Ask Neil Gaiman

A very special "call for questions" today: Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman, a series whose long-awaited resurrection was -- not coincidentally -- announced last week. Neil is also winner of the uncoveted Roblimo's favorite book of the 21st Century so far award for American Gods, and a free speech activist who has concentrated -- again, not coincidentally -- on comic book and graphic novel authors' and vendors' freedoms. Please read this interview, listen to this NPR interview, and check other material about Neil before you ask questions, in order to avoid triteness. We'll send 10 of the highest-moderated questions to Neil tomorrow, and post his answers when he gets them back to us.

Comments

Creator's rights and copying technologies

[ephraim]

Neil,

I greatly enjoyed your chat last night with Art Spiegelman. After listening to both of you talk about the medium of comic books and graphic art, a question came to mind:

Unlike music and video, most people still prefer to read books page-by-page. Copying and downloading books and pictures is easier than doing so for music and video, partially because text and individual pictures are so much smaller. Yet, as of this moment, I haven't heard about a single case of writers and book artists complaining about the copying of their work on the internet.

Why do you think this is? Do you feel that this might change in the future as people become more accustomed to getting their information on a screen? Are you at all worried about the technology of copying in the same way that the music and movie industries are? Why or why not? How does your work as a free speech activist contribute to this debate? Is it a help or a hindrance to "creator's rights" that these copying technologies can allow individuals to control distribution and shake off the major media companies?

Thanks for your time, /EJS

As a Brit living in the US I feel very aware of...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

...how you tailor your writing to which side of the Atlantic your intended audience is on. When I read Neverwhere it was the US edition and clearly contained language and explanations that would seem a little inappropriate to readers in the UK. Do you carry out your own 'translations' of your books? What differences do you see between American and British audiences to which you need to adapt? And how involved are you in the translations to other languages and hence cultures?

Journal

[greenfield]

You have a journal online at http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp. What kind of an impact has your journal had on your interactions with the public? What thoughts do you have regarding online journals (aka weblogs) in general?

Re:Journal

[burrows]

William Gibson just stopped blogging, stating that informal blog/journal writing gets in the way of writing fiction.

Is there a conflict for you between maintaining your journal, and writing fiction? How do you manage your time / ideas / approach, in order to stay active in both?

Abandoned ideas

[Anonymous Coward]

Neil,

I vaguely recall from the Neverwhere DVD that the germ of the idea was the homeless of London, but that you were wary of glamorizing something that really is not glamorous. In the Talk of the Nation interview last week, the serial-killer convention was brought up, and I got the feeling you were uncomfortable with something so dark being glamorized.

I wonder if there have been any project ideas that you've left by the roadside because you felt the result would hold something unfortunate up for admiration.

The end of Sandman

[Snowspinner]

Does Endless Nights mark, to your mind, the final volume of Sandman? Or are there more stories you intend to tell in that universe. Do you see yourself ever being truly done with Sandman, or is it something you think you'll come back to every few years to fill in another hole or story here and there?

Good Omens movie?

[lina_inverse]

I read in places that Good Omens was being considered for a movie release.
Is this still happening, and what do you think of it being made into a film?

Challenges in scripts

[Savatte]

What sort of challenges did you face when you wrote the script for the dub of Princess Mononoke?

Coraline and the writing process for YA novels.

[A Big Gnu Thrush]

What led you to write the young adult novel Coraline?
Was the writing process for Coraline fundamentally different than some of your other works?
How did you control the prose to achieve a balance between richness of language and accessibility to your younger audience?

Small Gods and American Gods

[brandonY]

Neil, You and Terry Pratchett are two of my favorite authors, but asides from Good Omens, I never noticed much of a cross-over between any of your books. However, when American Gods came out, I couldn't help noticing that the portrayal of its gods and goddesses was very similar to Pratchett's portrayal of gods in Small Gods, another classic. Is this more than a coincidence?

I know I should be asking about you and your work

[rgoer]

So I love every word I've read from your pen, but presently I'm in the middle of a dry spell--and the way I figure, if you're going to seek advice, seek advice from one you admire, right? So, are there any authors out there right now you can't get enough of? Anybody you're reading that you feel nobody should miss? Fiction, nonfiction, a decent biography you've read lately? Do you even have time to get a good read in with all the hustle and bustle of just being Neil Gaiman?

Religious Beliefs/Philosophy

[namespan]

Do you have a set of religious beliefs or spiritual philosophy?

That forgotten god from American Gods..

[Torinaga-Sama]

Okay, this has been driving my wife and I CRAZY. The god in Ameican Gods that you can't remember after you talk to him. Was that modeled after an existing god or did you make that up yourself?

I believe you even stumped the internet on that one.

Excellent book. BTW.

The Balance of Collaboration

[buckhead_buddy]

Do you find solo work (such as American Gods) to be more productive or pleasant for you than collaborative work (such as Good Omens)?

The graphic novel medium relies strongly on collaboration. Not only with artists and editors, but also to a limited extent with marketers, trademark lawyers, and even the "past continuity" of what others before you have written. Your persistence in this field seems like it could get to be almost hellish unless you drew very solid boundaries with your collaborators or you really enjoyed such chaos.

As a freelance programmer I struggle trying to find the appropriate balance of collaboration to satisfy and motivate. While your work is in a completely different field, I'm curious what thoughts, anecdotes, or advice you might have on keeping collaboration in balance.

The state comics industry

[hcduvall]

As one of the rock-style stars of the comics world (and more than a bit outside it), what do you think of the state of the industry as a whole?

They've been pinning a lot on the sales of your Endless Nights and 1602 work to bump sales and get readers into shops, but as whole the direct market continues on a slow downward arc- and the great savior graphic novels are grow more in bookstores than comic shops- what can we do to keep comics vital an interesting? To encourage more genre bending work like your own (I'd be happy with more gneres though)?

Sandman the Movie

[ajs]

You commented at MIT (BTW: wonderful reading of a great short-story) that you didn't want to see Sandman the Movie made at this point because of the horrible treatment it had been given (I think the last draft script you had read contained, "Puny humans, your bullets cannot harm me!")

With the change in attitude toward comics in Hollywood, have you considered pressing the issue again? Also, have you considered talking to Hollywood's most successful comic book geek (Jess Whedon) about his getting behind the project? I would be stunned if he wasn't interested, though I'm sure the Firefly movie is sucking down a good chunk of his time....

A Question on Games (and a selfish word of thanks)

[RCVinson]

Mr Gaiman,

I absolutely loved The Dream Hunters. It was actually my first introduction to your work, and has stuck with me ever since. The final conversation between Dream and Matthew (or their equivalents) still fascinates me.

I'll resist the temptation to trail that comment with the obvious question ("When will you collaborate again?"), though, and move right along to the following:

Do you have any particular thoughts on the stories of modern computer & console games? Is the medium in any way interesting to you? What would you expect to be the potential & notable challenges and/or rewards in working in the medium?

Also, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask what you think your ideal "game" project might be, and what sort of style you'd like to work with (or create), if given the opportunity.

By style, I mean do you imagine that it would be a sit-back-and-watch-the-occasional-cutscene affair (as is Final Fantasy X, or Xenogears, to give examples), a detailed backdrop in which to set gameplay (like, say, Mario Bros., Zelda, or Street Fighter), a more environmental story experience (Half-Life, Halo), or something else entirely?

Apologies for my wordiness in this question; I mainly would just love to hear your musings on the subject, especially if you find the field or medium at all compelling.

(And I would, predictably, very much like to thank you for all of the great work you've produced and shared with us all.)

Thank you.

Pyschological state of "once upon a time"

[ktlyst]

Ursula LeGuin posits that there is a "language of the night," a way of storytelling that creates a psychological landscape similar to dreamland, distinct from 'what if' of sci-fi or simple escapism of standard dragon-wizard fantasy.

When I read works you've written, I am immediately transported to this dreamland that is fantastic literature, that creates its own world in mind, but seems to use mythic archetypes.

My question: do your words just naturally flow from your mind into this kind of writing, or do you have to work at it? If it just flows, how would you say you view the world such that it just flows? If you have to work at it, what are tricks you use to get into this mindspace?