The Big Question on Heinlein's Rules
In Today's Journal
* The Big Question on Heinlein's Rules
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
The Big Question on Heinlein's Rules
First, my sincere thanks to writer Jay Logan for being brave enough and trusting me enough to ask me, in a comment, the following question. No telling how many writers Jay helped by putting this comment and question out there.
It's the big, overall question I most often hear about Heinlein's Rules (and about writing into the dark), and it's one that I once asked of Dean Wesley Smith myself: "Isn't it true that Heinlein's Rules and writing into the dark work for you because you're an advanced writer? And that it won't work for us beginners?"
Note that I inferred this question from Jay's comment. To be fair and transparent, here's Jay's original comment, verbatim:
"One of the issues I have with advising not to rewrite is that many writers are still working to improve their craft. Besides grammar issues, they have logic errors, missing clarity, and lack (or excess) of details that ruin their otherwise good story. (I am sure there are more things out there that can be added to this list.)
"Heinlein's rules seem to assume that all writers have overcome (or at least mostly) those problems—which is false.
"Much of the problem is that us beginning writers have yet to learn how to put all the story into print in a way so that the readers can appreciate the read. (Sometimes parts of the story are still stuck in our head or not coherently formed—or both.)
"We rely on comments from others so we can rewrite the story to complete its creation to a level the reader and the author can be satisfied with it. Throwing away every story that needs improvement and starting on another story (which will most likely also end up in the trash can), is not just wasteful, its depressing.
"Learning to rewrite to get to that level is a great learning exercise to improve our writing skills so we are less likely to make the same mistake with the next story."
As I wrote above, Jay's comment is not unique.
I hear it often. But it's based on a few faulty assumptions:
Assumption 1: That only beginning writers "are still working to improve their craft" and have "grammar issues, ... logic errors, missing clarity, and lack (or excess) of details that ruin their otherwise good story."
Assumption 2: That rewriting based on "comments from others" will somehow improve a story.
Any advice beyond a vague "add depth" or "let me see the characters" will take you farther from the original story and your original voice.
Assumption 3: That Heinlein's Rules "assume that all writers have overcome (or at least mostly [overcome]) those problems."
First, copied word for word from Of Worlds Beyond (Fantasy Press, 1947), here's what Robert Heinlein himself actually wrote about his assumptions in the paragraph just before he offered his five recommended "business habits" (AKA Heinlein's Rules):
"I shall assume that you can type, that you know the accepted commercial format or can be trusted to look it up and follow it, and that you always use new ribbon and clean type. Also that you can spell and punctuate and can use grammar well enough to get by."
His only other assumption came in the paragraph directly after he posted his Rules:
"They [the rules] are amazingly hard to follow—which is why there are so few professional writers and so many aspirants, and which is why I am not afraid to give away the racket! But, if you will follow them, it matters not how you write, you will find some editor [reader] somewhere, sometime, so unwary or so desperate for copy as to buy the worst old dog you, or I, or anybody else can throw at them."
So here's my expanded response to Jay's comment:
Thanks, Jay.
As I'm sure you expected, I have to disagree. I've heard some version of "Heinlein's Rules (and WITD) only works for you because you've written so much" a thousand times. I even said exactly the same thing to DWS back in the day.
Then I took a deep breath, remembered that the story (and whether anyone liked it or didn't) wasn't "important," and gave WITD an honest try. I fully expected to prove to myself once and for all that it would not work.
But it did. Of course, I thought it was a fluke, so I tried it again, and again, and again, and here I am.
As I told another writer recently, I don't follow Heinlein's Rules because I've written a lot of fiction. Rather, I've written a lot of fiction because I follow Heinlein's Rules.
Enter writing into the dark. If you can just get over the hump and believe in yourself, trust your characters, and just write the story they're living, you can't go wrong.
Yes, your writing and storytelling will improve with time, but that comes from putting new words on the page, not from hovering in place over what you've already written.
My advice is to study craft in between writing stories and apply what you learn in the next story you write. That, not revising and rewriting, is how your writing and storytelling improve.
For example, I cycle only to be sure I've included everything the characters gave me, and in TNDJ I've shared many instances in real time of brand new things I've learned while cycling through a current writing.
In that regard, the only difference between a beginning writer and a seasoned pro is that the pro learns more (and more quickly) because of all the new words s/he's put on the page. It's called Practice.
Re "excess" details, if you add what the characters give you it's never excess.
(As an aside, a few months ago another writer took exception to me advising to include everything the character notices. Her reasoning was that we notice so much every day. Actually, there's a lot of stuff, sounds, etc. around us that we don't notice. If a character notices something specifically, it's important to the story. If it weren't, he wouldn't have noticed it.)
Excess only comes from the writer adding things s/he "thinks" should be there. Every time. This is what I call "writer intrusion."
And just food for thought, as a copyeditor for the past four decades, in my experience beginning writers always include too few details about characters and setting, not too many—again, except in cases of conscious, critical mind author intrusion.
Understand that 'your' story (actually the characters' story) is not important. It's only a few minutes' (short story) or hours' (novel) entertainment, nothing more.
Only the reader can decide (judge) whether and how "important" a story is to his or her personal experience. Never presume to pre-judge for the reader. Your job is to write, not to judge. Write, publish, and write the next story. It works. I promise.
There's an old truism that a writer is the worst judge of his own work.
Maybe the strongest irony on Earth is that writers remember that old saw (and spout it constantly) when they dare to think their story is actually good: "If I think it's good, well, I'm the worst judge of my own work."
But when they think their work is "bad" or "needs improvement," all of a sudden they think they must be right and that they're actually GREAT judges of their own work. What's up with that?
Again, just food for thought.
Believe in yourself, believe in your characters, and just write the story.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Word Count Dropped Under Pulp Speed One… See? It happens to everybody.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1300
Writing of Blackwell Ops 46: Sam Granger | Hell Comes Home
Day 1…… 1814 words. To date…… 1814
Day 2…… 2645 words. To date…… 4459
Day 3…… 1507 words. To date…… 5966
Day 4…… 1664 words. To date…… 7630
Day 5…… 1283 words. To date…… 8913
Day 6…… 3126 words. To date…… 12039
Day 7…… 3454 words. To date…… 15493
Day 8…… 3973 words. To date…… 19466
Day 9…… 2837 words. To date…… 22303
Day 10…. 3565 words. To date…… 25868
Day 11…. 1641 words. To date…… 27509
Day 12…. 2624 words. To date…… 30133
Day 13…. 2082 words. To date…… 32215
Day 14…. 1104 words. To date…… 33319 (done)
Fiction for June………………………. 57355
Fiction for 2025………………………. 520807
Nonfiction for June………………....... 25480
Nonfiction for July………………....... 1300
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 152930
2025 consumable words…………….. 666123
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 30
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 300
Short story collections……………………. 29
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Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.
Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.
One of my all time favorite short stories by one of my all time favorite authors is sparse on the details, to the point I wasn't sure whether the story takes place in our world or a high fantasy one.
But it's otherwise great fun and I've reread it three times because I like the characters. A story doesn't need to be flawless to be good.
Well, yes, only putting new words on the page makes the writer better.
Beginers should let go the idea they should be 'good' to have the right to publish their own work. If they don't take it seriously, they won't be better. I think that is the key. And yes, taking writing seriously means getting better and better in it...
Let's see traditional publishing. How many works are worse than what you write, how many works is out there you would never read.
It's all about the readers' taste. But they won't get the chance to enjoy your story if you are hold it back.
Well, I also need to remember myself to it. But I do. ;)