In Octavia Butler’s essay “Furor Scribendi” the prolific and groundbreaking science fiction writer offers six succinct “rules” for those who are driven to write. Though these rules are geared toward fiction writing, they can be applied to all genres and the writing practice.
I summarize them here:
1. READ. Read the genres and modes you want to learn to write. Notice language, sounds, conflict, characterization, plotting. (My addition: take notes, make graphs, copy down sentences you like and read them out loud. Use your ear when you read and when you find something you like, figure out why you like it and emulate that.)
2. Take classes. Attend workshops. Butler says, “You need other people to let you know whether you are communicating what you think you are and whether you’re doing it in ways that are not only accessible and entertaining, but as compelling as you can make them.” We all worry if we are writing things that are “interesting.” A writing workshop can and should tell you (gently) if you are. Be open to learning from your peers and teachers. And, if you really want to write, learn your medium: grammar and sentence structure. These are your tools.
3. Write every day. Butler adds, “Journal writing helps you to be more observant of your world, and a journal is a good place to store story ideas for later projects.” We do this in our class through the Writers Notebook exercises. You are developing your skills of noticing, of paying attention, and figuring out your own unique way of getting those observations down.
4. Revise. My addition: Revise a lot. Some believe that revision is where the real writing appears.
5. Submit for publication.
6. My favorite “rule.” Here Butler tells you “impediments to writing” that new writers must forget about.
Here are some potential impediments for you to forget about: First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice. Forget talent. If you have it, fine. Use it. If you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter. As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent. Never let pride or laziness prevent you from learning, improving your work, changing its direction when necessary. Persistence is essential to any writer—the persistence to finish your work, to keep writing in spite of rejection, to keep reading, studying, submitting work for sale. But stubbornness, the refusal to change unproductive behavior or to revise unsalable work can be lethal to your writing hopes. Finally, don’t worry about imagination. You have all the imagination you need, and all the reading, journal writing, and learning you will be doing will stimulate it. Play with your ideas. Have fun with them. Don’t worry about being silly or outrageous or wrong. So much of writing is fun.
Citation: Butler, Octavia E.. Bloodchild: And Other Stories (pp. 141-142). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.
