Writing Rules

When it comes to writing, everyone seems to have some collection of rules they like to blow the dust off and offer to people who didn't ask. I am not exception. To me, when I see a student's eyes shine with that light—that bright creative energy that buzzes in the air— I immediately want to offer them something to keep it alive. As a teacher, writer, and student, all  have to offer are five rules.

1. Write Every Day 

I remember first hearing this as a student and thinking, "Ha, yeah right. And where do I find the time for that?" The problem was all those years ago, I thought writing only came in the form of fiction stories. Time has proven that to be untrue, that nearly anything can be writing. Here, many professors and peers recommend journaling. Again, I can picture myself at 18 years old, flopping my neck back and whining an "Euuuuugggh. Do I have to?" But journaling does help. It gets one in the practice of writing everyday, which is a skill in itself that needs to be flexed. In addition to practicing the skill of writing, journaling gives people the opportunity to process everything that has happened to them that day. This gives a person better insights into their own beliefs and allows them the chance to sift through their daily experiences, pick up each memory, and see if inspiration can be gleamed from them.

Now believe me, I know writing everyday is hard. And that everyone is so busy all the time and how can I possibly even begin to think about writing when I have this to do and this and this and—

Take a second. Breathe. Everything will be alright. Writing every day does not mean writing for hours on end. It can be a page. A paragraph. A stream-of-conscious poem. Whatever.

To help me write every day, I like to use games. My favorite thing to encourage me to write is an app called Fighter's Block. It is a game that lets you choose your character and the monster you will fight. You enter in your word goal, click fight, and off you go!

I personally prefer to change the speed settings and monster attack ability down to pathetically slow and weak to give myself a better chance. Here is what the pages looks like when you are actually writing:

This app is a lot of fun and acts similar to the tried and trusted Morning Pages activity. For those who don't know, Morning Pages is when you sit down in the morning and hand write three pages worth of words without ever letting your pencil leave the paper. The purpose is to help push everything inside your head out, like meditation. And usually people find some of the coolest ideas within those stream-of-conscious garbles. What I like most about Fighter's Block is that I can type almost as fast as I can think, allowing for me to write more in less time. I also really appreciate that the app saves my words for me. All in all, I recommend this app to anyone who wants to write every day, but needs to obey a time constraint.

2. Read Like a Writer

What does reading like a writer mean exactly? It means reading not only to enjoy the content material, but simultaneously being aware of and absorbing craft techniques. To put it simply, read to steal stuff you like. Now I don't mean plagiarism and stealing intellectual property, but rather mimicking or borrowing techniques on how to write something. For example, I read Kat Kinsman's memoir, Hi, Anxiety. Pictured below is my paperback copy, lovingly tagged in all the places I found techniques or examples of beautiful description:

A photo of my copy of Kinsman's Hi, Anxiety

 As I read and enjoyed the content, I was also reading to see how she wrote about things, specifically her use of white space. White space can be a fickle thing among writers; some love and some hate it. I personally love it! But I overuse it, so I picked up Kinsman's memoir with the sole intent of annotating how she used it, among other things. As I read, I saw how Kinsman used white space specifically to draw attention to certain lines that contained reflection, regret, or foreboding. She used it like clockwork to create suspense that, ironically, became predictable and showed me that one must be precise and stingy with white space.

To summarize, it is not enough to write; one must also read in order to write.

3. Show, Not Tell

What is the best way to draw readers into a narrative? Instead of merely talking at them, show your readers everything. Immerse them in the scene. Tantalize the senses. It's not enough to say, "She was scared." Or write "'Get out of my house!' Robert said angrily." Draw the reader in. Show them, don't tell.

"She was scared" becomes "She clenched her trembling hands tight into fist and jammed them into her coat pockets. She bit her lip and stared at her worn-out shoes, hoping the man stomping by overlooked her."  More details leak in that adds characterization, suspense, and moves the plot along. Let's try another.

"'Get out of my house!' Robert said angrily" transforms into "Get out of my house!" Robert bellowed. Veins bulged and crawled up the side of his neck like wrangled tree roots. His nostrils flared and his eyes raved wildly in their sockets as his face flushed red." As you can see, more details help the reader draw a better mental picture, thus keeping them interested.

4. Know Your Audience 

This more so pertains to publishing but is still a good thing to keep in mind while writing. What "Know Your Audience" means is, don't try submitting your fantasy-vampire-unicorn fiction short story to a literary magazine that specializes in travel essays. Shop around. Find a journal or magazine that fits your style and work.

5. Revision ≠ Editing

There is one point I want to stress here: Revision is not the same thing as editing. The best way for me to differentiate between the two is this:Editing focuses on grammar, sentence structure, and the nitty-grtty mechanics of writing in the English language. Revision is examining a piece for effectiveness. Does it keep the reader's attention? Am I showing or telling? Does this scene go here or somewhere else? Does this description make sense and paint a clear picture? Though different, both are important to the writing process and being a writer.