Rule Zero of Writing

It’s Rule Zero, because it’s the rule you apply before you touch the keyboard, before you pick up your pen or pencil and make a mark on the page.

Answer this question: Why are you writing?

You could fill a book with the answers people give to that question, but you can almost always put the answers into just a few categories*.

Idea transfer

You have some information, an idea, or a story, and you want to tell someone (your audience) about it.

If “thought flow”--conveying information, ideas, or stories to another person--is your goal, then you need to know exactly what information, ideas, or stories you’re trying to convey. You need to take care that nothing obstructs or interferes with that flow.

And you should know something about the knowledge that your audience already has, because that will influence where you begin with your information, ideas, or stories. (How much you need to know about your audience, and how much you can assume, will vary, depending on what you’re writing about.)

Calling for action

You are asking or commanding someone to do something.

It may be something simple and friendly like asking people to come to an anniversary party for your parents, or something complex and unpleasant like instructing someone to complete their tax return.

In this case, you need to clearly understand what action you want your audience to perform.

You need to know what your audience knows, and what they need to know to successfully do what you want them to do.

And you need to be aware of how they feel, what their emotions are when it comes to what you want them to do

Influence or persuasion

You want to change someone’s mind about something.

Here, you need to know what conclusion you want your audience to come to, how you want them to change their thinking, and how you want them to feel.

And it’s vital to understand what they currently think about the subject, and why they think that way, and what emotional reactions the subject triggers.

Entertainment

You want to please somebody, to entertain them with what you write.

Here, much depends on what the audience likes, and on what you like. This is perhaps the most subjective type of writing, because of the wide variety of things that entertain us. Some people are entertained by lolcats, some by P.G. Wodehouse, some by bodice-rippers, some by Die Hard, and some by H.P. Lovecraft.

Those are the basic categories when you’re writing for others. And it’s likely that some things will be a mix of these categories. For example, you might need to inform, and then call for action, but you’ll try to be somewhat entertaining to keep the audience’s attention. Or if you need to persuade, you’ll tell a compelling story to touch your audience’s emotions, and throw in some hard data to support your contention.

How you answer that question—Why are you writing?—will establish the foundation for you. It will tell you what you need to know before you begin, and how you should approach the topic.

But there’s one more category of reasons why people write.

Writing for yourself

You may be writing simply for the joy of writing. You’re recording your life’s events. You’re venting your emotions safely and privately. You’re clarifying your own thoughts about something. You’re writing your to-do list. You’re expressing yourself. You’re participating in NaNoWriMo on a bet or to prove to yourself that you can do it. You’re journaling to help cope with stress.

In this case, go ahead and write. You don’t need me to tell you anything.

* Writing is most often classified this way: exposition, narrative, argumentation, and description. These types are based on the surface characteristics of the writing itself. For example, in exposition, we are exposing the audience to specific information, in narrative we are telling a story, etc. With my categories, I’m looking more at the fundamental goals of the writing. For example, the goal of exposition and description can be simply to provide information, or they can both be used to support a persuasive argument. A narrative can be used to provide information, or it can be used to entertain.

Comments

[Alissa Fereday]

What a great message. I'm using this info right away and deciding on my intention before hitting the keys.

Thanks,
Alissa Fereday
http://twitter.com/AlissaFereday

[Sylvia]

I really like how you've broken down intent to give writers a specific thought process to help them along their way.