10 Rules for Writers 2023

1. Do it for the joy. Not to please your audience. By doing this, you'll gain an audience when fortune strikes.
2. When you have a muse, write it. The minute the heavenly muse brings a theme into your mind, find time to put it to paper.
3. Don't do it for money. Certainly, as Pythagoras said, the mean man can take away what you have, but the wisdom gained, and the joyful heart, that is why we do it.
4. Be at peace. The writer needs to be at peace, as this is what writings are for, is communicating peace.
5. Be in love. The writer needs to be in love. Lucretius, in "On the Nature of Things" began his theme on Epicureanism with an exultation of Love. For it is man's greatest gift.
6. Everything is a muse. Everywhere you go, you'll take bits and pieces of knowledge, and you need to write it down. This builds the mind's capability to integrate knowledge, and transform it.
7. Write simply. Write complexly. Not platitudes. Not doublespeak. Write clear, and rich sentences, without platitude, and without unnecessary academese.
8. Build layers of meaning and nuance. Don't be afraid to enrich your audience, and have under layers of meaning, or be afraid to take things and make them meaningful.
9. Don't be crude. Don't write about suffering, and don't write without hope... hope is a powerful tool, and suffering needs to have a purpose, not be the point.
10. Kairos is not our ally. He is our enemy. The timing of the Zeitgeist and what it deems popular, is not our business... if we write well, we will be remembered.