The Grasshopper #39: The Rules
Not your rules, mine for myself as a writer
When you decide to take your writing beyond the amateur level, and that is not a criticism of amateurism, things have to change in the way you go about your work. I’m not much on rules, but I have a few internalized rules that help me stay sharp and avoid getting sloppy.
Having these personal guidelines serves as a kind of mental checklist to help me stay on track, especially now that I am on a particularly busy writing schedule. I’m going to try and lay them out here. I hope they are useful for those wanting to go to the next level as a writer.
Here we go, in no particular order:
When asked what I do for a living the answer is, I am a writer. This one is about personal buy-in as a professional. You may be just getting started, or putting your stuff out there in public for the first time, but either way you need to take your dream into the real world. Own it.
Write a minimum word count daily. Yes, you’ll hear this ad nauseam, but it is the single most important thing you can do to get better. And you will get better. Having a rule like this helps eliminate the ‘I’m not in the mood’ or ‘I don’t know what to write’ excuses for not writing. Write anything but do it regularly. You are training your subconscious mind to get in the habit of writing daily. Yes, seven days a week, unless you are on vacation. Btw, take vacations.
Never think of it as work. More mental training in thinking of writing as a gift that costs nothing and rewards like few other things. I look forward to it every day.
Publish every day. These rules are just my internal touch points, so this one may not be for everyone. But I’ve found that putting it out there on a regular basis is a game changer, a game changer that did not exist when I was starting out. It will change how you read and write.
Be an avid reader. You can go to a million workshops but the place you really learn how to write is by reading, and reading widely. I am continually in awe of the writers I admire. If something really strikes me, I’ll reread it. The first read is for enjoyment, the following to see how the writer does what they do.
Have a longer term project. I write many short articles, 500-1000 words, mostly opinion pieces and this newsletter. But I don’t feel right unless I have a bigger project, in my case a novel, that I am chopping away at. Maybe it is because my first real writing experience, the one that made me a pro, was a book deal (a nonfiction how to book). The mindset and time frame are very different, as will be the rewrite process that finetunes the story.
Get paid. Yes, it is possible. You’re not really a pro until you get paid. And the correlating rule is don’t write for free unless it is by choice. For some reason many people think of writers as desperate and therefore a dime a dozen. We are not and need to make sure others know it.
Be a professional. This is the underlying theme of The Grasshopper. Professionalism means setting standards for yourself and aspiring to them. That means polishing your work, behaving like a member of an ancient profession (storytelling, the most ancient), and respecting the work and the readers.
I think that’s enough to swallow. This newsletter is about the writing lifestyle and that is not a minor state of mind, it is an avocation, a calling of sorts, and (in my view) a noble one. Respect and enjoy it- a lot of people would like to be in your shoes!
Perspective shift
“Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche described it as sitting in a train and watching all the scenery go by. Beautiful countryside, ugly slums, whatever- we just observe it. We don’t jump off the train to explore everything that is passing by. We are sitting in a train just observing what is passing by.”
From The Heroic Heart, a modern commentary on the The Thirty-Seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva, commentary by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
It’s 6am and for some reason I decided to clean my espresso machine, which is a major project because it is bulky and filled with water, which I immediately manage to spill all over my counter. The machine is still hot from my first cappuccino so I’m trying not to burn myself.
This is one of those tasks you put off until you can no longer ignore it. Then you plunge in to get it over with, without thinking it through. Today I launched a second newsletter, The Witness Chronicles, designed to showcase a few of my articles that I write for Medium, my ‘day job’. You will have received an email with the first issue because technically it is part of The Grasshopper.
Of course I screwed it up and had to go back and fix things this morning at 5am. I am not usually up that early but some meds I’m taking have my sleep cycle all screwed up. So, I find myself writing this in the pre-morning darkness while the coffee machine dries out in the kitchen.
The point? Sometimes you just have to dive in and do things even if you don’t want to or the timing is not optimal, including writing. I didn’t want to deal with fixing that newsletter or espresso machine this morning while groggy as hell, but I set a schedule and I can’t start out violating it. Besides, I want another coffee.
It’s no different with a daily writing regimen, the fastest way to improve as a writer and find your following and voice. I write every day and if I don’t, things don’t feel right. All that means is that I have installed writing as a habit that is ingrained. Fortunately I love this lifestyle.
Before Covid my plan was to become a nomad writer, taking trains around the country and visiting friends. Trains are perfect places to write, though you may not have internet access all the time. But Google Docs has a ‘write offline’ function so you can write without a connection and sync up when you do.
The Amtrak cafe and observation cars have really nice booths with big windows that are my dream office (see photo, shot somewhere in Colorado). A comfortable seat, big table, a huge window, and you often have it all to yourself. And if you’re sharing, strike up a conversation, another big benefit of train travel.
Now I am planning to take up that dream again and see a bit of the country. Writing on a train has the advantage of offering fascinating views from your ‘office’ that change constantly, even in Nebraska, where you pass through endless fields of corn and wheat. I find it meditative and conducive to clearing your head.
This is one of the great things about building a profession as a writer- you are completely portable. When I travel this winter I will probably only take an iPad and leave my MacBook at home. Who needs the weight? It’s actually rare for me to use the laptop these days.
So, here I am, up early on a winter morning, writing in between cleaning my espresso maker, contemplating the eternal loneliness of long train travel, a great way to reset life and recharge your creative resources. There’s a sliver of light outside my window, dawn, and I’m dreaming of those endless fields sliding by like a dream.
Looking at my subscriber stats I am always struck by what an international list it is. Here in the States we tend to assume that our readers are in the US. It’s a kind of ingrained nationalism that is probably not justified. But for a writer who predates the Internet, this ability to have a global reach for my niche newsletter is a big deal, especially because writing and storytelling are so universal to the human experience.
Ciao,
Martin
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