Words to Live (Read, and Write) By
Laying out standards of reading and writing into a new set of artistic principles.
Let me say something right up front: I’m not a subscriber to the “no rules” side of writing — and I’m tired of bad writers abusing the patience of readers. Simple as that.
This isn’t a diatribe against anarchy or artistic freedom. I believe in the usefulness and beauty of frameworks. I believe in having a principled foundation for life and art.
To that end, I’m laying out a few principles for writing and reading that I believe will result in a better relationship with literature.
I believe frameworks can aid freedom — especially creative freedom. Having a framework is like responding to a writing prompt, but in the realm of purpose. For a while now I’ve been brewing a sort of writer’s credo to keep me on track.
Some of my personal artistic principles are:
Err on the side of empathy
Simply put, I believe in writing characters that are not good or evil, but human. I don’t write villains. The writer is a packer and unpacker of human emotion. If you don’t understand a person you cannot write about them with sufficient agency and interiority.
