I'm so excited for today's #BiggerOnTheInside tweet-along! The Doctor's Wife is one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who, and it's written by @neilhimself, one of my favorite authors. But I didn't always love the work of Neil, aka Mr. G. Thread.

The first book Neil wrote that I learned about was called Coraline. I must've been in 4th grade. This girl told me about all of the children who were captured and showed me the paragraph that said "help us." It scared me. A lot.

But I kept hearing about how great his work was, and I decided to give him another chance during my freshman year of high school. The book I decided to read was called Good Omens.

I loved everything about that book. It was funny, and smart, and occasionally scary in a way that I actually liked. I read it with a passion and pleasure that I think characterizes all truly great reading experiences. I decided to read as much of Mr. G's work as I could.

I read his novels (particularly loved Anansi Boys and Neverwhere), his short stories (collected in the brilliant books Fragile Things and Trigger Warning), as well as his poems (one favorite is The Day the Saucers Came). I loved everything of his I read.

But the work of Mr. G's that really spoke to me wasn't a book, a short story, or  a poem. It was a commencement speech that he gave at a college when I was a junior in high school, which was quickly known as the "Make Good Art" speech. 

Its messages really struck home with me. A few days before watching it, I'd come up with the idea for a science-fiction short story that dealt with my feelings of grief at my grandmother's death. I didn't know if I could write it.

After watching "Make Good Art," I wrote it in a night and a morning. The relatives I showed it to were so moved that they cried. I'd always loved writing, but that experience made me feel like I was good at it in a way I'd never felt before.

That experience made me feel that I could one day achieve my dream of writing and directing for film and television. Even though I've got a long way to go, I feel like I'm on the right path. A path I feel more comfortable traveling in part because of Mr. G.

I met Mr. G once at a book signing. He signed two books for me, one of them a copy of "Mansfield Park" because it was a reference to his beloved novel "Neverwhere." I thought he'd never signed a copy of "Mansfield Park" before, and I wanted him to remember me.

This is all a long way of saying that Mr. G has had a massive, positive impact on my life as a writer. I'm so grateful to him for creating such great works in so many different mediums, and for influencing me to be a better writer. Thank you, Mr. G. End Thread.