"The Best of ‘42 Writers’ Rules for Writing’" by Carolyn Martin
The Best of “42 Writers’ Rules for Writing”
with thanks to Emily Harstone’s Authors Publish
Have regrets. They are fuel.
The first 12 years are the worst.
Laugh at your own jokes.
You're a Genius all the time.
Beware of tidiness.
Visionary tics shiver in the chest.
Never ride a bike with the brakes on.
Be a crazy dumb saint of the mind.
Stay in your mental pajamas all day.
Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.
Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
Leave out the parts readers tend to skip.
Take no notice of anyone you don’t respect.
You can also do all that with whiskey.
Read Keats’s letters.
Honor the miraculousness of the ordinary.
Write without pay until somebody offers pay.
Cheer yourself up reading biographies of writers who went insane.
Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods.
Like Proust be an old teahead of time.
Perfection is like chasing the horizon.
Prayer might work.
Don't be a draught-horse!
You chose it, so don’t whine.
Take a pencil to write with on airplanes.
You see more sitting still than chasing after.
Remember there is no such thing as nonsense.
Good ideas are often murdered by better ones.
Never complain of being misunderstood.
Have humility.
If the rhythm of your prose is broken, read poetry.
Have more humility.
Don’t drink and write at the same time.
Bad writing is contagious.
Your audience is one single reader.
Avoid cliques, gangs, groups.
Writing is work. It’s also gambling.
Do feel anxiety – it's the job.
Carolyn Martin
From associate professor of English to management trainer to retiree, Carolyn Martin has published poems in journals throughout North America, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Her fourth collection, A Penchant for Masquerades, was released by Unsolicited Press in 2019. She is currently the poetry editor of Kosmos Quarterly: a journal for global transformation. Find out more about Carolyn at www.carolynmartinpoet.com.
Headshot: Kathy Richard
Photo Credit: Staff