give this a look
“What follows is a list of the most common shoulds, musts, and have-to’s that many of us have been taught about writing. Each of these is either useless, irrelevant, or just plain incorrect:
*You should work on only one piece of writing at a time.
*You must write every day, or for a minimum amount of time every day.
*you must write a certain number of words or pages each day.
*If you’re serious about writing, you must make it your top priority at all times.
*You must write according to a regular schedule.
*You should have a separate room to do your writing in.
*A writer must be unhappy, or lonely, or cynical, or 100% serious, or neurotic, or a little crazy, or downright nuts.
*If you wish to be published, you must do whatever editors ask.
*You must be completely free from all distractions and interruptions in order to write well.
*You should stubbornly resist any editor’s attempts to change your work.
*You must bare your soul in your writing, and/or write about the most personal and intimate things in your life.
*You must dress and act in a certain way, and/or associate with certain people, in order to be a successful writer.
*In order to be published, you have to know (and/or kiss up to the right people).
*You should always write an outline before you begin your first draft.
*You must write your title first.
*You must write the various sections of your piece in the same sequence in which they will be read.
*You must know how your piece will end before you begin writing it.
*You must always write “he or she,” “him or her,” or “his or her” when referring to hypothetical people.
*You should always put the most exciting or important part of your piece at the very beginning, so that it will grab your
reader.
*You must always begin each piece with something shocking or exciting, or else you risk losing your reader.
*You must always write a minimum of two (or three, or four, or five) drafts. First drafts will never be any good.
*You must keep each of your manuscripts circulating among editors until it is accepted for publication.
*If manuscript is rejected, you must get it back out to another editor within 24 hours.
*To protect yourself against literary theft, you must register everything you write with the government copyright office,
and/or you must mail yourself a copy of each piece as soon as it’s completed.
*You must type your social security number, a proper copyright notice (e.g., Copyright 2004 by Scott Edelstein), and the right you wish to sell on the first page of each of your manuscripts.
The only sane response to any of these pronouncements is a loud and emphatic, “NOT SO!” None of them is universally true. Some may be useful or true for some writers, or under certain circumstances. Some may be helpful as generalities, but are not absolutes. Many-the last seven, for example-are pure baloney through an through.
In addition to the shoulds, writers also face a barrage of equally worthless shouldn’ts. Here are the most common examples:
*Never write about yourself.
*Never write in the first person, or use the words “I,” “me,” or ”my.”
*Never use curse words, slang, or colloquialisms.
*Never use italics.
*Never use exclamation points.
*Never use foreign words.
*Never start a sentence with “and,” “but,” “anyway,” “however,” “nevertheless,” “therefore,” or “I.”
*Never use incomplete sentences.
*Never stray from correct grammar and usage for any reason.
*Never write in dialect; always use standard English.
*Never send something you’ve written to more than one editor at once.
*Never submit photocopied manuscripts to editors.
*Never rewrite, except to editorial order.
I repeat: all of these are worthless at best, harmful at worst. Ignore them all.
There is yet another type of nonsense that we writers often face: strange beliefs about what makes a writer. It’s common for people-usually literature professors, editors, or writers with overblown egos-to try to tell us who is a writer and who isn’t. These folks like to proclaim themselves a writer (or at least, a real writer) unless they have done one of the following:
*Written (or published) at least two (or three, or ten, or twenty) books.
*Had at least two (or five, or Fifty) pieces published.
*Been writing for at least two (or five, or fifteen) years.
*Written at least a million words.
*Been writing full-time, or for a certain minimum number of hours per week, for a year (or five, or ten).
*Worked a variety of jobs, or traveled throughout much of the world, or had plenty of experience with the “real world.”
*Read and studied the great works of western (or world) literature.
*Received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in writing.
*Suffered (or suffered prodigiously).
*Had their work rejected at least 100 (or 500, or 1000) times.
All of these pronouncements are nothing less than absurd.”
Excerpted from “30 Steps to Becoming a Writer” by Scott Edelstein pp. 53-56