Blog Posts in "neil gaiman"

Neil Gaiman on second drafts

Posted at 10:13:07 on Mon, May 12th 2008 by graham
in: advice neil gaiman quotes writing

In a recent blog post, Neil Gaiman discusses the topic of second drafts:

The second draft is where the fun is. In a first draft, you get to explode. The objective (at least for me) is to get it down on paper, somehow. Battle through the laziness and the not-enough-time and the this-is-rubbish and everything else, and just get it written. Whatever it takes. The second draft is where you go and gather together the fragments of the explosion and figure out what it is you did, and make it look like that was what you always meant to do.

The whole post is interesting (and he says more than the above snippet on the subject of second drafts). Also, it includes dancing bees; never a bad thing.

Listen Incoming links Comment on this post

Free read, folks

Posted at 00:00:51 on Fri, February 29th 2008 by graham
in: american gods books free books neil gaiman

American Gods, Neil Gaiman's semi-Americana, semi-mythological novel, is now available for free online.

I have a deep fondness for American Gods. It was the first of Neil Gaiman's works that I read, having been introduced to him through his blog, and it led me on to reading, well, pretty much everything he's written. I'm currently working my way through The Sandman, having never before really taken any interest in graphic novels... but I'm digressing.

American Gods is one of those novels that might take a bit of getting into, but is well worth the effort. My Dad, after reading it, said that he thought that there were in fact two novels in there which could have both quite happily have stood on their own, or at least as partners in a series (along with Anansi Boys.

But whether you end up liking it or not (I can think of at least one person to whom I've recommended it that didn't care for it) I think it's well worth giving it a try if you haven't already.

Listen Incoming links Comment on this post

I know that feeling

Posted at 11:34:56 on Sun, October 14th 2007 by graham
in: links neil gaiman snippets writing

Whilst I feel his pain, it's good to know in some ways that Neil Gaiman suffers the same problems of the rest of us, even the massively inexperienced and by comparison untalented ones (Link):

... I am still somewhere in the hell that's either Chapter 5 or Chapter 6 of THIS DAMNED BOOK which seems determined to be longer than it was meant to be. (You're not a novel, I tell it. You're not even a novella. You're a novelette. And you're due in on Monday. But the story merely laughs and stretches ominously and I have no idea what this bloody pool is doing in the middle of the forest.)

Listen Incoming links Comment on this post

Search

Latest Twitter

Back from Schottland, wishing I wasn't. Seem to have contracted THE PLAGUE. Archived all unread work mail for Monday. Time for ice cream. 2008-08-29 22:03:56 (More)

Launchpad Bugs

Post Categories

10mm 15th of july upload amusing animals atheism august9upload august 9 upload autoportrait bass bbc bird blackandwhite blogging blogs buildings canonical caton church colourised computing cricket d300 d40x desaturated django editing flickr flower forestofbowland from the inbox funny general heysham home humour in the news lancashire lancaster landscape launchpad links linux london lune may 12th upload me monochrome morecambe morecambebay music nanowrimo nature news new site night norfolk norfolkbroads novel novel-the-second observations pendle people photography podcasts posts that started out differently programming python quotes ranting reading reflection religion science sea selfportrait sepia shadows sigma1020mm silliness sky stupidity sunset texture thoughts three hundred and sixty-odd days of 2008 travel tree twitter ubuntu warren ellis, internet jesus water work writing writing ideas

Previous entries

About

Graham Binns is a writer, photographer, musician and software developer from Lancaster, England, with far too much hair, a penchant for odd t-shirts and a magnificent hat. He has been making things up for as long as he can remember and has been making code work for long enough to make a living from it.

He has written one novel, which is in the process of composting, and is working remembering how to write before embarking on a second. In the meantime, he photographs things, since it's easier not to have to make the world up in his head all of the time.