Neil Gaiman’s Most Important Rule for Writing | The Tim Ferriss Show

About Tim Ferriss:
Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 400 million downloads and been selected for “Best of iTunes” three years running.

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[littleripper]

This is a good rule for pretty well any activity you need to get done. This could easily be applied to a student who finds it difficult to study.

[foolonahill]

That rule helped me to write this comment.

[Tibobo]

Love that rule so much. Not doing anything else is the most simple way to allow oneself to do something.

[KillerBill]

My own 1st rule: don't write what you know, write what excites you. You can always find out, books, the internet, ask other people.
My own 2nd rule: Finish the first draft BEFORE you begin editing or revising. So many people I know are still stuck revising the first draft of their first book.
I am currently trying to help a friend write a novel, she is already a successful author of short stories for children. Every Sunday night it's the same conversation: " I haven't done much new but I've gone back to the beginning
She keeps losing track of characters and where they are.
Have you written a list of characters with a little bio? "I started one but I lost it..."
Have you done a sketch map just showing general locations? "I keep thinking about it but I'm not sure how to go about it..."
I map if relevant, and I precis each chapter after it's finished. It may change, but at least I know where my characters are, and where they are going. I also know who they all are.
I used to think that the command "write every day" meant working on your novel every day, then I suddenly realised that any writing improves your skills, even writing on Youtube.

BTW I wish every success to any and all writers, as long as what you are doing ends with a complete book/novel/short story, it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you write.

[JeffNotes]

"You have permission to not write. You do not have permission to do anything else."
Now that's a powerful internal rule. I'm going to test it now if it works with me animating in my channel =)

[JaronLukasXYZ]

Inspiration and motivation are the keys to a great writing. Daily guided meditations too!

[samuelcochrane]

_Rough transcript for those looking for it 🙂 (I edited out some of the umms and ahhs)_

You can sit here and write or you can sit here and do nothing, but you can't sit here and do anything else.
That was always, and still is when I go off to write, that's my biggest rule.

I would go down to my lovely little gazebo at the bottom of the garden sit down and I'm absolutely allowed not to do anything.

I'm allowed to set up my desk, I'm allowed to stare out at the world, I'm allowed to do anything I like as long as it isn't anything.
I’m *not* allowed to do a crossword, not allowed to read a book, not allowed to phone a friend, not allowed to, you know, make a clay model of something.

All I'm allowed to do is absolutely nothing, or write.
And what I love about that is I'm giving myself permission to write or not write, but writing is actually more interesting than doing nothing after a while.


You know, you sort of sit there and you've been staring out the window now for five minutes and it kind of loses its charm. “Well actually, might as well write something”.

And it's hard.


I'm, as a writer, more easily distractible. I have a three-year-old son - he is the epitome of cuteness and charm. It's more fun playing with him than it is writing, which means if I'm going to be writing I need to do it somewhere where I don't have a three-year-old son singing to me, asking me to read to him, demanding my attention.


And I think that's it.
I think it's really just a solid rule for writers.
It's like yeah - you don't have to write. You have permission to not write. You don't have permission to do anything else.


- Neil Gaiman

[inkspring]

I love your interview with Neil Gaiman. His rule, "you have permission to do nothing, absolutely nothing or write" resonated with me. It is something that I will always remember. I wrote notes as the two of you talked. It was a very interesting conversation. I am writing again. My mind is clear again after stopping a certain medication so I'm able to dig deep and share. Thanks for doing the interview with Neil and for everything else you do.

[shetaz]

Wow, I love this so much. This rule would have helped so much when I was writing my thesis...which took an entire freaking year.

[NoahHornberger]

I routinely spend 3 hours a week not doing anything. I sit and wait for the right ideas and the right point of departure and the inspiration. It felt silly and wasteful at first, and I almost didn't let myself get away with it. But now I think of it like charging up, like winding a spring by just sitting. Then when I'm active, it's a full on battle in 360 degrees heart pumping rolling momentum. When I'm not feeling it I just stop and wait.

[PowerMatrixAnime]

That's so powerful! So simple yet so effective.

[HemantNagwekar]

This is the best advice that I have heard in a while. And it makes a lot of sense.

[CraftyOldGit]

"Just because I'm not writing it doesn't mean I'm not writing", Mark Twain

[kellysimmons]

I think if this often & use it whenever I find myself procrastinating on a task

[PsychHacks]

Raymond Chandler call this "do nothing" time. When he set aside time to write, if he couldn't think of anything, then he would just sit there and put in his time. He said that he always thought of something.

[stevekirkbride]

Thank You Neil and Tim for the sterling advice

[kimchibbq]

Wow Tim. It has been a while but whenever I listen to your podcast I am learning something that changes the course of my life. For that thank you Tim 🙏😄👍🙏👏

[evlstoryteller]

Oh WOW. I love this so much about Gaiman. Because I always feel guilty when I'm not writing that it has now become a monumental task that keeps getting bigger and bigger. To hear Gaiman talk about this is just so refreshing (King states that you should write every day, it's like a fever for him or something that extent), so whenever I look at my laptop and can't produce anything, I feel like I've let myself, as a writer, down.

P.S. There is something so charming and inherently hot about Gaiman. ;)

[dig]

I use this daily for programming. It works

[unchargedpickles]

I have to write when I put my 6 yr old to bed at 830. Otherwise every 5 words, "Mom, look" lol. I must look at everything. Everything he does, everything he's playing, everything he's watching, "Mom look" on a repeat loop. He does understand I write and it's hilarious listening to him telling someone about whatever project I'm working on. He picks up the idea of the book from hearing me discuss it with my husband. He even comes to me and presents my ideas back to me as if he thought them up. He hears my 15 yr old come to me to ask what I'm writing about then if it's a concept that excites his mind like my current project he'll start giving me his input. It'd be cool if you X, what about X, have thought about X? Then my 6 yr old jumps in and we sit for 5-10 min listening to his long ramble basically recapping what we'd just said but we give him our attention and thank him for his 'great ideas'. My 15 yr old loves my new book concept and has sternly demanded I MUST finish this book because he's super excited about the idea. He tells all his friends about the idea cause it excites him so much. He asked permission to use the basic concept to write his own short story of it and of course I have my blessing. Lol kids can be the enemy of writing but also valuable members of your cheerleading squad!