Please note that Tapas no longer supports Internet Explorer.
We recommend upgrading to the latest Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Firefox.
Comics
Novels
Mature
Merch Shop
Discover
Daily feed Comics feed

A stream of trending comic episodes

Help Discord Newsfeed Studio Tapas
Log in
Publish
    Home
    Comics
    Novels
    Mature
    Merch Shop
    Discover
  • Comics feed
  • Help
  • Discord
  • Newsfeed
  • Log in or Sign up
  • Get the iOS App

Writing Quick Guides

Rule #1

Rule #1

Jul 29, 2022

Just about every single writing technique or rule has exceptions. None are inviolable. Except for one.

It's a rule so important that I tell my students to tattoo it on the insides of their eyelids if they have to, and I express it using coarse language to make sure they will always remember it. A rule so impactful that it can ensure that your writing might not be good on a given day, but it will never be mediocre. In over 30 years of writing and over 20 years of writing professionally, it remains in my mind the first rule, and the only inviolable rule. It is rule #1.

To talk about this rule, I need to tell a story about my favourite author, Harlan Ellison (who, as far as I know, at the time of his death was the most decorated author in the English language).

Harlan Ellison was teaching at a Clarion writer's workshop one year, and he handed his class an assignment: write a story about where the lost things go.

The class went away and wrote their stories. They all wrote about socks disappearing, gnomes stealing nick-knacks and the like, and then handed their stories in. Ellison read them, and flunked the entire class. Not a single pass among them.

When he took up the assignment the next day, he ran the class over the coals. Who gives a damn about nick-knacks, or socks, he demanded. Nobody cares about the irrelevant, or trivial. What about HOPES? What about DREAMS? What about that one chance you had at true love, and you missed it? THAT is what you need to write about - those things that are important and always worth caring about.

Rule #1: ALWAYS WRITE ABOUT THE IMPORTANT SHIT.

RobertBMarks
Robert B. Marks

Creator

Want to support this and other fiction and non-fiction projects? I've now got a Ko-fi page, with exclusive member content: https://ko-fi.com/robertbmarks

Comments (2)

See all
Studio Manex
Studio Manex

Top comment

I read the entire thing, It's a true writer's guidebook. Much more concise and straight to the lesson as opposed to other guidebooks. Please read until the end.

1

Add a comment

Recommendation for you

  • Blood Moon

    Recommendation

    Blood Moon

    BL 41.5k likes

  • Find Me

    Recommendation

    Find Me

    Romance 3.2k likes

  • The Sum of our Parts

    Recommendation

    The Sum of our Parts

    BL 6.2k likes

  • Secunda

    Recommendation

    Secunda

    Romance 39.2k likes

  • What Makes a Monster

    Recommendation

    What Makes a Monster

    BL 62.7k likes

  • Silence | book 1

    Recommendation

    Silence | book 1

    LGBTQ+ 20.5k likes

  • feeling lucky

    Feeling lucky

    Random series you may like

Writing Quick Guides
Writing Quick Guides

1.7k views15 subscribers

New to the craft? Trying to figure out how to create strong and compelling characters? Want to know how to create suspense, or bring a tear to your readers' eyes?

Then this is the series for you.

I'm Robert B. Marks, an author, editor, and publisher. I've been writing professionally since 1998, and I've got hundreds of publication credits under my belt. I also teach writing and disaster analysis to fourth year math and engineering students at my local university. And I've done a lot thinking about the craft of writing and storytelling over the last few years.

These are my quick guides to many of the techniques and tools you will be using as a storyteller, highlighting how the mechanisms behind them work. Most are principles that will get you best results, but there is one hard rule. Hopefully, these tips should be able to help your stories soar to new heights.

There is no regular update schedule, but any quick guides that appear in the Tapas Forums will also be posted here.

Want to support this and other fiction and non-fiction projects? I've now got a Ko-fi page, with exclusive member content: https://ko-fi.com/robertbmarks
Subscribe

26 episodes

Rule #1

Rule #1

335 views 8 likes 2 comments


Style
More
Like
15
Support
List
Comment

Prev
Next

Full
Exit
8
2
Support
Prev
Next