Heinlein's 5 essential SF rules, and Sawyer's 6th

Grateful thanks to Robert J Sawyer, whose excellent site and books have inspired me so much.

Robert J Sawyer: "If you start off with a hundred people who say they want to be writers, you lose half of the remaining total after each rule - fully half of the people who hear each rule with fail to follow it."

Rule One: You Must Write.

Rule Two: Finish What You Start.

Sawyer adds: "You'll never master such things as plot, suspense, or character growth unless you actually construct and entire piece."

Rule Three: You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order.

Sawyer: "Don't tinket endlessly with your story."

Rule Four: You Must Put Your Story On The Market.

Rule Five: You Must Put Your Story On The Market Until It Has Sold.

Sawyer: "...simply turn the story around."
Sawyer: "If...rejected...send it out that very same day to another market."

And, finally, Sawyer's Rule, Rule Six: Start Work On Something Else.

Sawyer: "As soon as you've finished one piece, start on another."

I calibrate these rules at 400, but Heinlein himself tests weak (below 200 level of consciousness according to Dr Hawkin's arbitrary scale of human consciousness and kinesiological testing). Robert Sawyer tests strong, a rarity for science fiction author's, many of whom test weak and present negative and/or dehumanising visions of the future as an inadvertent result. He tests at level of consciousness 362, quite remarkably high.

You might compare these above rules with Robert Fritz's Creating Rules: which I will leave for a fuller discussion of power in a later blog entry

Enjoy!