3 Cosmic Rules of Writing

"You don't build a story you allow it to explode." Ray Bradbury

Writing Wider, More Exercises in Creative Writing (Writing Wide, Exercises in Creative Writing)

(The book cover image is different in this Kindle Version but it's the same book as available from Magellan books as an ebook.)

There are rules to write well – Oh you knew that. Well Dennis Palumbo gives us "3 Cosmic Rules of Writing" they are:

1.    1.   You are enough.  I love this one because I think most authors lack self-esteem because they thing there must be some magic to being a top-notch, best-seller – Patterson, Koontz, Cornwell – yes, they all write well and I bet they didn't always think they could. But that is the key – from Henry Ford – If you think you can't you can't if you think you can, you can – slightly paraphrased there but you get the message. You can, you are enough! (yes and I hate exclamation points but this one deserves it.)

2.     2.  Work with What you're Given –that ads to the you are enough. Your experiences are great fodder for a start. You have a unique life history that no one else can possibly have – you are the only one – of you in this moment in time—you are enough and you have been given all you need to work with. No Excuses as Wayne Dyer and Joe Vitale both say in their recent books. 

3.    3.   Writing Begets Writing – Now that's just plain awesome. It's true. The more you write, the more you'll find out you can write. A brain surgeon doesn't close his text book and open a person's skull and begin cutting any more than you can write one sentence a year and expect to be a great writer. Okay, that's a bold faced exaggeration. But the truth is if you write every single day – whatever amount of time you can spare – you will be a writer. To be a writer you have to write. 

toTo write a book, one page a day would give you 365 pages in a year. I guarantee you if you follow Julia Cameron's 3 long hand pages in your journal a day, advice – you will see the pages add up and you will all of a sudden realize – if you were working on your book – look at the pages you will have accumulated in a few months or a year.

EyEye on the target – write like your fingertips are on fire – write like the wind in whatever mode it is today. Get those words on the page, they don't need to be perfect—that's what the revision is for RE –VISION your work.

Next the "Treadmill Journal" – I absolutely love this phrase – and the method behind it is even more interesting. Gregory Martin came up with the idea – more tomorrow.