Heinlein’s Five Rules On Writing

Robert A. Heinlein is a well known American science fiction author. Although he is already deceased, his five rules on writing is still always quoted not only by other science fiction authors, but by many authors in other genres as well.

In fact, George RR Martin who is a world famous author well known for his masterpiece which is the Game of Thrones book series, likes to quote Heinlein’s five rules on writing whenever he is asked by aspiring authors for writing tips.

George RR Martin is not the only famous author who has quoted Heinlein’s five rules on writing. Even Stephen King, a world famous author who is primarily known as the horror genre master in terms of writing, also endorses Heinlein’s five rules on writing.

His complete name is Robert Anson Heinlein. He was born on July 7, 1907, and died May 8, 1988. He was American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. He is sometimes called the "Dean of Science Fiction Writers”.

He is well known for pioneering the sub-genre of Hard Science Fiction. This is because of his strong emphasis on scientific accuracy in his fiction writing. His work continues to have an influence on the science fiction genre and with science fiction writers as well.

Perhaps the greatest reason why Heinlein’s five rules on writing is so famous up to now is because these rules are so basic. The rules never state anything about writing style, grammar, punctuation and so on.

Rather, the rules seemed to be made for the beginner up to the intermediate level author. For example the rule one which states that you must write. While most writing tips assume that their tip applies to those who are writing already, Heinlein’s first rule includes those who have not written anything yet.

So you can see that Heinlein’s five rules for writing does not only encompass those who are already writing, but those who have not written yet as well. This is the subtle genius of Heinlein’s simple but very broad rules for writing.

So what are Heinlein’s five rules on writing? In a nutshell and without explanation, these are the five rules for writing:

1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.

This first rule of Heinlein applies both to those beginner authors who have not written a single line of words and to those who are successful authors already. But this rule especially applies to those who have not written any line of words yet.

As many successful authors like George RR Martin has pointed out. There are many people who have stories in their minds and can tell a really good story. However, many of these people let their story ideas persist only in their minds.

There are still those who like to tell stories to their friends and tell their friends that they would like to write a novel or a nonfiction book one day. However, these people are merely talkers who like to talk rather than to act.

I Have No Time To Write

Usually these same people would reason that the reason they have not written a book is because they have no time to write one. They say that only professional authors have time to write a book.

But this is simply not true. There are breakthrough authors who find the time in their busy everyday lives to write a book. For example there are people who have time to watch several hours worth of television even though there is nothing in television to watch most of the time.

As one author pointed out, if you watch three hours of television a day then you can spend a few of these hours writing a book which could make you money and possibly make you famous as well.

If you think this is impossible, consider that television shows also come with commercials. And don’t tell me you also watch commercials. This is simply not true. Most people do not watch commercials and consider it a negative part of television entertainment.

So what can you do with commercial breaks? You can enrich yourself by writing a book while waiting for the commercials to end. It does not have to be actual book writing, but like planning and writing major parts of the book.

Only Professional Authors Have Time To Write Books

This is simply not true. There are many established authors who due to the financial constraints of a writing career still must do other jobs while they write. Of course there are really the professional authors who are so successful that all they do all day is to write books.

But for many authors, these are not their reality. Besides you have to start somewhere in writing in order to succeed. I have heard of very few authors who at the start were already writing full-time. In the writing industry, these kinds of breakthrough full-time authors are a rarity and not the norm.

For example, Neil Gaiman was a professional journalist while pursuing his author career. Stephen King worked at odd jobs while trying to establish a writing career. It is noted that he wrote his first novel “The Running Man” in only one week’s time.

Why did Stephen King write this novel so fast? It was because it was the only time he had for writing back then when he was still not a full-time author. He was so busy trying to support his family doing odd jobs that all he had back then was one week to write an entire novel.

Writer’s Block

This advise mostly applies to people who are already writing. Most of the time, writers would complain that they can’t write anything or can’t write anymore. This applies to both beginner and intermediate writers.

The reasons for a writer being unable to write could be varied. But it all boils to one point only, they have run out of ideas or words to write. I must admit that I suffer this affliction temporarily from time to time as even I know that most of the words and stories that need to be written down has already been written already.

But the cure for this problem is a simple one as well: Just write. Many authors state that all the writing ideas you have in your head might just be crap. But then again, all first writing drafts are considered crap as well. But writing crap can turn into writing gold once polished over and over.

So the secret to this problem is just to write what comes into your head and then once you are finished with even just one line of sentence, keep improving it until it becomes a writing masterpiece.

Another solution would be to read more or just know more what other authors have developed in their brains regarding new story ideas. For example, Joe Hill is good at writing truly original story ideas that the only thing you could say to him is: “What a genius story idea! Why didn’t I think of that?”

This used to be George RR Martin’s bane and to a point, he states that it is still a continuing problem for him. For example, many of his fans continue to hound him as to when his masterpiece novel series Game of Thrones would be finished.

In an interview with George RR Martin, he states that during his early years, he has written many books with only the beginning chapters completed. These forgotten books of him have no endings at all and might not even have a middle.

This is a serious affliction for many authors as well. Some authors can have a bagful of ideas that even before they have completed writing their first book, they are already thinking about their next book already.

I’m not saying that not finishing a book in favor of writing a new book which you think is better is bad. Rather, what I am saying is that if you are a chronic starter only and not a finisher, you are mostly doomed to fail in your venture.

There are many ventures in life where quick results are guaranteed. For example, if you open a bake shop, you would see in a few weeks if your bake shop has the makings of a profitable business.

The same cannot be said true for writing. Writing is a complex process these days that for one to gauge if their book has a semblance of success, they would have to wait for at least a year to pass to be able to gauge its success.

So the best cure to the probability of not finishing a book is to analyze from the very beginning if you are committed enough to write your book until the end. This usually means that you have to develop a solid story plot that you would be very interested to write until the end.

Most authors who do not finish their book is guilty of this writing mistake. You would notice it at the onset of your writing, you know you would finish your book when you can almost write it non-stop and the story ideas keep flowing through your head.

Compare this when you are writing a novel or a nonfiction book where everything seems to be a drag for you as you proceed in writing it. My advice would be for you to stop writing it and begin again by re-plotting your story until it becomes exciting for you to write it.

Many authors become so engrossed with their story that they devote almost all their time into it, polishing and rewriting it until it is almost completely different from its original form. The original story is lost amid the torrent of rewrites made by the author usually at the request of the publishers.

The business of writing is more about writing as many books and novels as you can to improve your chances of being discovered through one of your books. You cannot entirely depend your career on a single book only.

Agatha Christie, the famous writer of detective stories have written well over a hundred books and so is Barbara Cartland, the queen of romance stories. She has also written more than a hundred books of which it is rumored that over 400,000 are in circulation.

This is especially true now that writing books have become so accessible to many that there is fierce competition from both new and established authors for book readership. So treat your writing career like a real business and produce as much as you can and hopefully you get discovered.

This advise is for people who are sensitive and can’t stand the possible criticism of the public. There are many authors who write their book but don’t publish it. One of the reason has been said before, they are sensitive to what people might say regarding their book.

These people do not understand that conflict is a major part of everyday life maybe because they live a mostly sheltered life away from interacting with difficult people. People like actors, celebrities and social media personalities are more used to this problem.

Author who have problems dealing with their sensitivity to negative comments about their book or even directly at them should follow the examples of the actors and similar people who are mentioned.

It is noted that authors are usually the solitary type and this is precisely what their problem is. Authors must become used to living a very active social life so they learn to face public remarks whether good or bad about their book.

Of course in the age of self-publishing the problem of putting your work out to the market is a trivial problem only these days. You can make any book and publish it as an e-book for free at the many online book sellers and book aggregators out there like Draft2Digital.

Unfortunately, this is one writing advise from Heinlein that has not aged well. With today’s online book seller and book aggregator companies, one can make their book available to the entire world on a 24/7 basis.

This is understandable rule for Heinlein who lived before the internet and online book sales became the norm in selling books. During his days, books were only sold in print and making them available to the reading public on a consistent basis requires persistence.

And this is where Heinlein’s final rule takes us: Persistence. This means not giving up on marketing and promoting your book to the book reading public until it is sold. This is easier said than done.

But consider that during Heinlein’s time there was still no social media and other online platforms to promote your book. What he did during those days was to become as available as possible to all sorts of promotions for his book like conferences and interviews.

Although Heinlein’s five rules on writing has been stated ages ago, they are still helpful rules that are being followed by many authors both beginners and famous. Heinlein has left not only a legacy of bestselling science fiction novels but writing advise as well.

It is surprising that although Heinlein’s fifth rule has somewhat aged, the first four rules continue to be as relevant to today’s authors as the day when they were first mentioned. The first rule being the most important of all.

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