"You have a million bad drawings in your pencil, and your work as an artist is to get the bad ones out so you can make way for the good ones." I love that so much

Great job pointing out that Brandon Sanderson and Neil both said "Characters get what they need, not what they want." That really stood out. The whole idea of using mutually exclusive wants as a way to drive the story is extremely useful

"You learn more from finishing a failure than writing something great and not finishing it." This is full of so many great quotes. Sorry, I'm just commenting as I listen, and it's exciting

Giving yourself license to tell instead of only showing is super important. That's one of the key things Sanderson said about my writing... that it was almost 100% shown, and the reader really needs a break at times, or they'll become overwhelmed from the cognitive demand of constantly having to deduce what's happening from the shown details.

I love Neil's MasterClass, I listened to it more than other's. James Cameron, however, has an amazing MasterClass on filmmaking and I highly recommend it for writer's. There's knowledge there to be had for filmmakers AND novel writers.

It's simple, not EASY!

This is going in my 'Writing Advice' Playlist for regular reference. I'm very picky about what I put in this list. As of this time there are only 5 videos in it. This one is extra valuable as it is, essentially, a two-for-one special. So much good material. Not just from Neil, of course, but your interpretations add a whole new layer.

7:26 You get ideas from two things coming together. In 60 years of writing I find that so true. I'll have one good idea but it's not story material until the second idea occurs to me, often separated by weeks or months. Then I sit down at my keyboard and it's party time!

Watching this made me take out a Masterclass subscription. I like the slow speech from Niel, he’s telling a story there’s space for thought and it allows the information to sink in

This was such a gooooood review. ABSOLUTELY love the "compost heap" idea. Such an encouraging sentiment. "You cannot fix a blank piece of paper ... you need to be brave ... I need to have faith in the process." Love this!

When I started writing my first book, I was afraid to write my truth. I was afraid of how people would react to my stories including main characters who weren't white. I don't see a lot of Chinese-American male sci-fi & fantasy authors like me. I'm about to finish my second book and I'm not as afraid to write my truth anymore.

This was a great video! My main take away is his advice on just finishing it. So many decide to give up on their book/dreams. I have been so low on motivation when it comes to continuing on my new writing journey, but this really got me motivated. Less nintendo switch & netflixing and more writing & nature (easier typed than done)!

I feel like the key to showing vs telling is developing the ability to recognize when you are doing each. Once you can do that, you can make the decision as to which feels right for the given situation. The problem with beginning writers, such as myself, is that we haven't yet developed that ability. So then we tend to lean too heavily on telling (because it's the easiest). Anyway, just my opinion. Awesome video! Thanks for sharing.

The final-ish thoughts on experiencing life is spot-on. Over half of my characters and plot are inspired from people and events I've seen, watched, heard about or known.

Thank you for doing this video! Definitely what I needed to hear right now. Want to go write now 🤣

Fantastic. Thank you so much for making this.

Ridiculously inspiring. You chose some amazing moments. I'm very grateful you shared them. When he points out that you will need every single person you ever met and everything you experienced. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he's also good at talking.

Really great video! Thanks so much for putting all that work in to summarise his thoughts!

Awesome video! I really needed this! Thank you! Cannot wait to take Neil Gaiman's Master Class myself. I'm 7.000 words away from finishing the first draft of my second novel which on the last pages is really tough. But I feel super excited and inspired now :D

Loved this very well done!

I have rarely left a comment on youtube videos, and I've watched a couple of yours now. Your comments on Brandon Sanderson's lectures led me to watch his entire lecture series, and start consuming authorship content for the last few weeks, and even inspired to try some writing exercises myself, which has been an interesting journey, leading me to flirt with the idea of creating my own novel. I'm glad that I've found your videos, and wish you continued luck and prosperity.

As someone who's never taken a Masterclass, these videos are SO valuable and insightful. Really appreciate the work you put into sharing these inspiring snippets of wisdom. Loved the Brian Sanderson one too. Please keep them coming!

These masterclass summary videos are unbelievably helpful, thank you!

Hey Sara! I just watched your video and actually liked it based on the advice, plus I agree on the things Neil had said about storytelling which is as similar as an artist or animator creating storyboards. And to be honest with you, even though I've not read any of your books or drafts, but just by how passionate you are to tell your story for others to see and read, tells me that you are a focused, incredible, talented, honest, strong, inspired, worthy, and a great writer. "You're on the road to greatness!" And as an artist and animator myself, there are ideas all around you. "Just open your mind, look outside the box and take a peek." Have a wonderful day, thanks for the video and hope to see more videos from you.

I absolutely love these videos! Thank you for taking the time to film them for us. It's been truly inspirational and informative. I can't wait to take the masterclass myself!

hey thanks for taking the class and doubly thanks for sharing your experience. just from watching the short for the class, i learned so much. pausing at the start of your vid to write this then to come back and gobble it all up later today. awesome timing btw. you must be in cahoots with the fae.

Thank you for this!

Very informative video, nicely presented. Thanks for that!

Oh my gosh that thing about forcing your mind to go somewhere else is so true! For me, that's what happens when I have to drive all day. After a few hours, I always have some kind of mental breakthrough about something I didn't even realize was on my mind. Thank you so much for finding this valuable information and sharing it! Your channel is awesome

i’m going to take this masterclass! thank you so much for the review

I love, love this. Thank you for taking the lonely feeling away that chasing my dreams can make me feel sometimes.

If you don’t make the thing, if you don’t write that first novel, then, you can’t get better. Writing is iterative. One has to rewrite one’s brain to become good, to become efficient, to become productive, and with each successive iteration, one becomes better. To become clever.

I appreciate you sharing this. The passion shows.

This is genius! Please do more of these masterclass reviews :)

Thank you for this. You not only earned a sub but helped me realize what I'm saying in my current wip.

Thank you for this

This was a really, really helpful video. Thanks for making this.

Stumbled across your video today and watched it all the way through. Thank you so much for all the effort in taking the time to share your thoughts and insights.

Thanks for the run down, Sara. I found all the talk about how useful real world experiences can shape ones story interesting and how I have to find compromises for that in my writing. I have SDAM(Severely deficient autobiographical memory) and aphantasia which makes it hard to take things from my life as I simply dont remember them in any vivid detail other than vague details in list form. Glad yer back!

Thank you Sara for your take-aways from Neil's masterclass. I was considering taking this masterclass as well, but I didn't have the money so it was great watching these clips and listening to your comments.

Very good video. Thanks! Your other videos look interesting and I plan to check them out.

Thank you! I’ve been wondering about this Masterclass for so long and thinking if it’s worth the money. All your insights and notes about it are really helpful.

Thank you so much for this video. I´m gonna be watching it a couple dozen of times more. So useful.

Amazing thanks for sharing. I learned from you, learning from him

Thanks for covering this one! I wasn't sure if I should renew my masterclasses membership for this course. Seems like it's worth it.

This was awesome!

Great video! I commend the time you took to seamlessly include the high-def clips with your insights. Thank you :)

thank you for this video. It brought me tremendous value.

Thank you, great synthesis! it kicked me in my ass... made an outline during your video. .. great thNks!!

Thank you Sara, this is an amazing video! You found the perfect balance between commenting on Neil Gaiman's words, summarizing them, and letting us hear them directly from him! This masterclass helped me realize I had quite a few misconceptions about writing and I found it so helpful. Thank you again!

Neil is the best author on the subject of writing I love his positivity!

Good to see you again, Sara. I am currently finding success imitating Agatha Christie but my current project, Ghost of the Ripper, might be my most "me" sounding project. I am going on a journey with a modern detective named Casper Nottingham as he reconstructs (partly fictionally) the many murders in Whitechapel in order to prove or disprove his theory about who Jack the Ripper was as well as solving a modern case that seems to be a copycat Ripper.

Hey Sara, thanks for this. Loved it, just got me inspired to sit down and write. Any chance of a video on R.L. Stines Masterclass? That should be awesome!

Very good break video, thank you.

Good morning, Sara! I had to watch this video again based on some things you and Neil spoke. Have a great day.

I am very glad to have this summary available.

Kudos to you. There is a sincerity and conviction in your presentation which is compelling and interesting. Down the road I hope you will pass along what you know and have learned to students. You have a flair for this. Thanks for time spent in making this video. The Master Class subject is someone I can only take in small doses as a speaker. In backhanded compliment fashion, your clips and comments make him sound more interesting and likeable than ever. Will look into more of your videos and Touche!

I always wanted to take this masterclass but it is so expensive in my country. Thank you so much for this review, I feel really inspired right now

Great vid and discussion. And as well, perfect physical example of Worldbuilding during Worldbuilding section at 28:57!

A good editing tip: read your manuscript backwards. Paragraph by paragraph, read it backwards so the plot doesn’t get in the way. That way you can see if a paragraph is a hot mess or not. Do not edit for content while doing this, because that will be really really bad.

He does talk very slowly now that you mentioned it - I always fell asleep in the middle of his lessons on MC and now that you mentioned it, I know why. Thanks for the synopsis of notes - this one and the Brandon Sanderson classes notes were very helpful! Long cross-continental flights are great places for writing (or reading boring technical manuals LOL) especially when you are stuck in cheap coach and it's too uncomfortable to sleep and you've already watched 3 movies and there's 10 more hours to go. To look at it from a cup half full, "luckily" I have two flights over 15 hours long (that would be around 60+ hours of flying per round trips) just in November during NaNoWriMo so hoping to make use of those times for writing sprints.

Sounds like the Masterclass is worth it. Thanks for sharing! I recommand reading 'Art matters'. It's also beautifully illustrated by Chris Riddell :)

Brilliant video! This was exactly what I needed to inspire me refocus on my writing. One idea that I heard mentioned briefly was writing the first draft with pen & paper. I may give that a try to kill the editing while writing habit (the backup being your idea to change the font to white) Anyway, I’m so happy that I found your channel, you have some great ideas and inspiring videos!

The best advice are somehow the simplest… which is why Mr Gaiman is so brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing this and dissecting what you have learnt.

This was an amazing video

Awesome! It would also be nice to apply this into building successful stories/narratives around a new brand

“Show don’t tell” came out of the Iowa Writers Conference and was supported by the CIA to discourage writers from naming and explaining systems of power. The podcast “citations needed” did an episode on it.

One of the best videos of storytelling (not Gaiman's, yours!) I have seen around here. Congrats 👏

Hi again. Just finished listening to this vlog, I loved it from beginning to end. It is so interesting and insightful on your input from each time you do a vlog about the master class you took and talk about the authors writing process. If there was this type of info 20 years ago when I was starting out as a writer, who knows how many side projects of book I might have already - unfortunately, you can change the past, so I will just say that I still have my main (first) fantasy book, my first kids book and now my werewolf story. Werewolf project is my main focus now in my current plan, hoping to get 3 chapters down within 3 weeks. Depending if I don't fall asleep since I woke up early today from my low back pain. All in all, busy sorting out my March word count book until a date, then going to start with my new character. For now, I have it as 'Unknown'. And just wondering, would you do a master class from authors like Teas Gerritson or J.D. Robb? Can't remember if you did a Master Class vlog about Stephen king. Since I don't know where to look, not going to Google search because I end up with hopeless info that I am not interested in. Thanks again for every hard work vlog that you do. Even if you do take a long break from UKposts, then go for it, because you have to look over your health and mind. Take care and be safe and keep well.

Hey, thank you for making this video. I haven't finished it, but the taste you present is well... incredible. Also listening to this in the background: The Cinematic Orchestra Arrival of the Birds & Transformation, was worth it. The best thing I've ever done for writers block was to write a description and anything, even it is incredibly boring.

This is brilliant.

Sometimes, wants and needs are two different things. A character changing their trajectory from one to the other is what gives them a character arc.

Amazing video! I really gratefull that you have gived us this incredible knowledge. I have a question: Does this masterclass have subtitles in Spanish?

Loved this, thnx. I think my biggest take away, was to just get the first draft of something done in order to make it better later.

I read his books since I was a child but couldn't watch his writing class. But as someone who's currently struggling with both depression and writing block (so I'm depressed and can't write but I wanna write because I thnk that would help my mental health but I can't etc.), him saying "You can't fix a blank paper" really stood out. Okay, almost everything stood out, but still. You can't fix a blank paper and him saying that sometimes it's okay to tell instead of showing when this is like the main rule of the writer community... I love that so much. He never ceases to amaze me and I will probably rewatch your video a lot of times.

Sounds like a combination of Neil Gaiman's course and Alan Moore's will give you the majority of what you need to get any good story off the ground. Dip into other writers you love to round it off! I'm finally buckling down to get the first third of my new story into shape tomorrow morning. Or tonight if I can't wait.

Hello, Sara. My name is Ytalo (like the italian writer Italo Calvino, but with Y eheheheheheh) and i'm from Brasil. Your classes resume are really good. You deliver the essential information and content in a linear and very undestandble way. Thanks for posting this. By the way, there are something about your voice: the tone, the timbre, they are very melodious. I think this is something that will be naturaly transported to your writing style, similar to Henry Miller and his capacity of giving us the sense of travel and transformation.

You should try Nora Robertsx writing routine!

The best story come from a real place. Not a literal real place but something real too you emotionally

Describe don’t explain is a better wording for show don’t tell

I’m really happy you did a video about his class, I had masterclass two years ago and it was truly great. I really admire Neil as an author and it’s just so nice to listen to him speak, very motivating too. So it was nice to come back to his lessons in a way again, I missed it. Also was reminded of some valuable things ❤️

I wrote in my query, the one I’m about to send out, “it’s funny how writing makes the ideas flow.” So writing what you want to write, is the most important thing to practice.

I have taken that class twice. I love it.

Living is integral to a writers, that’s how you find truth and even sharpen your voice. And in a world of deadlines and endless routines, it’s so easy to just “exist.”

It's chit-chat with Lubratt! I can't wait till you take the juggling masterclass 😁

I am not a fan of public transportation. However, I got a lot more stories because of my travels ... including my near incarnation at grand central; good thing I had street smarts.

The method of going to a school play to force yourself to come up with something interesting to think about suddenly reminded me of a 10-day silent retreat with no cell phones I went on a few years ago. Around day 4 or 5, maybe, I started to let myself think outside of meditation, although that wasn't part of the plan. I started to develop a re-telling of the Rapunzel fairy tale in my head. It sort of goes back to the idea of making writing a discipline to which you are faithful and don't allow distractions. But in this method, you are 'forced" to get into the frame of mind where you can do what you really want to do anyway, which is to create a story, a world.

Thank you so much I always wanted take master class but couldn’t Cause of my budget I’m a new writer trying to write my first comic thank again for this just subscribe to you 😃

His “live life” advice is so interesting (and common, Hemingway said something similar) not only because he’s saying “go get ideas for stories, characters, etc from your life” but on a deep level he’s saying “find a reason to write.” Find something you care about so much that you have to write about it. You look at Hemingway or Thomas Pynchon or even Gaiman himself, their various stories are so different from one another yet each has some basic themes that they touch on in everything. Hemingway’s protagonists have issues balancing outward stoic masculinity with inward sensitivity and insecurity, Pynchon has a severe distrust of authority. These are themes that are so deeply baked into their authors that they come peeking out of the stories even when the surface level plot has nothing to do with it. You don’t have to know anything about Hemingway’s depression or Pynchon’s early life working for the military-industrial complex to find these things, but they’re themes ripped right out of the author’s lives and they can’t help writing about them.

Great video. Thank you. And yes, what he said about arrogance. Yeah. That’s it.

write, finish and experience things -- i also needed to hear that lol :)

Everyone’s favorite tumblr man speaks his words- I am struck to tears

OMG THE Neil Gaiman?! He’s my favorite author!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Neil's Masterclass. I've been interested in it for a while, but the Masterclass subscription price is...intimidating. This helps me see that yes, I really do want to take it and I think it'll be worth the price. (Also, it's only 4 hours? That's way less time than I thought. I can pay attention for 4 hours...with breaks.)

I literally got an ad for Neil’s Masterclass before this video lol.

I often comment that what can be true is true in The Soul Gene. It orients readers and makes them digest the lies, even the big ones, more easily.

As an older man, starting down a pah I started 25 years ago and then life got in the way... I have still had a career based enirely on how creative I am and whether other people are willing to pay me for that creativity (I draw comics). So I am, at this later point, starting back on a path I left behind so long ago. No surprise, if I am watching this video, thats writing, not just drawing. One of the most important take aways here is the concept of rejection. The simple truth about rejection is this, no matter how many times a piece of work is rejected, it just hasn't reached the right person, it's not that it is "bad". Because technically bad is real, universally bad is not. this is why technically bad books, comics, films, tv shows can go on to be cult level masterpieces. Because in reaching the right audience, the technically bad piece of work is loved. My own career highlights this very very clearly. This is where the strength of self publishing, in any medium, si one of the greatest things we as creators have at our disposal today. The ability to get our work in to the hands of an audience that may in fact love your technically bad work. Work that may have been turned down by publishers who, rightly so, have specific standards they look for within the idea you are presenting them. This is a really good video, as many of your videos are... that I am currently binge watching. Really inspiring stuff. Thank you. Edit: I thinkits also worth noting, this ability to self publish is huge for new creators. Because it means you can still reach an audience while your craft grows. Once you are seasoned, facing the rejection of a publisher, and putting away the story is fine. I think it is extremely important for younger creators (in the way Neil describes younger here) to still find even a small audience as tha is hugely inspiring in the attempt to keep going in the vace of rejection. Okay, publishers doesn't want this, i shall self pulish it, see what happens and like Neil (Gaiman) says, move on to the next thing. I really do think it helps people keep going. Which for me, is the most important part.

I've been wanting to take that class but I just don't have time. I guess, I don't have to now. ;)

At first I thought the thumbnail said 'I took Neil Gaiman's glasses' and I thought 'Why?!' Then I realized Neil Gaiman doesn't actually HAVE glasses lol

Gracias. Thanks for this. I am from Argentina and I cant pay this Masterclass.