You Can’t Teach Writing, and Heinlein’s Rules

August 1, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Admin Note
* You Can’t Teach Writing
* Heinlein’s Five Rules and The Critical vs. the Subconscious Mind
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“Talent without effort is wasted talent. And while effort is the one thing you can control in your life, applying that effort intelligently is next on the list.” Mark Cuban, quoted in 1440 Daily Digest

Admin Note

Yesterday, due to a problem at my webhost server, I didn’t post TNDJ on the actual Journal website. I couldn’t access any of my sites. I finally realized I could still post TNDJ directly at Substack.

I mention this only to shout the benefits of posting through Substack. If I still was publishing straight to the Journal website and then disseminating that through MailChimp or any similar platform, yesterday’s edition of TNDJ wouldn’t have gone out at all.

So if you’ve been thinking about writing a blog and wondering how to disseminate it, you can’t go wrong with Substack. Just sayin’.

You Can’t Teach Writing

My friend Michaele Lockhart recently emailed me with an exciting quote from Joseph Epstein in an article titled “Style Reveals the Man.” I’ve reparagraphed the quote to ease reading:

“Writing cannot be taught, as I came to realize after attempting to teach it for thirty years to university students, but it can be learned. One can only teach the mistakes bad writers make and provide examples of what makes good writers good.

“One cannot teach a love of language, the power of observation, a sense of drama, an aptitude for metaphor and simile, the rhythm of a well-constructed sentence or paragraph. Above all, one cannot teach desire—specifically the desire, dominating all other desires, to write something striking and stirring, original and memorable.

“If writing cannot be taught, it can be learned in one way and one way only. This is by reading those writers who have achieved mastery. Every superior writer I have known, or known about, was a slow reader. The reason is that writers read differently than non-writers.

“People without literary ambition might ask what a book means, whether it is significant, whether it gives pleasure. Writers ask these questions along with two others, which slow them down considerably: How exactly did the author achieve his effects, and what from his work can I appropriate—a euphemism, of course, for ‘steal’—for my own writing?”

Please see Of Interest for a link to the rest of the article. And my thanks to Michaele for sending such a compelling article.

Heinlein’s Five Rules and The Critical vs. the Subconscious Mind

a guest post by Dan Baldwin

[Editor’s note: I recently posted a series about Heinlein’s Rules, but this was such a unique take I thought it deserves a place among the annals of TNDJ. Enjoy.]

Science fiction giant Robert Heinlein offered Five Business Rules in 1947. The advice is as relevant and as brilliant today as it was then.

Considering the assault of AI on creative writing, they are more important now than ever. Writers deciding whether or not to follow his rules find themselves engaged in a battle between their critical mind and their subconscious mind.

The critical mind wants control—total control. The creative subconscious mind just wants to tell the story.

Therein lies the conflict. Control creates a mental and emotional state that prohibits writing what the creative subconscious must write.

Let’s see how this plays out.

Rule #1. You must write.

Obvious, right?

But the battle begins when your critical mind says, “We’re not ready.”

Before writing, it demands, you must think about it (a lot). You must run through scenarios, develop concepts, write an outline, create detailed character sketches, conduct thorough research, go back and tweak that outline, and…. You see where this is going.

Rather, you see where it isn’t going.

Writers do think about their work, but writers also write. You must.

Rule #2. You must finish what you write.

That’s easier said than done for those who follow the dictates of the critical mind. It demands all kinds of sidetracks to keep the writer from writing.

The writer thinks there’s a need for more research, for reading another how-to book on the genre, for attending another lecture or buying another writing CD or DVD—

Anything to put a roadblock in front of the creative subconscious, which just wants to finish the project and move on to the next.

Rule #3. You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial demand.

This is where the critical mind becomes a generalissimo. It puts on its figurative dress uniform, polishes its medals, and straps on its ivory handled .45 caliber revolver. Then it shouts, “Do it again!”

The creative subconscious says, “Why? This is pretty damn good.”

The generalissimo replies, “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

The first draft is closest to the writer’s heart. Save for necessary tidying up loose ends, every rewrite takes the work further from the artist’s soul.

In my case, when my critical mind barks a command, I go AWOL or stage a palace coup and get back to what I’m supposed to be doing.

Rule #4. You must put your work on the market.

Once a project is finished, the battle continues. Your critical mind barks again that the work isn’t worthy, you need just a little more rewriting, the market is soft for your genre, the odds are against you, you’ll be embarrassed, and so on and so on.

All of those excuses and hundreds more are irrelevant. Readers are waiting. You’ve finished the work, so put it out there and start on the next work.

Rule #5. Keep your work on the market until it sells.

For authors who publish traditionally or who seek magazine work, rejection letters are part of the deal. Those of us who go the Indie route may face lackluster or poor sales.

The critical mind says, “Ah Hah! I told you so!” and demands that you give up and pull the piece off the market. Don’t listen.

You’ve put in the time, so be patient and wait for the reward. And while you’re waiting, go back to Rule #1.

***

Thanks for another excellent guest post, Dan.

Today I’ll finish a copyedit I’ve been working on for the past few days. Then it’s back to racing naked in the sunshine and writing fiction. (huge grin)

Talk with you again tomorrow.

Of Interest

Style Reveals the Man

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 1060

Writing of

Day 1…… XXXX words. To date…… XXXXX

Fiction for July…………………….….… 39407
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 468400
Fiction since October 1………………… 732050
Nonfiction for August……………………… 1060
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 248070
2024 consumable words………………… 677063

2024 Novels to Date……………………… 11
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………… 93
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 241
Short story collections…………………… 29

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies, and they will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.

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