In Which Neil Gaiman is Awesome Yet Again

"Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong." - E. O. Wilson


Yesterday I took the SAT, received what's probably almost my 40th rejection letter, and received notification that my Governor's School application has been rejected. Pretty great day, right? Not going to Governor's School means my entire summer has opened up, though, so that's nice.


I wanted to share with you this discussion in The Guardian between Neil Gaiman and some other guy (his name is Shaun Tan, but you see where my focus lies).


Here's my favorite part:


"Somebody asked me recently if I plot ahead of time. I said yes I do, but there is always so much room for surprise and definitely points where I don't know what's going to happen. They quoted somebody who had said: "All writers who say that they do not know what's going to happen are liars, would you believe someone who started an anecdote without knowing where it was going?" I thought, but I don't start an anecdote to find out what I think about something, I start an anecdote to say this interesting thing happened to me. Whereas I'll start any piece of art to find out what I think about something."


Have I mentioned that I love this man?


I've survived and finished three NaNoWriMos now, and I identify with this so, so much. It's like...a spring cleaning of my subconscious. Things and issues I've had buried-or sometimes didn't even realize were there- crop up in weird places, and (as they discuss immediately following the quote I just gave you), having multiple characters with different backgrounds and opinions is amazing for just that- personifying all of the different voices arguing with each other in your head.


And that sounds like I'm insane.


I go into November with ideas and anxieties and so on...and come out into December feeling cleaner, somehow, now that I have all of that down on paper. It's a beautiful thing.