✍️ Graham's First Law of Writing

...or, the Rules of the Writing Road

About six weeks ago, I posted Graham’s Second Law of Writing. You can read the whole post here, but I’ll refresh your memory:

Graham’s Second Law of Writing

Writing quantity and quality tends to be directly proportionate to writing ability multiplied exponentially by the amount of fun the writer is having. This means that writing quality and quantity tends to increase exponentially in a shorter amount of time when the writer is having fun. This also tends to be true for creativity in general.

Of course, some of you astutely noticed that this was Graham’s Second Law. Where is the first? Did we miss it?

No, you missed nothing! A peek behind the curtain will reveal that I came up with Graham’s Second Law of Writing on the fly. Except that, technically, it was the first law I wrote down. But I didn’t want it to be the First Law because I think there is a more important one than that.

As it turns out, I’m lucky I didn’t drop everything and write down the First Law first. While on my lawnmower two days ago (as of this writing), I heard the episode of Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton with Dave Eggers, and it solidified my perspective.

Among other things, Eggers is the founder of McSweeney’s, a special kind of magazine from San Francisco. Right at the end of the podcast, Rubin and Eggers have this exchange:

Rubin: Are there any popular rules or ideas about writing that you disagree with?

Eggers: All of them. When you say rules about writing, that’s a terrible phrase to utter. There can be no rules about writing.

You can hear the exchange for yourself, starting at about the 1:37:29 mark:

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Yes, There are Rules. Or, At Least, Rule.

With all due respect to Dave Eggers, I don’t subscribe to this theory. I think there are rules. Or, at least, one important rule. If you prefer, let’s call the rest of them very helpful guidelines – especially for new writers starting out.

In fact, in a different episode, Rick Rubin also interviewed Anne Lamott and Neal Allen, who co-authored the writing craft book, Good Writing: 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences. They talk about all 36 ways on the podcast, so it’s also worth checking out:

On the surface, these two episodes contradict each other. In fairness, Anne and Neal state explicitly that they don’t see these 36 ways as “rules” in the traditional sense. Use them, don’t use them, flagrantly break them – they aren’t holding anyone to account. Instead, they offer, these are 36 tips they’ve found useful in their own decades of writing.

Even writers raised by wolves understand the unstated here: ignore at your own peril!

So what’s the difference then between “rules” and “tips”/“guidelines”? In my mind, it comes down to this:

• Rules are something that if you break, you are in danger of harm. For example, run enough red lights and you’re bound to get into an accident.

• Tips and guidelines are ways to improve something. If you don’t follow them, you won’t get t-boned. But you might not get to your destination, either.

Once again, on the surface, it may sound like I’m contradicting myself now. Doesn’t this support Dave Eggers’ statement that there aren’t any rules in writing?

No. Because as I said, I believe there is at least one hard-and-fast rule. It’s at the heart of Graham’s First Law of Writing:

Graham’s First Law of Writing

There is only one writing rule, and it comes in the form of a question: Does it work? If the writing elicits, for example, laughs and tears and ah-has and devastating heart stabs and moments of profound insights from the reader, then it doesn’t matter what writing “rules” you broke along the way.

Corollary: writing tips and guidelines help make improve the chances that the writing does work. Ignoring those tips puts the writing at risk of not working. Listening to and trying writing advice is never a bad strategy, especially for beginner writers. Pick and choose and adapt what works for you, all with an eye for making sure the answer to the question, Does it work? is always, Yes!

Of course, making sure the writing “works” is easier said than done. This is where shelving your writing for a while before reviewing comes, giving it to other trusted readers for feedback, and all the required polishing and honing and editing you need to do.

But for me, making sure it works is always my goal.

Over to You

Any writing rules you think are hard and fast? Any tips you’ve followed that might as well be rules in your mind? Am I completely off my rocker here? Let us know in the comments below!

Until next time, keep writing with wild abandon!

~Graham

email me if you get lost.