Colson Whitehead's Simple Rules for the Art of Writing

Via the New York Times, Colson Whitehead, the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, shared eleven (11) simple rules for the art of writing:

• Rule No. 1: Show and Tell. Most people say, “Show, don’t tell,” but I stand by Show and Tell [...]

Whitehead shared an example of how to Show and Tell: “A penetrating psychological study of a young med student who receives disturbing news from a former lover.”

• Rule No. 2: Don’t go searching for a subject, let your subject find you. You can’t rush inspiration. [...] Once your subject finds you, it’s like falling in love. It will be your constant companion. 

In other words, write about a subject that you're passionate about. 

• Rule No. 3: Write what you know. Bellow once said, “Fiction is the higher autobiography.” In other words, fiction is payback for those who have wronged you. 

• Rule No. 5: Keep a dream diary.  

• Rule No. 9: Have adventures.  

Rules 3, 5, and 9 should be great news for new writers who often think that they have the ability to create art from their imagination instead of using their imagination to turn their experiences into art. 

• Rule No. 4: Never use three words when one will do. Be concise. Don’t fall in love with the gentle trilling of your mellifluous sentences.

I would imagine that most readers of Alfred Appel Jr.'s The Annotated Lolita and most Nabokov scholars would disagree with Whitehead's Rule No. 4.

• Rule No. 6: What isn’t said is as important as what is said. In many classic short stories, the real action occurs in the silences.

Rule No. 6 appears to be contradictory to Rule No. 1 and counterintuitive, but he's the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. 

• Rule No. 7: Writer’s block is a tool — use it. When asked why you haven’t produced anything lately, just say, “I’m blocked.” [...] being blocked is the perfect cover for when you just don’t feel like working.

In other words, if you're following Rule No. 2, you'll never, God willing, unintentionally suffer from writer's block. And Whitehead's Rule No. 7 reminded me of the film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) where Tom Clancy shared with some admirers that writer's block is synonymous with laziness (i.e., the antithesis of grit).

Tom Clancy: "I don't subscribe to the notion of writer's block."
Female Admirer: "You never experience it?"
Tom Clancy: "Writer's block is a term invented by the writing community to justify their laziness. My success is nothing more than that I have the determination and stamina [i.e., grit] to sit and get the work done.

• Rule No. 8: Is secret. 

• Rule No. 10: Revise, revise, revise. I cannot stress this enough [...] if someone challenges you to a draft-off. When the ref blows the whistle and your opponent goes, “26 drafts!,” you’ll bust out with “216!” and send ’em to the mat.  

• Rule No. 11: There are no rules.

The Life of the Novelist: Intoxicating and Free

In an interview posted on The Telegraph (14 Oct 2011), Martin Amis shared with Edmundo Paz Soldán, the Bolivian novelist and professor, that novelists are the "freest of all artists", because, unlike a painter, a novelist isn't "confined by a square on the wall", unlike a musician, an artist isn't confined to "musical scales", unlike a poet, a novelist isn't confined to "the disciplines of verse", and, unlike a filmmaker, a novelist doesn't "have actors; producers; money pressures of any kind." Amis said,

The process of writing a novel [...] is intoxicating. You can do absolutely anything; you are the freest of all artists. You’re not confined by a square on the wall or musical scales or the disciplines of verse, and you’re certainly freer than a film-maker who is dependent on the weather when he goes out to make his world. And it’s completely uncollaborative – you don’t have actors; producers; money pressures of any kind. 

I'll reiterate that novelists, or writers in general, should not have "money pressures of any kind", because a writer should not write for money but he or she should write about a passionate topic, which will, consequently, help a writer maintain a sufficient level of motivation and inspiration, which is needed, because like Willie shared with Lesser in The Tenants (2005), "Man, I tell you, this writing stuff is no joke." "Baby, it's a long, hard, lonely life."

The Best Way to Handle Rejection?

Po Bronson, the writer of the international bestseller Bombardiers, reportedly advised that the best way to handle rejection is to begin writing your next book before the inevitable "dozens and dozens" rejections arrive in your inbox. Bronson advised:

Failure is part of it. You will be rejected dozens and dozens of times. The best way to prepare for it is to have something else in the works by the time the rejection letter arrives. Invest your hope in the next project. Learning to cope with rejection is a good trait to develop.

I would say that Bronson's method isn't the best way to deal with rejection. I would advise a writer to, simply, not take rejection personally, and, like Bronson encouraged, start writing your next book. 

Median Author Income!

Per the Authors Guild, their Author Income survey is "the most comprehensive study of its kind in the U.S. to date." For the 2023 survey, the Authors Guild surveyed: "Thirty-six other organizations, including Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Ingram, B&N Press, PEN America, African American Literature Book Club [...] and 5,699 published authors."

Per the 2023 Author Income survey: "[...] the median book income (including advances, royalties, and fees from licensing and subsidiary rights) for full-time authors in 2022 was $10,000 [...]"

Therefore, per the Authors Guild, in 2023, 50% of full-time writers earned less than $10,000, while 50% earned more than $10,000. 

I won't share on what side of the median I fall on, but I do suspect that "full-time" is hyperbolic, because I suspect that, unlike Harry Lesser, most writers can't write full-time on a $10,000 income - especially if they live in The Big Apple.

THE TENANTS: A Motivating Novel and Film for Writers

Here's IMDb's plot summary for The Tenants (2005) : 

In an abandoned tenement, an African-American militant writer [Willie Spearmint (Snoop Dogg)] and a Jewish novelist [Harry Lesser (Dylan McDermott)] develop a friendship while struggling to complete their novels, but inner tension rises between the two.

In the film, which is based on Bernard Malamud's novel of the same title, Willie confessed to Lesser, "Man, I tell you, this writing stuff is no joke." And in terms of the life of a writer, Willie said, "Baby, it's a long, hard, lonely life."

Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican novelist and essayist, agreed with Willie when he reportedly said:

You must have discipline for writing. It is not an easy task. It is very lonely. You're all alone. You are not in company [...] You are delving into your depths, but you are profoundly lonely. It is one of the loneliest careers in the world [...] In writing, you are alone. That takes a lot of strength and a lot of will to do it.

If you're a writer and you're having trouble staying motivated and focused. And you don't know how to handle being constantly interrupted by selfish people who don't take your writing seriously, then The Tenants may be the novel and film for you, because Willie and Lesser are two writers who take their writing extremely seriously

Qualities of the Writer: Literate, Hard Working and Passionate

 

In a piece for the Los Angeles Times, "Viet Thanh Nguyen: In praise of doubt and uselessness" (April 14, 2017), Viet Thanh Nguyen, the author of The Sympathizer, which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, related that "acquiring technique" is only one part of becoming a writer, because possessing a "habit of the mind" is just as important. Nguyen wrote:

Becoming a writer was partly a matter of acquiring technique, but it was just as importantly a matter of [...] a habit of the mind. It was the willingness to sit in that chair for thousands of hours, receiving only occasional and minor recognition, enduring the grief of writing in the belief that somehow [...] something transformative was taking place. 

Thus, Nguyen opined that to become a writer, one must simply be literate and possess a good work ethic. But I would add that to sustain a good work ethic, a writer must write about a topic that he or she is passionate about. 

"How to Write Good"?

Advice to Writers posted "How to Write Good" (March 28, 2025), which is sixteen (16) writing tips from William Safire:

1. Avoid run-on sentences that are hard to read.
2. No sentence fragments.
3. It behooves us to avoid archaisms.
4. Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration.
5. Don't use no double negatives.
6. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, "Resist hyperbole."
7. Avoid commas, that are not necessary.
8. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
9. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
10. Writing carefully, dangling participles should not be used.
11. Kill all exclamation points!!
12. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
13. Take the bull by the hand and don't mix metaphors.
14. Don't verb nouns.
15. Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
16. Last but not least, avoid clichés like the plague.

It appears that Safire's advice was taken from his Fumblerules: A Lighthearted Guide to Grammar and Good Usage; however, anyone who is well-read could assume that Safire was trolling, and the title of the post would lead one to assume that as well, because there many authors whom creatively and successfully violate Safire's tips. 

For example, Vladimir Nabokov "creatively and successfully" used "affected alliteration" extensively throughout his oeuvre. For instance, take these two lines from Lolita:

• Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins
• Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth

A perusal of Safire's Wikipedia page revealed that he mostly wrote non-fiction, which his tips would be more appropriate for; so, the Advice to Writers post maybe should have been titled "How to Write Good [Non-Fiction]". 

Writing a Book: Talent vs. Grit

Reportedly, Colum McCann, the writer of literary fiction, guaranteed that a writer with 80% talent coupled with 100% desire will be "so much better" than a writer with 100% talent but with only 80% desire. McCann:

The writers who are prepared to keep going [i.e., gritty writers] are the ones who are going to make it. I can guarantee that a writer with 80 percent of the talent and 100 percent of the desire will be so much better than the person with 100 percent of the talent and only 80 percent of the desire. It always works that way. 

We posted previously that Angela Duckworth wrote in Grit that grit can be a better indicator of success than "talent" or IQ scores, because talent that's multiplied by effort equals skill, which when multiplied by effort, God willing, equals achievement. 

In addition, Duckworth shared four keys to possessing grit [as a writer]:

1. Develop a Fascination

In other words, write about something that you’re passionate about. Otherwise, you may become bored with the physical writing slash typing process.

2. Daily Improvement

Improving daily may not be sustainable, but if you've written for 30 minutes every day for a week, try to write for 45 minutes, which, once again, may be more sustainable if you're writing about a topic that you're passionate about.

3. Write about something that serves a greater purpose.

In other words, be an altruistic writer.

4. Growth Mindset

In other words, don't have a limiting mindset. For instance, if James Franco can write a book, God willing, you can too!

The Fear of Writing

Richard Rhodes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, reportedly opined that fear, not talent, stops most people from writing. Rhodes said:

"If you want to write, you can. Fear stops most people from writing, not lack of talent, whatever that is."

In addition, Rhodes implied that possessing passion is more important than treasuring talent. Rhodes said:

[...] You’re a human being, with a unique story to tell, and you have every right. If you speak with passion, many of us will listen. We need stories to live, all of us. We live by story. Yours enlarges the circle.

And I would add that a number who people who do overcome their fear of writing are reluctant to share their writing - out of fear. 

Similes and Metaphors: Keep it on the Body

Kimberly King Parsons related that a teacher advised her [during her MFA studies at Columbia University?] to “Keep it on the body.” In other words, Parsons was advised to connect every metaphor or simile to the human body. Parsons asked:

Why compare something rust-colored to a brick when you could compare it to a spleen? Why put a plane in the sky when you could put a floater on the back of somebody’s eyeball?

Parsons opined that “Keep[ing] it on the body [...] builds bodies and worlds simultaneously." 

You may not want to use this technique exclusively, but peppering your writing with metaphors and similes that are inspired by the human body could add some muscle to your writing, but you might have to reexamine your bio.