Hatrack River Writers Workshop: They're Laws unto Themselves

This is topic They're Laws unto Themselves in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

This is for discussing "laws" attributed to famous authors (mostly science fiction, but surely there are others who've come up with laws as well).

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Clarke's Law (as in Arthur C. Clarke):

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Sturgeon's Law (as in Theodore Sturgeon):

Ninety percent of anything is drek.

(Okay, they're paraphrases. I admit it.)

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Heinlein's Laws of Writing (as in Robert A. Heinlein):

1--write

2--finish what you write

3--revise only at the request of an editor

4--send it out

5--keep sending it out until you sell it

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Okay, Heinlein's Law #3 drives writers nuts (especially those who belong to writing groups), so I'd like to offer something I heard Harry Turtledove say about that law, and add my own comments.

What Harry Turtledove said was that Heinlein did not mean writers should not polish and rewrite their stories. They should do that--first drafts are rarely ever of publishable quality.

Turtledove said that Heinlein was saying if a writer comes up with an idea that could be added to the story, the writer should save it for a new story--only add ideas when an editor (someone who is going to pay you money) asks you to.

Now, my comments:

There are two aspects of writing that every writer should consider: story-telling and word-smithing (also known as story and discourse, or content and expression).

Putting ideas together, working out characterization, story structure, plot, setting, etc, etc, etc, are all part of story-telling (figuring out what the story is that you are telling).

If you do your story-telling first, you have a better chance of obeying Heinlein's law #2.

Once you've got a first draft completed, then you can worry about word-smithing (description, word choices, style, voice, and so on--how you tell the story you are telling).

There are probably billions of brilliant first sentences out there, and millions of dazzling first paragraphs, and hundreds of thousands of exquisite first pages, and tens of thousands of wonderful first chapters, but few people will ever see them because the authors stopped working on the story-telling and concentrated on word-smithing one sentence or one paragraph or one page at a time and never managed to finish the story.

Heinlein, if Turtledove is right, was saying get the story written down (do the story-telling) and then do the word-smithing, and don't go back to story-telling once you've got a good story (don't change the ideas, the structure, the characters, or whatever).

If you get another great idea, save it for the next story. If you let new ideas take over old stories, you run the risk of never having any stories that are complete and ready to be read, much less publishable.

Posted by Khyber (Member # 1651) on :

http://www.sfwriter.com/ow05.htm

Robert Sawyer has a page on those five, too. I had it bookmarked.

Posted by Sachant (Member # 1648) on :

I was just about to grab Heinlein's laws but Kathleen beat me to it. One day I'll actually stick to #2 and finish the bigger stories I want to tell.

Posted by Balthasar (Member # 5399) on :

We can't forget Stephen King's two laws of writing.

1. Read a lot.

2. Write a lot.

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

I've heard those laws before....one of these days I need to listen! (It sure has to work better than always starting over because it just doesn't "sound" right.)