"

"Death is eternal and unchanging. Let's see what happens when he goes through all major human development stages in reverse starting with his retirement"

All in all "here's this thing everyone knows is true, here's why it's bullshit, here's how untrue it is, and here's how nobody is going to learn a lesson from being shown that this law of nature is bullshit. We all know people never learn right. or do they"

[anoveldreaming]

Hello, Mr Gaiman!

I have decided to write a book! And I am writing it with intent to publish it someday. But I'm nervous because I'm chronically ill and I only have so much brain power on any given day and sometimes it's hardly any at all. So I just thought I'd do as others have done and ask for some encouraging words. Do you have any encouragement for a disabled writer with chronic brain fog?

As a fog-brained writer, the most encouraging thing I can tell you is that nobody ever has to read your first drafts. Nobody has to know that the two sentences they were reading were written days apart. Write on days you have a brain, edit on days you you have a different, less creative brain. You'll be fine. Just keep going.

[anoveldreaming]

You often answer to the question "how difficult is to live as a writer" and say the first couple of years was really hard to get by, but after that you could buy a house etc. My question is: was the monetary income increased gradually or it was night and day after signing a good contract?

Both. My income as a freelance writer increased slowly from about £700 in year one to about £6000 in year two, and probably £10,000 in year 3. But by the time we got to year seven Terry and I had sold Good Omens for £150,000 (and I would get half of that minus agent's commission) and I had started to get royalties on Sandman and Black Orchid and had been contracted to write Books of Magic. There was never a clearcut Night and Day moment though.

[anoveldreaming]

The adherents to true rules in magic are so often adherents to rationality over all-- as if one could ever isolate it from everything else. (At least among those that I know).

Just as they assume there are easy answers if only one is rational enough, they believe that any magic must adhere to clear rules which they can understand. If it doesn't, it's simply not a good story.

Very frustrating.

Hi Mr Gaiman (sorry if that’s too formal). I just finished reading Neverwhere and am absolutely in love with it. On Tuesday 22nd November (which I recognise is soon and you may not see this in time) I am doing a presentation on the text to my seminar group for my fantasy literature course at university. I was wondering if you could share any thoughts, or recommend any interviews/articles where you’ve spoken about the text, in terms of the magic system or lack of it in London Below - the way that what is supernatural to the reader and Richard is completely natural and, to an extent, unspecial to the inhabitants. We see Richard very quickly learn not to question how people can speak to rats, how a medieval court can occupy an underground carriage, or how a man can be brought back from the dead. I found this such a fascinating method of dealing with the fantastical, and so different from most other texts in the course. Otherwise, big fan, thank you for all your work, you’re a big inspiration to me as a writer <3

I never understood systems where you learned the true rules. I've been on this planet for six decades and I have no idea what the true rules are, or even if there are any true rules. I just go along with what seems to be happening and assume that's probably reality more or less and that if it isn't it will all sort itself out sooner or later. So that's how I wrote magic too.

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For all the people who ask me for writing advice...

Neil Gaiman

1 Write.

2 Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.

3 Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

4 Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.

5 Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

6 Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.

7 Laugh at your own jokes.

8 The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

…

Read the whole article. It’s filled with great advice from wonderful writers…

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Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower, Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Joanna Macy)

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Fly me to the moon

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gaslighting someone by saying they're too smart to be gaslit so you're not gaslighting them

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[anoveldreaming]

Passage, by Cornelia Konrads in Chaumont-sur-Loire 

[anoveldreaming]

What's really in that witch's cauldron?

Folk names for herbs

Ass' Ear- Comfrey

Bat's Wing- Holly Leaves

Beard Of Monk- Chicory

Bear's Foot- Lady's Mantle

Bird's Eye- Germander or Speedwell

Blind Eyes- Poppy

Blood From a Head- Lupine

Blood Of Ares- Purslane

Blood Of Hestia- Chamomile

Bloody Fingers- Foxglove

Calf's Snout- Snapdragon

Cat's Foot- Ground Ivy

Crow's Foot- Wood Anemone

Devil's Ear- Jack In The Pulpit

Devil's Plaything- Yarrow

Dew Of the Sea- Rosemary

Dog's Mouth- Snapdragon

Dragon's Teeth- Vervain

Elf Leaf- Lavender

Englishman's Foot- Common Plantain

Fairy Eggs- Nutmeg

Flower Of Death- Vinca

Goose Tongue- Lemon Balm

Graveyard Dust- Mullein

Hawk's Heart- Wormwood

Juno's Tears- Vervain

Jupiter's Beard- Sempervivums

Lion's Foot- Lady's Mantle

Little Faces- Viola

Man's Bile- Turnip Sap

Mortification Root- Rose of Sharyn

Nose Of Turtle- Turtlehead, Chelone

Nosebleed- Yarrow

Our Lady's Tears- Lily Of The Valley

Old Man's Flannel- Mullein

Ram's Head- Valerian

Scale Of Dragon- Tarragon

Semen Of Ares- White Clover

Semen Of Hermes- Dill

Serpent's Tongue- Dog's Tooth Violet

Sparrow's Tongue- Knotweed

Tree Of Doom- Elder

Unicorn Root- Boneset

Weasel Snout- Yellow Archangel

Wool Of Bat- Moss

Body Parts as Plants:

Eye- Blossom or Seed

Heart- Bud or Seed

Beak, Bill or Nose- Seed, Bud or Bloom

Tongue or Teeth- Petal or Leaf

Head- Blossom

Tail- Stem

Hair- Dried Herbs or Stringy Parts Of Herbs

Privates, Genitals Or Semen- Seeds Or Sap

Blood- Sap

Guts- Roots or Stalk

Paw, Foot, Leg, Wing or Toe- Leaves

Animals as Plants:

Toad- Sage

Cat- Catmint

Dog- Grasses, Specifically Couchgrass

Frog- Cinquefoil

Eagle- Wild Garlic

Blue Jay- Laurel

Hawk- Hawkweed

Lamb-Wild Lettuce

Nightengale- Hops

Rat- Valerian

Weasel- Rue

Woodpecker- Peony

I borrowed this from:

[anoveldreaming]

“it costs nothing to be kind” usually true. but not always; sometimes, doing the kind thing costs you time, or energy, or even money. it isn’t always easy to make the kindest choice

consider: sometimes it costs to be kind, and we should all do everything we can to choose kindness anyway

[anoveldreaming]

I’ve seen the Ursula K LeGuin quote about capitalism going around, but to really appreciate it you have to know the context.

The year is 2014. She has been given a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Awards. Neil Gaiman puts it on her neck in front of a crowd of booksellers who bankrolled the event, and it’s time to make a standard “thank you for this award, insert story here, something about diversity, blah blah blah” speech. She starts off doing just that, thanking her friends and fellow authors. All is well.

Then this old lady from Oregon looks her audience of executives dead in the eye, and says “Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profit and advertising revenue is not the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship.”

She rails against the reduction of her art to a commodity produced only for profit. She denounces publishers who overcharge libraries for their products and censor writers in favor of something “more profitable”. She specifically denounces Amazon and its business practices, knowing full well that her audience is filled with Amazon employees. And to cap it off, she warns them: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”

Ursula K LeGuin got up in front of an audience of some of the most powerful people in publishing, was expected to give a trite and politically safe argument about literature, and instead told them directly “Your empire will fall. And I will help it along.”

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This is such a thoughtful gift for Terry Pratchett to give to the people he left behind. When my dad died, I wanted nothing more than a letter. One more thing from him. One piece of advice. One more story and memory to cherish.

I learned in a post today that Pterry wrote letters to a select number of people about five months before he passed, to be delivered after his departure. The obvious question is, did you receive one, and would you be willing to share its contents?

I did. It told me that he was giving me a hat to remember him by. And that he thought he had been good and wished that he had been better.