The Writing Rules: forget them

We writers tend to be hung up on “rules”. We want to know the RIGHT way to format a manuscript, address an editor, write a pitch… after all, we must obey the rules.

There are NO rules
Truly, there aren’t. Yes, there are guidelines for formatting manuscripts, addressing an editor, and pitches, and so on, but so what? On discussion boards, some new novelists want to know manuscript format before they’ve written a word of a novel. These minor obsessions for knowing exactly how everything is done is just procrastination, due to insecurity.

Please don’t worry about how things are done. Do them YOUR WAY.

A couple of weeks ago in the ezine I wrote Freelance Success By Showing Up:

Woody Allen summarizes the best-ever advice for writing, and for living, with his famous quote: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” In your freelance writing career, you show up by writing every day, as well as by contacting writing markets and by offering your work for sale.

If you’ve been procrastinating about writing, or are avoiding marketing your work, try my two-pronged “show up” technique, and you will be amazed at the results. I teach this technique to my writing students. It works. Students who are unpublished, brand-new writers have often sold their first piece of writing within a couple of weeks once they start showing up.

Showing up is vital. It’s immaterial HOW you show up. I’ve never heard of an editor refusing to look at a pitch because it was written in an “incorrect” format. There’s no incorrect format – in fact, if you hew too closely to guidelines, editors get annoyed because it looks like boilerplate, and as if you haven’t bothered to do it your way.

Be creative, and make your own rules.

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