The Final Writing Rule

#1 Write a sentence a day

#2 Write 1–4 stories a month

#3 Finish them. Put them in the mail and keep them there until they sell.

#4 Do not re-write except to editorial request

#5 Read 10X what you write

The sixth and final basic Lifewriting For Writers principle is to:

#6: REPEAT THIS PROCESS 100 TIMES.

Let me tell you a story. When I began my writing career, I had all the confidence in the world, but no experience in the real world of publishing. Reality was painful: rejection after rejection. I just KNEW my stories were great, but why were they getting these little printed slips saying, in essence what was once said to Snoopy: “I am returning this sheaf of paper. Someone wrote on it.”

The confidence was false ego. And when reality cracked that shell, I fell into depression. Maybe I’m no good. Maybe I’ll never be good…

Even back then, in my 20’s, I was modeling the behavior, emotions, and experiences of those on the path. And one thing that most of them talked about was failure. Trunk novels. “Paper your walls with rejection slips” and bouts of crippling self-doubt.

Although I’d not yet made my breakthrough with the Hero’s Journey, I recognized the Dark Night of the Soul when I saw it. I intuited that the process of moving from one level of life to the next invariably involves despair, the emptying out of false confidence and breaking through…