2-1-16 Reading Neil Gaiman’s “Smoke and Mirrors” and Writing

Hey y’all!

I hope all of you had lovely weekends. I took it easy and continued reading Neil Gaiman’s short story collection “Smoke and Mirrors”.

I’m a big fan of Neil Gaiman’s books (Neverwhere, Stardust and Coraline), but hadn’t read any of his short stories.

A short review of Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

Although I’m only halfway through the book, the diverse short stories within are impressive. They really demonstrate Mr. Gaiman’s imagination, intelligence and willingness to experiment. The book feels like an experimental notebook and that’s what holds my attention. Not only are the story subjects diverse, he even tries different writing styles out. Inspiring! Surprisingly, there’s also a section in which he writes how each story came to be written.

If you’re interested in short story writing as I am, I recommend reading this book. Some of the stories are definitely better than others, but overall, it feels like a writer’s notebook. And you start to understand a little of Mr. Gaiman’s writing process as you read – pretty cool!

If you’d like to know more about Neil Gaiman’s writing process, I encourage you to visit an article he wrote on his website entitled, “Where do you get your ideas?”

My Short Story Writing So Far…

I’ve been revising the rough draft of my 15 page science fiction story (I wrote it during the last two months). It’s slow-going with each page taking about one hour of revision. Writing is hard work, but it feels satisfying to build something.

I’ve also begun writing a second science fiction story, which will take awhile to complete, if my first was any example of the process.

And I’ve begun writing down my short story ideas. It’s exciting to think I could create more stories this year using a pen than I could using a video camera!

Have a great week!
Gabriel