A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick -- a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart.
Neil GaimanRead
Sometimes I wish that just solving the plot problems was enough. And then elves would go and do all the actual work moving the words around.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a desire for the creative process to be simpler, relying on fantastical helpers to handle the more laborious aspects of writing.
Neil Gaiman's quote reflects the struggles and frustrations that writers often face when it comes to the practicalities of storytelling. It highlights a longing for a more magical and effortless approach to writing, where the imaginative dimensions of plot development could be separated from the arduous task of putting words on the page, suggesting that the creative process is filled with both inspiration and labor.
Themes
WritingCreativityArtFantasyStruggle
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop about the creative process, to highlight the challenges writers face.
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As a teenager I wrote to R.A. Lafferty. And he responded, too, with letters that were like R.A. Lafferty short stories, filled with elliptical answers to straight questions and simple answers to complicated ones.
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The important thing to understand about American history, wrote Mr. Ibis, in his leather-bound journal, is that it is fictional, a charcoal-sketched simplicity for the children, or the easily bored.
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Nothing’s changed. You’ll go home. You’ll be bored. You’ll be ignored. No one will listen to you, really listen to you. You’re too clever and too quiet for them to understand. They don’t even get your name right.
Neil GaimanRead
I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend...I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend.
Neil GaimanRead
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