Earlier today I was clicking around, procrastinating, and I found Jack Kerouac’s “List of 30 Beliefs and Techniques for Writing and Life” on some lose-your-life-down-a-hole-of-links website. I hadn’t seen it before, and it was quirky and interesting and something I found myself thinking about most of the day. I decided I needed to have my own, as a sort of guiding star. And because it was fun.
Brett Jenkins’s List of 30 Beliefs and Techniques for Writing and Life
- write a lot just write everything down write it all write as much as you can.
- fuck capitalization we are only alive for so many years.
- If you want to capitalize things, do it. What do I know.
- listen to me or don’t.
- write down all of your dreams.
- don’t be afraid to fail we are all failing every single moment we are humans (we are also succeeding by living through this failure) (we are suns we are stars).
- keep everything you write – don’t throw anything away.
- doodle sometimes.
- “find those with whom you have rapport and proceed.”
- break rules. make new ones. break those too.
- stumble onto things topple onto things fall headfirst onto things.
- let yourself miss an appointment because you got caught up reading weird articles about horses or exorcisms or unexplained disappearances
- don’t apologize so much. stop giving so many fucks. start taking fucks back.
- write fast and write often.
- find something small and hold it with your hands.
- keep a box full of weird stuff you wrote down in your sleep (it’s good for parties).
- latch onto a fireball every now and then.
- honestly? sometimes quantity over quality is the best philosophy.
- if you’re stuck on something, sing as loudly as you can.
- don’t write like your parents are dead but DO write like YOU are dead (pretend you’re a ghost).
- what works for somebody else might not work for you. if you don’t want to get up early DON’T. you can write anytime, any day. just write, you ding dong.
- if you mis-read or mis-hear something, just go with it. nine times out of ten your brain will make whatever that person said or wrote much better/funnier/more insightful.
- everyone/thing has inherent value – if you want to write about a goat or a toaster, go for it.
- read everything.
- have at least one notebook or journal or diary or pile of index cards that will always be SECRET and let yourself write whatever you want there. everything is permissible.
- let your obsessions lead you like a river
- [make up your own rule and put it here.]
- if your shit is far apart, get it together.
- keep writing. especially when people tell you you’re doing it wrong. at least somebody’s reading it.
- make time (there is enough time) (there is always enough time).
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