Sage advice on writing

from Robert Heinlein, by way of Wil Wheaton (in turn by way of Crawford Kilian):

1. Writers write. They don't wait until they "have enough time" or "inspiration strikes."

2. Writers finish what they write. No matter how much they hate the current project, they slog through to the last page.

3. Writers never rewrite except to editorial order. Writing a novel is like building a deck or renovating a bathroom--you don't want to rip everything up and do it all over again. So you plan carefully, do it right the first time, and don't keep fussing with the story.

3a. (Kilian's Exemption) When you're starting out, you need your novel in progress to teach you a lot, so it's OK to go back and revise your ms. on the basis of what you're learning.

4. Writers put their work on the market. They don't just inflict it on friends and family.

5. Writers keep their work on the market until it sells. So the first 15 or 20 rejections don't matter; you send it out again.

Amen.

I loved Robert Heinlein when I was a kid. I think I devoured every book of his I could get my hands on at my local bookstore (also the only bookstore in town). His advice about rewrites is interesting, as it flies in the face of just about every book I've consulted about the art of writing, including Stephen King's excellent On Writing, which I consider a major part of the reason why I'm celebrating 100,000 words this week and not just moping on through my life thinking about how great it would be to be writing again. I have to say however that I'm on Heinlein's side of the fence on this one. Although I don't consider a work ready for public consumption until I've edited it twice, my definition of an "edit" falls far short of a rewrite. Sometimes there's major surgery to be done, to be sure, and when I'm working on a larger piece sometimes Kilian's Exemption kicks in and I have to reevaluate parts of the story in light of what the whole has become, but by and large what I write comes out reasonably close to what I had intended.

But what do I know? I haven't even been published yet. Unless you're counting Pen and Ink, my old high school literary journal, and The Hellenic Voice, best known for its glossy advertising inserts for Demoula's Market Basket. Catch my two-part essay on Demetrios Bikelas and the 1896 Olympic Games, right next to the panel announcing a 2 for 1 special on London Broil!

Still, I think Heinlein's point is essentially the same as King's: just keep writing. I spent so much time during the past ten years obsessing over the first paragraph of something that I ended up with nothing over and over again. Not any more. Sure, it might be crap - but it's my crap, crap that I've written (emphasis on the word "written").

And that's all that matters.