Robert Heinlein's Rules for Writers

Robert Heinlein gave writers five “Business Rules” in his 1947 essay “On the Writing of Speculative Fiction.” They’re blunt, and most of them have aged well.

The five rules

1. You must write. Ideas don’t count until they’re words on the page.
2. You must finish what you start. An unfinished manuscript can’t be sold, and finishing turns out to be a skill of its own.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order. Endless revision is how a story never reaches an editor. This is the rule people argue with: plenty of writers, Neil Gaiman among them, allow themselves one revision pass before submitting.
4. You must put your story on the market. Finished work sitting in a drawer does nothing.
5. You must keep it on the market until it is sold. Rejection is part of the process; keep sending it out until an editor says yes.

The sixth rule, from Gaiman

Neil Gaiman adds one of his own:

1. Start the next thing. Don’t sit waiting on an acceptance or a rejection. The best response to finishing one piece is starting another, which keeps you working and keeps the wait from hardening into writer’s block.

Rule 3 in context

Heinlein wrote these for the pulp magazines, where writers were paid by the word and speed paid the rent. Rule 3 follows directly: time spent polishing one story was time not spent writing the next one that paid.

Today most writers soften it to allow a single careful revision before submitting. The spirit survives the change: don’t let polishing become the reason you never finish or never send. The real editing happens after an editor takes the work, not before.