The Craft: Rules for Writing, Rule #3: The Elvis Principle

Alright, we’ve covered the basics. The two most fundamental rules for writing: Get Black on White and NO CRITIC. If you follow those rules you’ll pump out lots of raw material without stopping to criticize yourself.

But that’s just the start. What do you write about? What’s worth writing? And how do you keep going? I’ll handle those topic in greater depth later, but I want to talk about something even more basic today.

There’s a lot of advice out there for writers. “Show, don’t tell,” “Write...