I wrote the first 5,000 words of William the Antichrist. It had a demon named Crawleigh. He drove a Citroen 2CV, and was ineffectual. Proper demons like Hastur and Ligur loathed him. It had a baby swap. I sent it to a few friends for feedback. Then my graphic novel Sandman happened, and it was almost a year later that the phone rang.
“It’s Terry,” said Terry. “‘Ere. That thing you sent me. Are you doing anything with it?“
"Not really.”
“Well, I think I know what happens next. Do you want to sell it to me? Or write it together?”
“Write it together,” I said, because I was not stupid, and because that was the nearest I was ever going to get to Michaelangelo phoning to ask if I wanted to paint a ceiling with him.
If you could hug any Doctor Who writer, which one would you hug? I think personally I would go for Robert Shearman, he looks cuddly and that beard would probably feel nice rubbing on your head. Russell T Davies also looks quite huggable but his propensity towards suits and lack of facial hair might not make it as pleasurable as Mr Shearman.
I would like to hug all the women who have written for Doctor Who since 2008. All of them! I would start with…
What, nobody? That can’t be right…. (goes off, puzzled).
The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes sense and you know what it’s about and why you’re doing it and what these people are saying and doing, and you get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising… and it’s magic and wonderful and strange.
Neil Gaiman (via aquestionofcharacter)
No, look, there’s a blue box. It’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It can go anywhere in time and space and sometimes even where it’s meant to go. And when it turns up, there’s a bloke in it called The Doctor and there will be stuff wrong and he will do his best to sort it out and he will probably succeed ‘cause he’s awesome. Now sit down, shut up, and watch ‘Blink’.
Neil Gaiman (via stephenismyking)
What are your fanfics called? Any chance of a link? ☺️
Here’s A STUDY IN EMERALD — It’s Holmes/:ovecraft fanfic, and won the Hugo Award: http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf. The other is called A CASE OF DEATH AND HONEY.
(and you can read about them at http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/12/the-adventure-of-the-devils-foot-neil-gaiman-and-the-great-detective).
The Doctor Who fanfics are an episode called THE DOCTOR’S WIFE, another called NIGHTMARE IN SILVER, and a short story called NOTHING O’ CLOCK.
Somebody said that writers are like otters… Otters, if they do a trick and you give them a fish, the next time they’ll do a better trick or a different trick because they’d already done that one. And writers tend to be otters. Most of us get pretty bored doing the same trick. We’ve done it, so let’s do something different.
Neil Gaiman (via writingquotes)