Heinlein's Rules

Robert A. Heinlein is, quite possibly, the most famous American science fiction writer of all time.  Certainly he is one of the most famous, and his Rules have become a standard by which virtually all professional science fiction and fantasy writers abide.  They've needed remarkably little modification since their introduction, and if you've never seen them before, let me give you my interpretation.

1) WRITE
Easy to say, but harder to do.  You can't claim to be a writer if you don't write.  Manuscripts don't write themselves.  Words don't appear out of thin air.  Put your butt in the chair, get rid of all distractions, and write the damn words.

2) FINISH THE STORY
Also easier said than done.  We all get stopped or stalled.  Don't make it a habit.  Every story must reach an ending, sooner or later.  You can't mail it until it's concluded.

3) DON'T RE-WRITE WITHOUT A GOOD REASON
Endless re-writing never improves a manuscript.  It kills voice and creativity.  It blocks you from working on new material.  Avoid the advice of the Inner Critic to revise your story into the ground, and avoid the temptation to workshop your story to death.  Once you hit THE END and have sufficiently proofread the manuscript for common errors, call it good.

4) MAIL THAT MOTHER!
Follow the Basic Steps.  Get that thing out on the road.  You won't be published if nobody buys your work, and nobody will buy your work if it only ever sits on your hard drive or in the bottom drawer of your desk.  Swallow your fear, and mail it.

5) KEEP MAILING IT UNTIL IT'S BOUGHT
Manuscripts do not retire.  Keep the story out in the world until someone picks it up.  Stephen A. Donaldson's epic Thomas Covenant series was initially rejected 47 times before it sold.  Editor and author Dean Wesley Smith once kept a story on the market through over 30 rejections before it sold.  If you give up on your story, you automatically force everyone else to give up on it, too.

6) SIT DOWN AND WRITE SOMETHING NEW
Not originally part of the Rules, I call this the Sawyer Clause because Robert J. Sawyer added it when he did his own take on the Rules.  And it's essential to your wannabe career.  At least if you ever want to stop being a wannabe.  Having written one tale, you gotta start on the next one.  And the next one after that.  And the next one after that.  Looping through the Rules again and again, as long as it takes to break out, break in, or break through.

Now, just because I am geeky, I also offer....

Heinlein's Rules, the BASIC program!

10 WRITE
20 END WRITE
30 PRINT
40 MAIL
50 IF REJECTED THEN GOTO 120
60 IF ASKED TO REVISE THEN GOTO 80
75 IF SALE MADE THEN GOTO 140
70 IF WAITING THEN GOTO 150
80 REVISE PER EDITOR
90 RE-SUBMIT PER EDITOR
100 GOTO 150
120 RE-PRINT
125 RE-MAIL
130 GOTO 150
140 CELEBRATION
150 WRITE NEW
160 GOTO 20

Notice, there are no GOSUB in this program.

Why? The GOSUB, as it applies to Heinlein's Rules, invariably lacks a RETURN statement, and thus you end up leaving the program altogether and get stuck in a productionless, endless loop.

Examples of GOSUB would be:

WORRY OVER REJECTION
RE-WRITE BASED ON INTERNAL CRITIC
RE-WRITE BASED ON GROUP CRITIC
PROCRASTINATE (the biggest one!)

And millions of others. If you've been doing this for any length of time, you will have invented your own subroutines that have put you into a productionless, endless loop.

And then, of course, it's time to reboot! (Remember the Apple II?)
 

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