Read More Than You Write

1. Write a sentence a day
2. Write 1–4 stories a month
3. Finish and submit. Keep them in the mail until sold
4. Don’t rewrite except to editorial request
5. Read 10X what you write

There are few things sadder than aspiring writers who claim they have no time to read. Or say they don’t read because they are afraid of copying someone else’s style. This is ignorance. Most of our basic skills are learned by modeling: walking, talking, running, riding a bicycle…everything. We see others doing it, make a picture of that performance in our minds, and then perform, modifying actions as we measure results until we get those same result. Then keep doing that until we have it at “unconscious competence” at which point we can move to the next skill.

That’s the Path. I have a very difficult time thinking of human problems that do not yield to this approach.

I could teach a year just on this single principle. In fact, EACH of them could use a year of explanation and deep-diving, but if you will just DO it, you’ll learn all you need. It is also possible to look at rule #5 extrinsically, from OUTSIDE the process of creativity itself.

It is part of marketing. While it is true that masters in all fields seem to have encyclopedic knowledge of what came before, that is generally considered to be part of performance. But the BUSINESS of art demands sales and marketing. And either YOU know how to do this, or you have to…