In 2025, I decided to create my own rules of writing in an effort to encourage myself to focus more on my craft. The rules were as follows:
- Allow yourself to write badly.
- There’s no such thing as a perfect first draft.
- Never know what you’re writing about.
- If necessary, do research.
These rules aren’t necessarily original. In fact, many writing instructors and of course other writers will tell you the same thing: Writing isn’t meant to be easy, but it’s more than worthwhile when you love it and are more than willing to put the time and effort into it. And believe me, I do love writing. Unfortunately, despite being chronically lawful good, I’m not great at following my own rules.
The first two rules were the biggest problems for me. I hate writing badly, and in fact I know very well that with my very best work, I’m a professional writer. However, the whole point of putting pen to paper is to express the ideas that are most prevalent in your mind at that time. It never needs to be perfect, hence Rule #2. The problem is, it’s very easy to be a perfectionist and not allowing yourself enough grace to make mistakes. I very much wanted to write the perfect first draft of a story, send it off, and have it accepted into a publication, preferably one that paid very well so I could start to make a living off my writing. However, that was also my biggest stumbling block. How do I create a piece of art that I like and make it ready for publication when I can’t even get past the first draft?
And then there’s Rule #3. I write science fiction and fantasy, blog posts, and essays. I’m also working my screenwriting skills. Writing, in other words, is my best skillset, and that’s a good thing as I always want to put different stories into play. The biggest problem I face is that I always want to know what I’m writing about, and that’s particularly challenging when you’re writing about fantastical environments, alien creatures, or other situations where you know nothing about their background. It’s taken me a long while to assure myself that it’s perfectly okay to walk into a story completely blind as to your destination. I’m not the kind of writer who can outline a story and then put it together piece by piece, though I’m more than willing to learn different styles of outlining, especially for screenplays. But overall, I need to learn how to accept the uncertainty of writing. Even when I look at Rule #4, which necessitates me learning more about different subjects to make my worlds or stories more realistic, it doesn’t mean that I’ll automatically know the end of my story.
All of this is to say that I actually have no idea what I’m doing at all as a writer. And maybe that’s the point. For all that I respect the rules I’ve created for myself, I haven’t done a good job of keeping up with them. And do writers necessarily need to have rules? And what’s the point in having them if you’re always breaking them all the time? Honestly, the main idea is to simply sit down and say to yourself, “Write, you fool!” so the work can get done, even if it’s sloppy, not well plotted, you don’t know the theme, or you don’t even know who your audience is.
No, sitting down and writing doesn’t mean to have to have a plan or strategy. You don’t need it to be perfect. You don’t need to worry about knowing what you’re writing about, at least at first. And research can wait until you’ve either brainstormed your idea enough or just want to write it because the idea is begging to be released.
Simply put, the act of writing is its own leap of faith. You need to be willing to allow yourself to take that leap. That’s it.
Now write, you fool. And don’t be afraid to look foolish.
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