![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ten Rules of Writing Meme
Mar. 1st, 2010 08:15 pmOr: If you'll take my advice, you'll take anybody's!
These may only be applicable to (and meaningful for) me. So hah!
1. If you don't actually write something, you can't fix it later.
2. If you fix something enough times and it still doesn't seem quite right, consider that it might not be fixable. It's much harder to let go of the stuff that's only a little bit wrong than it is the stuff that's grossly wrong, but ultimately wrong is wrong, and trying to finesse something that's inherently broken can suck up massive amounts of your time and energy.
3. There is *nothing* so integral to a story, or so superbly written, that it can't be yanked if need be.
4. When finding it necessary to exercise #3, it's okay to mope, cry, and/or vent your fury to the heavens. For a little while. Then you've gotta get on with it, because moping, crying, and venting are all much easier to do than writing. [1]
5. If you try to implement, uncritically, every piece of advice that comes your way about a story, you will end up with utter and total shit. On the other hand, a *good* writing/critique group (or partner, or workshop) is worth far more than their collective weight in gold. [2]
6. You are only ever really competing against yourself[3]. If it inspires you to pretend you're competing against someone, go for it. If, on the other hand, you start counting their successes as your failures, STOP.
7. Writing stories is like raising children. Just because you had one easy one doesn't mean the next one won't be a tantrum-throwing, eardrum-bursting, playdoh-eating, matches-playing, house-wrecking, people-biting little monster. And yet, when you look back, you'll discover there's no clear correlation between the ease of a story and your fondness for it.
8. Learn to love (and respect) the semi-colon.
9. There are always new things to learn, often from unlikely people and places, and you learn them best by paying attention, listening, asking thoughtful questions, and not being afraid to experiment.
10. There are times in your career where you will feel -- where you will *be* -- completely helpless. You will feel powerless, disappointed, disrespected. They may be substantial stretches of time.[4] If you use those times as motivation to try harder, to write better, you win. If you let it make you quit, you lose.
And, y'know, preface the whole thing with:
0. Yog's Law.
--
[1] So are sudoku, facebook, jigzone, and blowing up baby penguins.
[2] And if you can, try to meet somewhere with good tea.
[3] Except maybe if you're up for a Hugo, and even then, wow, how cool is that?! Once you've lost six or seven, sure, you're entitled to become a little peeved about it. Until then? Not so much.
[4] Years, even.
These may only be applicable to (and meaningful for) me. So hah!
1. If you don't actually write something, you can't fix it later.
2. If you fix something enough times and it still doesn't seem quite right, consider that it might not be fixable. It's much harder to let go of the stuff that's only a little bit wrong than it is the stuff that's grossly wrong, but ultimately wrong is wrong, and trying to finesse something that's inherently broken can suck up massive amounts of your time and energy.
3. There is *nothing* so integral to a story, or so superbly written, that it can't be yanked if need be.
4. When finding it necessary to exercise #3, it's okay to mope, cry, and/or vent your fury to the heavens. For a little while. Then you've gotta get on with it, because moping, crying, and venting are all much easier to do than writing. [1]
5. If you try to implement, uncritically, every piece of advice that comes your way about a story, you will end up with utter and total shit. On the other hand, a *good* writing/critique group (or partner, or workshop) is worth far more than their collective weight in gold. [2]
6. You are only ever really competing against yourself[3]. If it inspires you to pretend you're competing against someone, go for it. If, on the other hand, you start counting their successes as your failures, STOP.
7. Writing stories is like raising children. Just because you had one easy one doesn't mean the next one won't be a tantrum-throwing, eardrum-bursting, playdoh-eating, matches-playing, house-wrecking, people-biting little monster. And yet, when you look back, you'll discover there's no clear correlation between the ease of a story and your fondness for it.
8. Learn to love (and respect) the semi-colon.
9. There are always new things to learn, often from unlikely people and places, and you learn them best by paying attention, listening, asking thoughtful questions, and not being afraid to experiment.
10. There are times in your career where you will feel -- where you will *be* -- completely helpless. You will feel powerless, disappointed, disrespected. They may be substantial stretches of time.[4] If you use those times as motivation to try harder, to write better, you win. If you let it make you quit, you lose.
And, y'know, preface the whole thing with:
0. Yog's Law.
--
[1] So are sudoku, facebook, jigzone, and blowing up baby penguins.
[2] And if you can, try to meet somewhere with good tea.
[3] Except maybe if you're up for a Hugo, and even then, wow, how cool is that?! Once you've lost six or seven, sure, you're entitled to become a little peeved about it. Until then? Not so much.
[4] Years, even.
