Notes on Neil Gaiman's Storytelling MasterClass

Executive Summary

This note collects the core principles of storytelling as articulated by author Neil Gaiman. The central thesis is that fiction is the art of “using memorable lies” to communicate profound human truths. Effective storytelling hinges on achieving verisimilitude, or “truthiness,” making even the most outlandish worlds feel credible to the reader through specific sensory details, emotional honesty, and internal consistency.

A writer’s primary source of inspiration is a “compost heap”—a mental collection of everything they have read, seen, and experienced. Ideas emerge from the “confluence” of these disparate elements. A writer’s unique voice is not something to be found, but rather developed over time through voluminous practice; it is “the stuff you can’t help doing.”

Character is the engine of narrative. A story moves forward when a character’s wants collide with obstacles or the wants of another character. The most critical question for a writer is “what your characters want,” as this illuminates the path forward. Dialogue is not merely conversation but a primary tool for revealing character, advancing plot, and entertaining the reader.

Finally, the writer’s life requires discipline, bravery, and a structured approach to overcoming common obstacles like writer’s block and the challenges of editing. The writer’s ultimate responsibility is to tell good, honest stories that are true to their own vision while also being open to other points of view, recognizing that human nature is complex and rarely defined by simple notions of good and evil.

1. The Foundational Philosophy: Truth Through Lies

The core of Gaiman’s philosophy is the paradoxical idea that fiction uses lies to reveal truth. This concept serves as the foundation for building a credible and emotionally resonant narrative.

“We’re using memorable lies. We are taking people who do not exist and things that did not happen to those people, in places that aren’t, and we are using those things to communicate true things.”

1.1 Verisimilitude: Making the Lie Believable

To engage a reader, a writer must achieve verisimilitude, a sense of credibility that encourages the “willing suspension of disbelief.” This applies to both realistic fiction (cultural verisimilitude) and fantasy (generic verisimilitude).

Tools for Strengthening Verisimilitude:

• Specific, Concrete Sensory Details: Describe the smell of sewage or the sound of dripping water to create a tangible experience.
• Authentic Emotions: A character’s fear is relatable even if they are fighting an impossible beast.
• Incorporate the Familiar: Ground the reader with recognizable elements alongside the unfamiliar.
• Avoid Technical Mistakes: Ensure factual accuracy in real-world settings and maintain consistency with the established laws of a magical world.
• Cover Objections: If something is unusual in the story’s world, have the characters acknowledge it as unusual.

“What you’re doing is lying, but you’re using the truth in order to make your lies convincing and true. You’re using them as seasoning. You’re using the truth as a condiment to make an otherwise unconvincing narrative absolutely credible.”

1.2 The Mandate for Honesty

Emotional truth is paramount. A writer must be willing to be vulnerable and expose more of themselves than is comfortable, as this is what resonates with readers.

“If you’re going to write… you have to be willing to do the equivalent of walking down a street naked. You have to be able to show too much of yourself. You have to be just a little bit more honest than you’re comfortable with…”

This honesty applies to all fiction. A writer must access the parts of themselves that align with their characters, even the darkest ones, to create authentic portrayals.

2. Cultivating Inspiration and Voice

A writer’s craft is built on a wide range of influences and develops through dedicated practice. Inspiration is not a passive event but an active process of collection and combination.

2.1 The “Compost Heap” of Influences

Gaiman advocates for creating a “compost heap,” a mental repository for everything a writer reads, writes, listens to, and encounters. These elements rot down over time and become the fertile ground from which new stories grow.

“I think it’s really important for a writer to have a compost heap. Everything you read, things that you write, things that you listen to, people you encounter, they can all go on the compost heap. And they will rot down. And out of them grow beautiful stories.”

This process requires a writer to be open to everything and recognize that influences can come from any source, from high literature to modern cinema.

2.2 Finding Ideas

Ideas are born from confluence—the collision of two separate things. A writer’s unique perspective allows them to combine thoughts and experiences in novel ways.

“You get ideas from two things coming together. You get ideas from things that you have seen and thought and known about and then something else that you’ve seen and thought and known about, and the realization that you can just collide those things.”

Methods for Reinterpreting Old Stories:

• Change Point of View: Retell a classic tale from the perspective of a minor character.
• Modernize Themes: Revisit a historical story through a modern lens, such as a gender-based upgrade.
• Switch a Story Element: Relocate a familiar story to a new setting (e.g., Cinderella as a cyborg in Beijing).
• Make It Yours: Infuse a familiar story structure with personal background or experience.

2.3 Developing a Writer’s Voice

A writer’s voice is the unique style and personality that emerges on the page. It is the sum of choices regarding tone, character, setting, diction, and sentence structure. Voice is not found, but earned through practice. (See also: Creative writing principles translated to technical writing)

“After you’ve written 10,000 words, 30,000 words, 60,000 words, 150,000 words, a million words, you will have your voice because your voice is the stuff you can’t help doing.”

A story may also demand a specific persona, a narrative voice distinct from the writer’s own. Gaiman identifies several personas in his own work:

• The “American transparent voice”: A clean, conservative style that makes the author seem invisible.
• The “formal” voice (Stardust): A style using syntax and vocabulary from an earlier time period.
• The “cicerone” (The Ocean at the End of the Lane): An informal, close persona that feels like a person telling their story directly to you.

3. Constructing the Narrative

The core of storytelling involves developing a compelling idea, creating suspense, building characters who drive the plot, and constructing a believable world.

3.1 Story Development: Ideas, Suspense, and Genre

A story is defined as “anything fictional that keeps you turning the pages and doesn’t leave you feeling cheated at the end.”

• The Big Idea: Every story starts with a “big idea,” which evolves over time. Neverwhere began as a story about a world beneath London and became a story about homelessness.
• Suspense: The key to keeping a reader engaged is the question, “And then what happened?” Suspense is created by raising a major dramatic question that the reader wants answered. This is achieved by:
  • Withholding information.
  • Dramatic irony (letting the reader know things the characters don’t).
  • Making the stakes clear for the characters.
  • Generating increasing conflict.
• Genre: Genre creates a set of expectations for the reader. A writer must understand these conventions—the stock characters, events, and resolutions—before they can effectively subvert them to surprise and delight the audience.

3.2 Character as the Driving Force

Characters are the engine of every story. Their desires, motivations, and conflicts propel the narrative forward.

“Everything is driven by characters wanting different things, and by those different things colliding. Every moment that one character wants something, and another character wants something mutually exclusive, and they collide—every time that happens, you have a story.”

• Wants vs. Needs: Character desire is the “flashlight” that illuminates the road ahead. However, characters do not always get what they want; for good or evil, they get what they need.
• Flat vs. Round Characters: The distinction lies in the complexity of their motivations. A writer develops a round character by lavishly exploring their desires, especially their unconscious ones or “dark side.”
• Dialogue as Revelation: Dialogue serves three purposes: revealing character, advancing plot, and providing entertainment. It is a “listening process.” Good dialogue is compressed, trimming filler words and using natural fragments to feel real without being tedious.
• “Funny Hats”: To make minor characters memorable, Gaiman suggests giving them a unique quirk or “funny hat,” such as a physical trait (a coat of feathers), a verbal style (loquaciousness), or a memorable name (Lady Door Portico).

3.3 Worldbuilding and Description

The worlds built in fiction are like “soap bubbles” that can pop easily. Credibility is maintained through small, true details.

“The worlds that we build in fiction, they’re soap bubbles. They can pop really easily….But that one little moment of reality, that one thing that seems to be absolutely true, gives credence, and gives credibility to all of the things that you don’t say.”

Worldbuilding Techniques:

• Establish the Rules: Every world, whether real or fantastic, has rules. These rules should create drama and be discovered by the characters through experience, not explained in exposition.
• Use Confluence: Combine disparate elements to create something fresh and avoid clichés.
• Ground in Sensory Experience: Reveal the world through a character’s senses—especially smell, which is often ignored but highly evocative.
• Research and Observation: Do your homework. Visit locations, read widely, and take notes on the real world to smuggle details into your fiction. A writer should always “know more than you tell.”

3.4 The Role of Humor

Humor is a vital tool for setting tone and often works by subverting reader expectations. It relies on twisting clichés, using contrast, and understanding the rhythm of a sentence.

Techniques for Humor:

• Surprise: Set up an expectation and then undermine it.
• Placement: Put funny expressions at the end of a sentence for maximum impact.
• Contrast: Add a light or absurd element to a terrifying situation.
• Figgin: A story element that seems horrible but turns out to be humorous, only to become important to the plot later.
• Sherbet Lemon: A minor detail inserted purely to make the reader smile, with no later pay-off.

4. Applying the Craft to Specific Forms

The principles of storytelling can be adapted to different mediums, from the economy of short stories to the collaborative visual language of comics.

4.1 The Art of Short Fiction

Short stories are described as “tiny windows into other worlds” and are an excellent medium for taking risks and learning the craft.

• Economy and Compression: In short fiction, a writer should act as if they are “paying by the word.” The goal is to achieve maximum impact in a limited space. This often means starting in medias res (in the middle of the action).
• Implied Backstory: A short story should feel like its characters existed before the story began. It functions like the ending of a novel, focusing on the climax while implying a larger history.
• Focus on a Single Turn: While not a strict rule, many effective short stories focus on a single moment of change or revelation, shifting the emotional charge of the scene.

4.2 The Collaborative Medium of Comics

Comics are a unique visual medium that uses “pictures and the words to try and do things inside the head of the reader that you might never be able to do in prose or in film.” The creation process is highly collaborative.

Key Roles in Comic Creation:

Role	Responsibility
Writer	Develops plot, setting, characters, and dialogue; creates the script.
Artist	Translates the script into panel illustrations, adding visual dimension and interpretation.
Letterer	Conveys the story through typefaces, calligraphy, titles, sound effects, and speech balloons.
Colorist	Fills the black and white line art with color, setting the mood and tone.
Editor	Provides thoughtful criticism and helps ensure the story is resonating.

The writer’s script is a “letter to your artist,” providing all the necessary information to visually create the story. Gaiman uses thumbnail sketches with stick figures as personal instructions to map out the beats and panels.

5. Navigating the Writer’s Life

The act of writing involves practical challenges that require resilience, structure, and a clear-eyed approach to the creative process.

5.1 Overcoming Writer’s Block

Writer’s block is an overwhelming feeling of being stuck. The problem often lies in a decision made earlier in the manuscript.

Strategies for Overcoming Blocks:

• Step Away: Take a break to view the work with a fresh eye.
• Read from the Beginning: Rereading the manuscript can make it obvious “where you went off the rails.”
• Listen to Characters: Blocks can occur when a writer forces a character against their instincts.
• Write the Next Thing You Know: Writing doesn’t have to be chronological. If stuck, write a scene from later in the book.

5.2 The Process of Editing

The second draft is the process of “making it look like you knew what you were doing all along.”

• Gain Objectivity: Before editing, take time away from the project. Return to it pretending to be a reader seeing it for the first time.
• Ask What the Story Is About: Create a logline—a single sentence summarizing the protagonist, conflict, and world—to clarify the story’s core.
• Fulfill the Promise: Ensure the ending provides a satisfying answer to the major dramatic question raised at the beginning.
• Listen to Feedback Carefully: When people say something isn’t working, they are right. When they tell you how to fix it, they are “almost always wrong.”

5.3 Rules for Writers and Publication

Gaiman shares a modified version of Robert Heinlein’s “Business Rules” for writers aiming to be published:

1. You have to write.
2. You have to finish what you write.
3. You have to send it out to someone who could publish it.
4. Refrain from rewriting—except to editorial request. (Gaiman notes this is a matter of personal process).
5. When it comes back, send it out again.
6. Gaiman’s Rule: Then start the next thing.

Coping with rejection requires a “crazed attitude that actually the most important thing now is to write something so brilliant, so powerful, so good nobody could ever reject it.”

5.4 The Writer’s Responsibilities

A writer’s primary responsibility is to tell good, honest stories. This involves understanding antagonists as fully developed people rather than simple villains. The goal is not to judge but to understand, recognizing that “the greatest triumphs and the greatest tragedies of the human race are…all to do with people being basically people.”

A writer’s story will ultimately convey a controlling idea or message. This message should come from the writer’s honest beliefs about the world. The final responsibility is to tell the truth as the writer sees it.