HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing   CHAPTER SIX  Continuing with the third rule. Rule #3: You Must Refrain From Rewriting Unless to Editorial Order. I wanted to go at this rule one more time to make sure I’ve been clear. Most of the time, in this modern world, rewriting is when you do a sloppy first draft with the intent of “letting it sit” (dumbest thing I have ever heard) and then “fix it” later. That assumes, of course, that your story is broken. And that you have suddenly gained a vast amount of new skills since doing the story the first time. I will often get comments…

HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing   CHAPTER FIVE Moving now to the third rule. Rule #3: You Must Refrain From Rewriting Unless to Editorial Order. So this is the rule that gets all the attention here in the modern world, even though it is the first two rules that stop most want-to-be writers. And the fourth rule also stops writers who can finish something from becoming professional writers. Everybody in this modern world looks for ways and reasons around this rule. That’s how ingrained the modern myth of rewriting is in our culture. One good thing right off about this rule. If you don’t rewrite, just get it…

HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing   CHAPTER FOUR Moving now to the second rule. Rule #2: You Must Finish What You Write. Say 9 out of 10 people who claim they want to write are wiped out by Rule #1 because they “just can’t find the time.” If that is the case, then my guess is that another half of the remaining writers are stopped cold by Rule #2. Now, I have to be honest, I never had an issue with this rule, so I mostly just ignored it. I always finished what I wrote. Part of that was the early challenge to mail a story per week,…

HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing   CHAPTER THREE Still working on rule number one. Rule #1: You Must Write. Back in 1982, when I climbed onto my challenge to use Heinlein’s Rules and write a story per week and mail each story every week, I had one major issue that I fought. Fear. No idea what I was afraid of, but the fear was real. On December 31st, 1981, my thinking was that every story had to be perfect, had to be worked over and over and before I dared send it out. And it had to be written slowly and carefully to be good. I believed…

HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing   CHAPTER ONE For lack of a better way of putting it, Heinlein’s Rules allow you to get to the fun of being a writer. They also help us all remember we are entertainers. About a decade or so ago, I was asked by a professor of English at the University of Oregon to come talk to one of his advanced creative writing classes about the reality of being a full-time fiction writer. I had a hunch I was going to not do nice things to their brains. And I looked on that possibility as my sacred job description. But it turned…