WHEN YOU DON’T FOLLOW THE
RULES
YOU’RE BEING CREATIVE
Writing at a kitchen table
is like going for a walk on the Eisenhower Expressway. I suppose it can be
done, but it takes a person of unusual capabilities. I’m fortunate to have an
office in my house, but even that is like Interstate 20. There again, I’m
fortunate in having periodic access to an apartment where the only traffic is
the coming and going of the birds in the sky and the tides in the marshes.
I’ve read of people who can
write while in their car or babysitting or in a café. If you’re a writer who
needs only a chair and a laptop, go for it. I think I’m getting to a point,
which I’ve been thinking about this morning.
I'm Getting to the Point...
Writers get plenty of
advice about how to go about writing (like needing your own space). Just google
“advice on writing” and you can spend days studying what you should or
shouldn’t do. This advice derives from methods based on average experiences.
And it helps me to remember that the law of averages doesn’t necessarily apply
to me.
Even the short descriptions
following the title bar of these websites
make me shudder. Words such as commandments, rules,
and must convince me that some
advice is meant for unimaginative minds. How can a person constrained by rules
write creatively?
However, there’s much to be
said for reading advice. It contains the voice of experience. At the same time,
I like this quote from W. Somerset Maugham: "There are three rules for writing a
novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
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