In the beginning of my writing career there were the Two Commandments of Writing. Number 1) Thou shalt read. A lot. Number 2) Thou shalt write. A lot. These seemed to be the two biggest universal rules of writing, and I followed them religiously. (Well, at least the first one, but we’re not here to talk about my sporadic writing habits, are we?) However, despite how true these two writing rules are, they don’t automatically make you a good writer, and it took me a painfully long time to realize that. While there are probably a lot more rules for good writing, I know for certain now that there are at least three.
You may be wondering what could be so important to writing that it deserved a place in the Commandments of Writing. Well, here it is, simple and probably incredibly obvious. Number 3) Thou shalt observe. I felt silly for not realizing that this was absolutely necessary in the life of a writer until now. In fact, I realize now that every single piece of good writing I’ve ever read was the product of an observant mind. This piece of advice is actually very similar to another piece of writing advice which is very controversial in the writing world, (I myself had shunned it previously.) the later piece of advice being ‘write what you know.’
When we think of writing what we know, we think of writing about boring everyday events. About things we have experienced first hand, and never crossing the line into the world of imagination. That’s a pretty boring way of writing, but I’m going to have to admit that there is some truth in the first part. This is where the rule of observation comes in. You see, when me make everything up based off of books we’ve read and movies we’ve seen and the way things would work in our personal utopian world, no matter how wonderful, it comes out flat and false sounding. But that doesn’t mean that we have to toss out fantasy and fiction altogether. In fact, fantasy that is strongly rooted in the reality of humanity and everyday life is some of my favorite writing.
It seems counter intuitive, but when we observe events in everyday life, record the way we feel during a conversation, notice the stubborn habits people have and then how they go and break the stereotypes we try to fit them in. Basing your characters off of real people and their experiences off of your own can make a good story an amazing story. A good example of this can be seen in C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien’s writing. Both are wildly popular for their fantasy novels, but they both base important characters and elements of their stories on real life. In fact, they each based a literary character on the other.
Now that you know what the third commandment of writing is, you may wonder how to follow it. Novice that I am on this topic, I know that there are several ways to do this. Firstly, try writing about your life, your experiences, especially the conflicts and embarrassing moments, those make the best stories. (Remember, you don’t have to share them with anyone!) Try keeping a journal and writing about specific moments during the day. Better yet, keep some type of writing utensil with you at all times and write down all of the unusual and usual things you notice vividly during the day. And always, always be honest.
Just a note of warning: if you do decide to base your next story or novel off of events in your home town take a page from Dante Alighieri’s book and change names and switch up some details so you don’t get exiled for life.
