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When you're a writer starting out,

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the idea of your voice, of your style is

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huge. Um, you want to know what your

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voice is. You don't really know. I once

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years ago ran into a quote from Jerry

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Garcia where he said, "Style is the

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stuff that you get wrong. If you were

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actually playing the guitar perfectly,

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um, if you were making music perfectly,

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there would be no style." And I thought

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this was such a great quote and

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remembered it and years later went to

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find it on the internet and the only

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place I could ever find it was me saying

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it in interviews. So maybe he never said

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it at all. Um, but I do think that a

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writer's voice, which is huge, which is

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important, which is actually the thing

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that the reader responds to more than

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anything else, at the end of the day

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is a result of getting to the point

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where you discover this is what you

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sound like. And the problem I think that

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a lot of young writers have is they

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don't sound like anybody yet.

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I know when I was a young writer, I

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didn't really sound like anybody. Um,

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what I did was sounded like everybody

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else. And it it's what you do when

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you're starting out. You imitate. You

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find voices that you like. You go, "This

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person's doing something great." I would

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I would look at writers like Ari Lafetty

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or Harlon Allison

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um Rogers Alasnne, Ursula Leguin. I go I

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love this thing that they do. I'll try

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and do that. Was very strange. I wrote a

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children's book um when I was

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what 22. It's the first thing I ever

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wrote.

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Um, it exists only in my attic and in

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manuscript

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and uh, it's not pretty good. But when

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after after Coraline came out,

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I thought, hang on, I have that

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children's book in my attic. I wonder if

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it's any good. And I went off, I found

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it, I read it to my daughter, Maddie,

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who at that point was six or seven. And

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at the end of the day, I sent it back up

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to the attic where it resides and will

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reside until the crack of doom.

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What really fascinated me about it

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was there was about a page and a half

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somewhere toward the end that read like

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me.

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It read like for the rest of it, it read

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like Noah Langley and Rald Dah. It read

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like every children's author I'd ever

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read. And it's all coming back out

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again. There's nothing really original.

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I haven't figured out how to do

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anything. And that's great. And that's

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absolutely fine because

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you don't have to get it right at the

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beginning. You you start out by making

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mistakes. You start out by getting it

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wrong. The the most important thing you

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do is just write, but there was just a

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page. And I looked at it. I thought that

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that's me. That actually reads like me.

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And

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seeing that felt wonderful

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because it was the idea that yeah, 22

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year old Neil actually the voice was

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there. I just had to do a whole lot more

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writing.

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I think mistakes may be the most

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important thing for a writer. Um the

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question of how do you find your

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mistakes is very easy. You do stuff. Um

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the process of living, the process of

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trying to create, the process of getting

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out there and doing something is always

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a process in which you are going to

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screw up. You are going to break things.

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You are going to try things that do not

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work.

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That's huge. Chuck Jones said, "You have

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a million bad drawings in your pencil,

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and your job as an artist is to get them

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out so the good ones can follow."

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And I think as a writer and especially

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as a young writer,

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your job is to get the bad words out,

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the bad sentences out, the the stories

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that aren't any good yet. And you don't

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ever get them out going, I'm going to

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write a really bad story now. I I just

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have to get this out. You think it's a

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great story. You think it's a great

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idea. You think it's good, at least, but

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the most important, and it may be, but

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the most important thing is just you get

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it out. You know, if you you want to

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write an award-winning

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television episode,

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you're gonna write episodes of

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television that

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the critics don't like. If you want to

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write an award-winning movie, you're

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going to write movies that the critics

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don't like. If you want to write

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award-winning short stories, you're

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going to write short stories that nobody

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reads, that don't really work. That's

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okay.

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And after you've written

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10,000 words, 30,000 words, 60,000

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words, 150,000 words, a million words,

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you will have your voice because your

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voice is the stuff you can't help doing.

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And your voice is going to be there if

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you decide to write a Philip Marlo style

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hard-boiled detective story. Um, your

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voice is going to be there if you're

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writing a fantasy or a space opera. your

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voice is going to be there. If you're

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writing um Dr. Nurse romance fiction,

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your voice is going to be there because

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you will have found it because it's the

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stuff that is going to be there anyway.

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Everything that you do as a young writer

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is going to be important in getting your

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voice.

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But the most important thing is just

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writing. The most important thing that

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will teach you who you are

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is you write and you finish things if

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you can.

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I have um up in my attic

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probably

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100 200

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first pages, first two pages, maybe even

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the first three pages of things I wrote

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between the ages of 16

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and 20. And I would just start short

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stories

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and none of them ever sort of went

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anywhere. They I I had a setup. I had

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some characters. I I wanted to see what

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would happen. And then three pages in

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they'd sort of sputter and flame out and

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they'd be dead. And that was okay. And

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I'd start another one.

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It wasn't until I was probably about 20,

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maybe 21, that I realized that actually

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I had to start finishing them.

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And at that point

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the the improvement

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became to use a word Terry Patchet used

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to love using quantum.

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Um because as you finish things

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you start to learn what it is that you

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did. There's a genuine improvement that

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you can start to see. You learn more

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from finishing a failure than you do

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from writing a success. And you

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definitely learn more from finishing a

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failure than you ever do from beginning

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something that is fantastic but stops.

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You can take a dozen short stories by

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me. You could take half a dozen novels

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by me.

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And on the one hand, they'd use

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absolutely different language. They have

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a different feel.

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They could almost be written by

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different people, except that they're

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obviously all written by me.

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There is a uniformity there. And it's

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not necessarily a uniformity of word

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choice. It's not even a uniformity of

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voice. It's more about attitude. Each

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story has its own voice, but the

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attitude, the soul,

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the thing you take away from it,

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hopefully that's all me and that can be

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all you. I think if you're a young

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writer, if you're a writer setting out

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trying to find the voice of a project,

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the most important thing is just take a

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stab at it.

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Sit down, think before you start

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writing, just think what are the most

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important things about the project. Does

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it feel like it's first person, third

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person? Who's telling you the story?

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Does it matter who's telling you the

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story? American Gods. Um,

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I wrote the first chapter in the first

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person.

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It was told by Shadow.

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got to the end of that first chapter and

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went,

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"That doesn't work."

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And then had to stop and think, well,

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why doesn't it work? And I thought,

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well, it doesn't work because you're

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inside his head, yet he is emotionally

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closed off

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from the reader. And I knew that I

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wanted to write something in which right

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at the beginning, you know, he's in

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prison and is emotionally closed off.

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And then he's told that his wife is dead

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and everything shuts down and he is

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numb. He is dead inside. And now

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the book is going to be the slow process

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of waking up,

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discovering who he is. Um going all the

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way down into death and then returning.

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I wrote the vast majority of it in a

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style that I like to think of as

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American transparent.

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Um,

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it's what Elmore Leonard did so

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beautifully. It's what Stephen King when

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he flies sometimes does. It's the author

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is invisible.

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The words are there. The characters are

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there. You do nothing as an author to

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draw attention to yourself. There is a

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narrative voice but a lot of the craft

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of the narrative voice comes

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in disappearing into the text. Stardust

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has a narrative voice. The writer as a

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character and

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the writer for me of Stardust is a

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00:11:27,680 --> 00:11:30,959
completely different kind of writer. The

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narrative voice in in my head. The

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00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:37,440
narrator of Stardust is writing Stardust

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be long before there's a fantasy genre.

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You're not, you don't have any kind of

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genre. You are just an adult novelist

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who is writing a fairy tale for adults

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as people did in the teens, 20s, and

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1930s. They they would do that kind of

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thing. Um,

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so I thought it has to be one of those.

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I like the idea that the writer was

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possibly even a woman. Um, and again,

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you're finding a voice. So, the voice of

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Stardust is very formal. It's slightly

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stilted.

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Um, it's much lusher in some ways and

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feels a little bit antique in a way that

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the style of, say, Neverear, at least as

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far as I'm concerned, is a completely

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different thing.

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they are all

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third person

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narratives.

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Um, but then you can get into stranger

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territory when you do something like the

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ocean at the end of the lane which is a

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novel which is a first person narrative

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and at that point

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the important thing becomes the voice of

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the narrator.

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So, for the ocean at the end of the

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lane, I wanted to write something told

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to us by a narrator probably in his

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mid-40s

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about what he remembers

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of being seven, of this story coming

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back to us. It it needed to be told from

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an adult perspective.

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Um, but the deeper he goes into memory,

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the more it had to be absolutely from a

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kid's height and from a kid's eye point

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of view. So, at that point, you're

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looking for a style that is

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not a particularly writerly style.

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Um, the important thing about it is that

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it is the voice of somebody who is just

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holding your hand, looking you in the

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eye, and saying, "Let me tell you what

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happened to me." Which is a fantastic

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kind of narrative voice to use. It's one

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I've used over the years. I used it in a

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graphic novel called Violent Cases at

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the beginning of my career. Used it in

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Mr. Punch. I've used it in a bunch of

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short stories. It's incredibly dangerous

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if done well in that it's

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convincing.

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Um, you really are just saying to

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somebody, "Look, I'm I'm not going to

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lie to you. I'm going to tell you true

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things.

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I'm just hold my hand.

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We're going to walk together, you and I,

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into a dark place, but I'm here. It's

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all safe. I'm holding your hand." And

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then you walk them into a dark place and

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you let go of their hand and they run

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away. and uh

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leaving the person just going, "Oh my

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gosh, I thought I trusted things. I

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thought I knew what was going on and I

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really don't." Um, so if somebody were

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imitating me, probably that would be

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that particular style is a would be a

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fun one to go in and imitate.