Sarah Kanning

First off, a personal note. Just submitted a short story called “Sex with Ghosts” (a science fiction piece), so now that it’s off my plate, in time for a blog entry.

When I was reviewing magazines to submit to, I found an article about Robert Heinlein and queerness at Strange Horizons called “‘Junior, you aren’t shaping up too angelically’: Queerness in Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land“ by Allyn Howey. Veddy interesting stuff, and Howey lists Heinlein’s personal rules for writing, part of a larger essay called “On the Writing of Speculative Fiction.” Here’s that list:

1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.

This list is clearly influenced by the needs of someone making a living with his writing, in a pulp market that favors more over better. Here are some modifications that I would propose:

1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order. You must take care that rewriting doesn’t become a form of procrastination.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold. If you decide the work is inferior, jejune, or otherwise artistically embarrassing to you, take it off the market. But be sure that this doesn’t become a form of self-sabotage.

I think ultimately the details of his particular rules are less important than the fact that he had them. I suspect #3 was not only a nod to market realities, but perhaps an attempt to compensate for a tendency to over-edit (though I suspect lots of people took this as a license to send out shoddy first drafts destined for eternal slush pile limbo or speedy rejection).

The big question is, what are your rules, rules that support your writing and help keep you happy and writing?

I’ll ponder that and post back with some ideas of my own…