Writing Tips: Advice from Neil Gaiman’s ‘Make Good Art’ Commencement Speech

I haven’t quite worked out what I’m going to say in this post — I hope in the writing the message will unfold. What I have with me now is more of a feeling.

Ever since first watching Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech at The University of the Arts in 2012, I have watched it many times, whenever I need a burst of inspiration or creativity. The main message of his speech, amongst a bunch of other great advice, was ‘make good art’. He said by choosing projects based on what he enjoyed, was passionate about, it never felt like work.

The phrase resonated with me when I first heard it, and I carried it around in my chest all day, where it lifted my heart up with hope; as I’m sure it did to all of those young people present at that time who were on the precipice, about to embark on the next stage of their lives. I remembered it when I was at a crossroads in my life, and it made me stronger.

I found it reassuring to hear him talk of people in the arts having no idea of what they were doing, but that that was ok, that’s what in fact makes you better — you’re not inhibited by rules if you don’t know they exist.

If you don’t know it’s impossible it’s easier to do. And because nobody’s done it before, they haven’t made up rules to stop anyone doing that again, yet.

I loved his simple metaphor of the mountain — to imagine your dream as a mountain, and make choices on whether they take you closer to the mountain or further from it. I think this would make those difficult choices much less complex when viewed from this perspective. I just think of some of the bigger choices in my life I have made recently, and using this metaphor makes me feel at peace that I have chosen for the right reasons. I am a strong believer that there are often no right or wrong paths, but simply different ones, that lead to different outcomes and opportunities; but if your reasoning is solid, and comes from the right place, then you can walk whatever path you choose with your head held high.

It was immensely refreshing to hear how Neil Gaiman’s first jobs came from lying on his resume. To hear the beginnings of a master’s journey is always heartening, and brings their achievements closer to what seems possible. His take on freelance work, and how you only need two of the three requirements, was simultaneously amusing and reassuring.

People keep working, in a freelance world, and more and more of today’s world is freelance, because their work is good, and because they are easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don’t even need all three. Two out of three is fine. People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. They’ll forgive the lateness of the work if it’s good, and if they like you. And you don’t have to be as good as the others if you’re on time and it’s always a pleasure to hear from you.

I could keep going, reliving each section of his speech, but I'd recommend reading or watching it yourself here*. Instead I’ll just say this: that it’s ok to not know what the future holds. It’s ok to turn away from a conventional lifestyle or career. It’s ok to create because you love creating, and nothing more.

I’ll leave you with the final words from the speech, because I couldn’t say it any better:

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.

…

*Quotes from this source.