The Writing-Based Curriculum

There are a number of writers that have made lists of maxims for writing that they use to help guide them, push them, encourage them to get words down on the page. As part of the writing-based curriculum, I share these maxims with my students. I print them out and have the students read them, picking out the maxims that most resonate with them, surprise them, inspire them, or just plain confuse them. We talk about the maxims that are chosen guided by the question, ‘How can these maxims help us with our writing craft?’ This kind of craft conversation enriches the language of writing and helps to create the kind of mindset needed to approach the blank page and to get stuff down that has potential. These maxims also help students see the playfulness of the act of writing, always a good thing.

I have collected a few of these kinds of lists below. Two are from Jack Kerouac. One is from Allen Ginsberg. One is from Emma Coates, Pixar’s Story Artist. Let them fuel you. Let them fuel your students. Put them to work in your writing-based classroom.

Jack Kerouac’s Rules for Spontaneous Prose

1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
2. Submissive to everything, open, listening
3. Try never get drunk outside yr own house
4. Be in love with yr life
5. Something that you feel will find its own form
6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
7. Blow as deep as you want to blow
8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
9. The unspeakable visions of the individual
10. No time for poetry but exactly what is
11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest
12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time
15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
17. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself
18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
19. Accept loss forever
20. Believe in the holy contour of life
21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
22. Dont think of words when you stop but to see picture better
23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning
24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
29. You’re a Genius all the time
30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven

Here are Allen Ginsberg’s Mind Writing Slogans

“First Thought is Best in Art, Second in Other Matters.”
— William Blake

             I Background (Situation, Or Primary Perception)

1. “First Thought, Best Thought” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
2. “Take a friendly attitude toward your thoughts.” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
3. “The Mind must be loose.” — John Adams
4. “One perception must immediately and directly lead to a further perception.” — Charles Olson, “Projective Verse”
5. “My writing is a picture of the mind moving.” — Philip Whalen
6. Surprise Mind — Allen Ginsberg
7. “The old pond, a frog jumps in, Kerplunk!” — Basho
8. “Magic is the total delight (appreciation) of chance.” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
9. “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.” –– Walt Whitman
10. “…What quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature? … Negative capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.” — John Keats
11. “Form is never more than an extension ofcontent. — Robert Creeley to Charles Olson
12. “Form follows function.” — Frank Lloyd Wright*
13. Ordinary Mind includes eternal perceptions. — A. G.
14. “Nothing is better for being Eternal
    Nor so white as the white that dies of a day.” — Louis Zukofsky
15. Notice what you notice. — A. G.
16. Catch yourself thinking. — A. G.
17. Observe what’s vivid. — A. G.
18. Vividness is self-selecting. — A. G.
19. “Spots of Time” — William Wordsworth
20. If we don’t show anyone we’re free to write anything. –– A. G.
21. “My mind is open to itself.” — Gelek Rinpoche
22. “Each on his bed spoke to himself alone, making no sound.” — Charles Reznikoff

II Path (Method, Or Recognition)

23. “No ideas but in things.” “… No ideas but in the Facts.” — William Carlos Williams
24. “Close to the nose.” — W. C. Williams
25. “Sight is where the eye hits.” — Louis Zukofsky
26. “Clamp the mind down on objects.” — W C. Williams
27. “Direct treatment of the thing … (or object).” — Ezra Pound, 1912
28. “Presentation, not reference.” — Ezra Pound
29. “Give me a for instance.” — Vernacular
30. “Show not tell.” — Vernacular
31. “The natural object is always the adequate symbol.” — Ezra Pound
32. “Things are symbols of themselves.” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
33. “Labor well the minute particulars, take care of the little ones.
    He who would do good for another must do it in minute particulars.
    General Good is the plea of the Scoundrel Hypocrite and Flatterer
    For Art & Science cannot exist but in minutely organized particulars.” — William Blake
34. “And being old she put a skin / on everything she said.” — W. B. Yeats
35. “Don’t think of words when you stop but to see the picture better.” — Jack Kerouac
36. “Details are the Life of Prose.” — Jack Kerouac
37. Intense fragments of spoken idiom best. — A. G.
38. “Economy of Words” — Ezra Pound
39. “Tailoring” — Gregory Corso
40. Maximum information, minimum number of syllables. –– A. G.
41. Syntax condensed, sound is solid. — A. G.
42. Savor vowels, appreciate consonants. — A. G.
43. “Compose in the sequence of musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.” — Ezra Pound
44. “… awareness … of the tone leading of the vowels.” — Ezra Pound
45. “… an attempt to approximate classical quantitative meters . . . — Ezra Pound
46. “Lower limit speech, upper limit song” — Louis Zukofsky
47. “Phanopoeia, Melopoeia, Logopoeia.” — Ezra Pound
48. “Sight. Sound & Intellect.” — Louis Zukofsky
49. “Only emotion objectified endures.” — Louis Zukofsky

III Fruition (Result, Or Appreciation)

50. Spiritus = Breathing = Inspiration = Unobstructed Breath
51. “Alone with the Alone” — Plotinus
52. Sunyata (Sanskrit) = Ku (Japanese) = Emptiness
53. “What’s the sound of one hand clapping?” — Zen Koan
54. “What’s the face you had before you were born?” — Zen Koan
55. Vipassana (Pali) = Clear Seeing
56. “Stop the world” — Carlos Castafleda
57. “The purpose of art is to stop time.” — Bob Dylan
58. “the unspeakable visions of the individual — J. K.
59. “I am going to try speaking some reckless words, and I want you to try to listen recklessly.” — Chuang Tzu (Tr. Burton Watson)
60. “Candor” —Whitman
61. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”  — W. Shakespeare
62. “Contact” — A Magazine, Nathaniel West & W. C. Williams, Eds.
63. “God appears & God is Light
    To those poor souls who dwell in Night.
    But does a Human Form Display
    To those who Dwell in Realms of Day.” — W. Blake
64. “Subject is known by what she sees.” -A. G.
65. Others can measure their visions by what we see. –– A. G.
66. Candor ends paranoia. — A. G.
67. “Willingness to be Fool.” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
68. “Day & Night / you’re all right.” — Gregory Corso
69. Tyger: “Humility is Beatness.” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche & A. G.
70. Lion: “Surprise Mind” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche &A.G.
71. Garuda: “Crazy Wisdom Outrageousness” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
72. Dragon: “Unborn Inscrutability” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
73. “To be men not destroyers” — Ezra Pound
74. Speech synchronizes mind & body — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
75. “The Emperor unites Heaven & Earth” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
76. “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world” — Shelley
77. “Make it new” — Ezra Pound
78. “When the music changes, the walls of the city shake” — Plato
79. “Every third thought shall be my grave — W Shakespeare, The Tempest
80. “That in black ink my love may still shine bright.” –– W. Shakespeare, Sonnets
81. “Only emotion endures” — Ezra Pound
82. “Well while I’m here I’ll
    do the work —
    and what’s the Work?
    To ease the pain of living.
    Everything else, drunken
    dumbshow.” — A. G.
83. “… Kindness, sweetest of the small notes in the world’s ache, most modest & gentle of the elements entered man before history and became his daily connection, let no man tell you otherwise.” — Carl Rakosi
84. “To diminish the mass of human and sentient sufferings.” — Gelek Rinpoche

Naropa Institute, July 1992        
New York, March 5, 1993        
New York, June 27, 1993 

These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coates, Pixar’s Story Artist. Number 9 on the list – When you’re stuck, make a list of what wouldn’t happen next – is a great one and can apply to writers in all genres.

1. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
2. You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
3. Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
6. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
7. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
8. Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
9. When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
10. Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
12. Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
13. Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
14. Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
16. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
17. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
21. You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
22. What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.