What Writing Should Do

Keep in mind what writing should do:

1. Be alive.
2. Be surprising
3. Obey tenets of economy, verve, etc.
4. Amount to something (usually, in terms of "having something at stake")
5. Pay off (i.e., resolve).

Any three of the five is worth spoiling paper for. It should be remembered also that:

6. Brave wild failure is applauded

And that:

7. You should be less comfortable if you're pretty sure about what you're writing about

And that:

8. You should ignore, at all times, all sense of authorial narrative obligations, and, certainly, your own preconceptions and ideas.

This is more preaching that could possibly be salubrious. So, some more: Obey only the logic of immediacy, from word to word. Or, obey only its obverse, the illogic of immediacy, as you prefer.

Padgett Powell