Robert Heinlein's Rules for Writers

Robert Heinlein, sometimes called the Dean of science fiction, had five rules for writers.  For those of us who see ourselves as writers, they have stood up pretty well to the test of time.

Heinlein’s Original Rules:
1. You must write.
That's not hard.  I constantly turn to writing for fun.  It means that I read less than I used to read, but I love to write. 

2. You must finish what you write.
A little harder for me.  I have a number of unfinished pieces.  I am torn between writing what I like, and writing what I can sell.  At the moment, I have six pieces in various stages of development, but that's not all bad.  Sometimes pieces need to perk, or need to find a home (an interested magazine) before they can be completed.  But I hope that number doesn't increase.

3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
Hard.  When does "writing" become "rewriting?"  Every piece gets revised along the way.  At least, mine do.

4. You must put the work on the market.
I think he means "sell it."  I have not found  that to be a problem.  I've been very fortunate in finding a home for most of what I have written.


5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.
Not quite sure what he means, except "keep selling."  That's curious, coming from him, because with one or two exceptions when he was starting out, Heinlein sold everything he wrote  

Malevil, by Robert Merle. I'd rate it 8.5 out of 10

Malevil is a 1972 French novel about a man who restores a medieval castle in rural France as a tourist attraction.  He and some friends and employees are in a vault deep int he castle bottling wine when a nuclear holocaust hits the region, and therefore survive.  The novel starts out slow, but picks up pace nicely after the bomb drops.  Nice character development, and this work doesn't suffer for being translated from French, although it feels a bit dated today.  It was made into a movie in 1981, which wasn't released in the U.S., although it may be available on DVD.  I'd rate it an 8.5 out of 10, which is pretty high for me.

The book is hard to find, and relatively expensive when you do find it. 

Robert Merle also wrote The Day of the Dolphin, which was made into a movie, I think with George C. Scott.

How to teach your kids to love books.

Some years ago, one of my kids won a reading contest at school.  My kid's teacher came to me and asked for advice on how to get her kid interested in reading.  Here's the conversation that followed:

Me: Do you have books in the house?

Teacher:  Sure.  We have a bookcase.

Me:  We have four thousand books in our house.  My son probably has a thousand books of his own.

Teacher:  Oh my gosh.

Me:  Do you read to her?

Teacher:  Well, I did, when she was little.

Me:  I still read to my son.  He can read on his own, and doesn't need my help, but we both enjoy being together with a good book.  It's a special time for us.   We often read together just before lights out.  Does your kid have a tv in her room?

Teacher:  Well, yes.

Me:  Not my son.  We help him manage his tv, and video games, too.  It leaves a lot more time for reading.

End of story.   My daughter loves reading every bit as much as my son.  Both are adults now, and they manage their own time.  They find time to read dozens of books every year.  Most adults haven't read a single book since they left high school.

It's not hard.  If you want your kids to read, fill your house with books.  Let your kids see you reading.  And tell your kids to turn the tv off.

This blog is parked at styloarripere.blogspot.com

Stylo arripere means "seize the pen" in Latin.

I wanted Carpe librum, "seize the book" but it was already taken

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

I love books.  I love looking at them, reading them, and of course, buying them.  I tried estimating how many books I own, and gave up when I started getting to scary numbers.  I picked up a copy of a first edition of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at an estate sale not long ago.  It was two dollars, so I figured I couldn't get hurt.   It had no dust jacket, and the owner's name scrawled in front, so it turns out it is worth about what I paid for it.  It was written, by the way, by Ian Fleming, of James Bond fame.  Now, there's a writer who could move from genre to genre. 

I wish there were a place that I could get a good scan of an original dust jacket.  I know that there websites where you can order a replacement dj, but the cost would be prohibitive.  Wouldn't it be nice if we could help one another with that, share our dust jackets?  Two problems, of course.  First, most of us don't have a scanner big enough to scan an entire dust jacket.  And even if we did, we don't have a printer big enough to reprint one. 

Keep reading.