The One Writing Rule I Never Break

When there are sentences trying to come out, let them.

Here’s something that happens to me often: I’ll be standing around, doing some mundane or important task. Suddenly, a sentence will knock on the door, suitcase in hand, asking to be let in.

The knock on the door sounds different than a passing thought or idea. It’s fully-baked, with a life of its own, already fit for public consumption. It is a string of words that will, if written down, very often lead to more words

And so when that moment comes, there is one rule I always obey: I stop what I am doing, and write that damn sentence down.

That may sounds obvious: If you’re a writer, write things down! But I can assure you that true fidelity to this rule will result in some chaotic scenes. Frantically jotting something down while the phone is ringing because you know if you answer the call first, the sentence will be gone forever. Texting myself while I’m running to an appointment I’m already late for, or in the middle of a conversation with someone I’m also trying to listen to. Writing on the proverbial airplane drink napkin when my phone is dead and my laptop and notebook are in the overhead compartment. Somehow, these sentences always manage to arrive when one of the many notebooks I own is not easily accessible. In a pinch, I sometimes send voice memos to myself, though those for some reason make less sense to me later than text.

The reason these sentences are so important to write down is because it means that something is there. Whether it’s a muse, a creative spirit, firing neurons, or something else entirely is up to you and your belief system to decide. But in my experience, those knock-on-the-door sentences are distinct from the ones your conscious brain has to painstakingly come up with, one after the other. They come from somewhere else entirely, and very often, they end up doing a lot of the heavy-lifting of writing for me.

I’ve managed to write pieces in under an hour, frighteningly close to deadline, because I knew that I had sentences popping into my head left and right throughout the day before I sat down to write it. When I do finally open the word document, and copy/paste the disparate sentences into it, I find much of the work has already been done. I am merely stitching things together, rather than starting from scratch.

Most of the time, writing is very hard. I can go weeks without door-knocker sentences showing up, weeks where I have to do the work of consciously coming up with each sentence that I write. That’s why I’m so loyal to these door-knockers, whenever and wherever they turn up. They make writing feel easy, even joyful—even if it’s just for a moment or two.