From Edie: Writers, take a lesson from school days—rules matter. Find out why learning them first is key to growth, creativity, and storytelling success.
Back-to-School Lessons for Writers: Why Learning the Rules Matters
by Tim Suddeth @TimSuddeth
At this time of year, returning to school is on many of our minds. Even for us, who no longer attend or must wait in the pickup line after school. (Although I have a niece who’s a principal and three who are teachers.) Maybe it’s all the notebooks and Crayola boxes displayed at the front of stores. Or it could be the back-to-school commercials. Or possibly, it’s all the frowns on the little kid’s faces and the big smiles on their parents’.
The start of school is like finding a Pandora’s box of what-ifs. It reminds us of the many questions we had as we looked forward to a new year of school. Will I make new friends? Will I like the teacher? Will the teacher like me?
When I think back to grade school, I remember the first day of first grade at the old Gramling Elementary. That was before they had kindergarten or pre-K. (No, it wasn’t a one-room schoolhouse, but close.) On my first day of school, Mom took a picture of me at the front door with a big grin and new school clothes (which, I’m sure, looked a lot different after recess.). I had no way of knowing the learning curve just to get through that first year.
In the first year of school, teachers instill the importance of rules in their students. And there are lots of rules. Some were posted on the walls, but most were rules your teacher had to explain. Repeatedly. And I had multiple sets of rules to learn. The teachers had rules for the class. No talking. Raise your hand. Stand in line. Hands to yourself. Don’t throw paper airplanes. Don’t throw Sherman out the window. All kinds of rules.
There was whole other set of rules for the school bus. Stay in your seat. Keep your hands to yourself. No shouting. But I didn’t have to worry about learning them at first. I rode the bus with my older brother and four high-school “friends”. Picture two high school football players seating in the seat with Spanky from Little Rascals wedged between them. That was my bus ride. I couldn’t take a breath until they let me off at my house.
But the most important set of rules the first grader had to learn was left for recess. These you learned from experience, and you didn’t dare forget them. As a first grader, you were the low man on the totem pole and had to know your place. Don’t speak to an upperclassman. Don’t pull Tammy’s pigtails. (She wore cowgirl boots and wasn’t afraid to use them.) And don’t be seen talking to a girl, unless she was a cousin.
A lot of these rules sound silly now, (Except for not talking to girls.) but they had an important role in helping us mature. To kids (and to too many adults), the world centers on them. Some of the most important lessons a new student learns are how to get along with others, how to share, and that others are just as important as themselves.
For a new writer, they also face a plethora of rules to learn. And they may feel like they did in their algebra class. They feel like they will never use them, but learning the rules enables the writers to develop their own writings and voices. It’s how you learn the craft of writing, and how you learn to be a contributing member of the writing community.
Yet, writing rules are like the rules for first grade (and that first set of jeans), they are meant to be outgrown. W. Somerset (Now that’s a good name for your next child.) Maugham is credited with saying, “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” That sums up a lot of writing. There are guidelines, suggestions, and wise advice to help every writer no matter what their genre or type of writing. However, there are no hard set, universal rules that cover every situation. That’s where our creativity, experience, and uniqueness come into play.
When you look at the best writers, the most popular writers, the ones who earn the most acclaim, they’re the ones who’ve dedicated the years and the effort to learn their craft. To write their sentences clearly, yet succinctly. To study their genres. And to know how and when to turn the tropes on their heads.
I didn’t know when I walked through those doors that first day that it was only the first of many years of classes, lessons, and hard work. Learning, like becoming the best writer you can be, doesn’t happen over night. They both take a lot of work and a lifetime of experience.
Yet at the same time, all writers start in the same place. With discoveries and relationships to make, and chances to take. We all have our school stories to tell, but we have to admit, those classes and lessons went a long way to making us who we became.
And learning the rules of writing, and when to use them, will take you a long way on your writing journey. To … who knows. But the journey will be quite an adventure.
Intriguiging post, Tim. Learning back in "the good ole days" reminds me of the joyful effort (almost) every teacher from K - 12 made to connect with each student, teach simple rules to help learn even the most difficult things, and to praise all good work. Then the stark difference in college where most professors seemed to take pride is communicating that all learning in his or her classroom was up to me and they, frankly, could care less whether I passed or failed. I attended three different colleges before all those messages from K - college sunk in. It was a roller coaster ride, but I made it. I'm glad I never knew Somerset Maugham's famous quote along the way. I was the kind to take the easier way out or shortcut when possible, but the business world and being a member of a writer's guild in retirement has proved that sharing, playing well with others, paying attention to accomplished speakers and writers, learning good rules and when to use them..... well, it just proves to me that learning never ends, and there are no shortcuts. Success is still up to me, but the journey is full of opportunity for all of us. It all matters. Thanks for this reminder, Tim.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Jay. Well said.
ReplyDeleteTim Suddeth