Dear Writer,
I’m going through Neil Gaiman’s storytelling Masterclass*—again—right now, and I have to say… I’m loving it.
Again.
I teach narrative theory, the nuts and bolts of story, the how-to and the when-to and the why-to. I’m hip deep in my book on it now, and it’s good stuff. I know the value of what I do.
But the thing about the craft is that it’s so easy to focus on the craft and lose the magic; the wonder and the mystery and the things that shouldn’t work but they will if we can just, as writers, learn to trust the magic and balance it with the craft side of things.
Magic is impossible to teach, really, because your magic is different from my magic and only you can know what your magic is. Only you know when you need craft to save it and when you need craft to get out of its way.
I teach craft, and try to encourage magic. And there’s no better way to encourage magic than Neil’s Masterclass, which makes me feel almost giggly with excitement when I revisit it. Highly recommended.
Everything,
L
*I’m not getting a cut or anything. I just love it.