My Writing Philosophies

At Wilkes University's Creative Writing program, I learned that much of what I had learned about writing was wrong. Over the years, I had heard and shared plenty of "rules" about writing that were more restrictive than they were helpful. I was encouraged to read other published and successful authors and see just how many of them break the rules and the writing is better because of it. When I saw this pattern, I tried to throw out those rules.
This list is not a list of rules. They are not restrictive at all. Instead, I find these ideas and practices to be quite liberating. I've never written them all down and shared them with anyone. I hope you enjoy reading them and that they encourage you to write as well.

• I AM MY FIRST READER.
  • ​This may be a statement of obvious fact, but it is easy to forget. All writers want their work to have an effect on the reader. This effect may be simply informational like a news story, or it may be highly emotional like poetry. When I write, I try to remember that I am going to read this work first. If the work doesn't have the desired effect on me, it will likely not have the effect on the reader. I need to love my piece as much as I want the reader to. Anything I'm confused by needs to clarified, anything I love should be enhanced, and anything that bores me needs to be removed. And if the piece has no effect on me at all, drop it and move on to something else. Don't waste time with duds.
• MY READER IS NOT STUPID.​
  • This thought is how I answer the side of me that questions if the reader is going to "get it." I was told once that all good writing should take a chance and try something new. Whether it's a new word, phrase, characterization, setting, plot twist, concept, etc. - writers should always be experimenting with language and literature. If not, then everything we do has been done before. That's just recycling, which is a great concept for saving the environment, but not very entertaining or productive in a creative work. I know the phrase, "There is nothing new under the sun," and I agree with its sentiment, but that doesn't mean we should not try to innovate. It means that we should be humble and wise enough to know that most anything we think we've done that is brand new has been done by someone else in another place or time. So, take a chance and trust that your reader will take that trip with you. It may be jarring to them, surprising, and even confusing at first, but if your work is quality and the reader trusts you, they will keep reading and seek some closure and explanation. If you provide them that, they will forgive and even joy your innovation.
• ​​THERE ARE NO BAD WORDS.
  • ​​I think the concept of a "bad word", "swearing", "cursing" or any other term that may be used is misguided. Words have great power, but only if we give it to them. No word is inherently good or bad. I've had people tell me to f*** off, and I've laughed, knowing this was not a statement of rejection, but affection. I've also heard and said "I love you" and felt anything but the warmth of a verbal hug. It all depends on the context. Who said what to whom, when, where and what was going on? Even in my lifetime, words that used to get me grounded or reported to the teacher are now used on broadcast television without anyone even blinking nowadays. We have arguments over who owns what words and should be allowed to say them. Words that were thrown around haphazardly when I was a boy are now guarded and whispered after checking the surroundings to see if anyone might take it "the wrong way". Words don't help or hurt, but the way they are used can do either to a great degree. In making this argument recently, I was asked "Would you want your son to walk around cursing like a sailor?" No, I would not, but not because of the words he might use, but because of what people might think when they heard them. My dad once told me that when people hear you curse, they might think you're too stupid to find a more appropriate word. From experience, I've learned that he was much more right than wrong about that. My son has enough challenges around him, I don't want anyone thinking he's stupid. But, if we get to a point in our relationship and his development that he can tell me to f*** off, I might feel great pride, depending on the context.
• ​ALWAYS ​BE A STUDENT OF WORDS.
  • ​​I was told by a fellow writer once that I have a large vocabulary. Considering that this was coming from a writer I've learned with and greatly admire, I thought this was a great compliment. My girlfriend has said that she has need to look up words after talking to me to figure out what the heck I was trying to say. When I decided to commit to being a writer, I felt my vocabulary was inadequate for the job. I felt like someone who decides to be a carpenter, but only has a hammer, a couple nails, some screws and a screwdriver. Yeah, that may be ok to get started, but if you're going to be serious about your job, you need more tools. Any smith needs to have many tools to choose the right ones to do the job at hand. That includes wordsmiths. Writers should always desire to learn words they don't know and know more about the words they do know. Any writer that goes through the entire writing process and never once consults with a lexicon of some sort is doing a disservice. Words have a great history and are changing all the time. Writers should stay aware of this evolution and learn when to obey it, when to go against it, and when to attempt going in a new direction.
• ​​BE PREPARED TO BE ALONE
  • ​​Most people won't understand why someone has a particular passion, and most people have a passion that most other people do not understand. If someone is not passionate about gardening, they will never understand why people do it for hours and hours on end and then get with other gardeners to talk about it before going back to the garden again. Everything I just said about gardening can be applied to writing. Unfortunately, writing is something that doesn't lend itself very well to group activity. Gardeners can join other gardeners in their gardens and garden together. Most books and stories, however, are written by one person. "Writing is a lonely pursuit," I was told once and the speaker was absolutely correct. Writers write best when they write alone. While writing in a coffee shop may give you the satisfaction of knowing that others are looking at you and thinking "that person must be a writer", locking yourself in a room alone will give you the quiet you need to get lost in the world you are creating and delve into the depths of your statement.
• ​WRITE FAST
  • ​​Slam it out. Don't think too much about it. Save the thinking for the editing stage. You're telling a story. So sit down and just tell the damn story. I have been known to overthink myself out of a good story. On the other hand, when I've slammed out a story without really thinking about it, I've frequently been told that it is some of my best work. While I find that occurrence to be very frustrating, I also find it to be very liberating. Focus on telling a good story and you will. Focus on showing off your awesome writing talent and you won't.
• ​​​​​​WRITERS WRITE
  • If you write, you're writer. We can debate the meaning of "author" if you want, but writers write. Stories, poetry, essays, articles, blogs, whatever. Writers are the ones doing the writing. If you are not writing, you're not a writer. This may sound like obvious double-talk, but there is meaning behind what I'm saying. There's nothing magical behind being a writer. You don't need anyone's degree or permission to be considered such. All you need is to give yourself permission to write and then follow your passion. If you spend all your time thinking about how you could write the next great American novel, you'll never do it. If you sit down and start writing those first phrases that are always the hardest to get out, you've started your journey. Writers should always be on that journey. Sure, we can talk about it and read about it and mull it over, but if we never cross over into writing it, we're not writers.

​Boxers have the phrase "Let your hands fly." It means to throw some punches and stop worrying about the technicalities. The same can be applied to writing. We need to learn to let our hands fly. Rules be damned, let's write some shit.