By Larry Leech @LarryJLeechII

My must-haves have changed in the past 12 months when I left the house for a chai latte, to run an errand, or dinner with my sweetie:

August 2019: Cell phone, wallet, keys. Simple. Easy to remember.

August 2020: In addition to the aforementioned, like many, I’ve added a gallon of hand sanitizer, a mask (homemade has been preferred), and a six-foot pole to enforce social distancing. Well, maybe not that last one. But wouldn’t that be fun—to walk into a store and push people away who get too close. Hey, I might be onto something. Or I might land in jail. 

But I digress. My point is “must-haves” are important. Unfortunately not all agree. Surprisingly, many people have balked at wearing a mask. My thoughts on that are for another column in another place. 

In writing, the must-haves are rules. Or in some cases, to quote Barbossa in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, “… the code is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.”

In writing, an unwritten code is to follow the rules and guidelines. But surprisingly, some people don’t want to follow them either. Here’s where I shake my head. If this was a text, I’d write: smh

I’m not standing on a soapbox when I say or write this, but I have been baffled by writers, particularly those new to the craft who don’t want to follow rules or the guidelines. One writer even called out Stephen King on Twitter, telling him the rules of writing were ridiculous. Not only did I shake my head on that one, my mouth dropped open, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head.

Whether we like it not, we have rules that we must follow each day and each time we venture out into public. Writing is no different. We have rules, and guidelines, for a reason.

These things are important:

Word counts for genres. Check out this Writer’s Digest article if you’re not sure of the word count for your genre.

Formula for each genre, be it fiction or nonfiction. Although some novelists believe story trumps structure, if you’re new at this writing thing, or early in your journey, structure can be a good guide.

Deadlines. Make ’em. Most writers don’t and a missed deadline wreaks havoc on the production schedule.

Write tight. Don’t bog down the reader with unnecessary detail or information. I learned a long time ago from a veteran writer that a good manuscript is not based on what is in it, but what is left out. 

This is not a comprehensive list. We have plenty of books on the craft about the rules and guidelines that we need to incorporate into our writing.

I encourage you to learn the craft, and keep learning, even if you have been writing for decades. Industry icon Cec Murphey, who wrote into his early eighties, said late in his career that he never wanted to stop learning.

If someone like Cec who wrote close to 200 books that sold millions never wanted to stop learning, I think we would be wise to follow his lead. 

And now that I think about, I’d probably be better off focusing on learning and not worrying about pushing people away with a six-foot social distancing pole.

Writing coach of award-winning novelists, Larry J. Leech II has spent nearly 40 years working with words. After a 23-year journalism career that began in 1981, Larry moved into freelance writing and editing in 2004. He has ghostwritten nearly 30 books and edited more than 250 manuscripts. Larry teaches at numerous conferences nationwide and can be found online on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and his website, www.larryleech.com.