Three Simple Rules that Drive My Writing

Summary

Jill Ebstein outlines three personal writing rules aimed at enhancing her work's uniqueness and impact: finding less covered topics, focusing outward rather than on herself, and leaving readers with a single, clear idea.

Abstract

In an era where standing out as a writer is increasingly challenging, Jill Ebstein adheres to three self-imposed rules to improve her writing. Firstly, she seeks topics that are less explored by others, likening this strategy to a tennis player aiming for open spaces on the court. While acknowledging the difficulty of this rule, she strives to write about subjects that are not oversaturated, such as the significance of a painting on Van Gogh's clogs or the cultural implications of modern expressions. Secondly, Ebstein makes a conscious effort to minimize self-centered content, recognizing the general tendency to find oneself more interesting than others do. She aims to share broader stories or data that resonate with a wider audience, such as the rise of e-learning. Lastly, she emphasizes the importance of leaving the reader with one simple, memorable idea, drawing from her experience in editing a collection of essays about lessons from mothers. Ebstein admits that while she may not have perfectly executed these rules in her current piece, the intention behind them is to provide discipline and value in her writing, encouraging other writers to reflect on their own unique rules.

Opinions

Ebstein believes that writing about less covered topics is akin to a strategic move in tennis, targeting areas where others are not focusing.
She acknowledges the challenge of not writing about oneself, considering it a "stretch goal," but strives to share content that is more universal and less self-centric.
The author values the impact of leaving readers with a single, clear idea, as demonstrated by her editorial work on the collection "At My Pace: Lessons from Our Mothers."
Ebstein recognizes the importance of discipline and rules in writing, suggesting that they reflect a writer's unique identity and can enhance both the reader's and the writer's experience.
She is aware of the potential for self-contradiction in her rules, particularly in discussing her personal writing guidelines, but sees this as an opportunity for growth and reflection.

Three Simple Rules that Drive My Writing

Jill Ebstein

Anne Nygard Unsplash

In the land of plenty, where there are so many written words and so many writers, it becomes increasingly difficult to be read, let alone stand out. In light of this challenge, I follow three rules that I believe fellow writers might find useful or at least interesting. They may seem obvious at first glance but are difficult to do.

Rule One: Find an Uncovered Topic

This rule is super hard because everything seems to be covered these days. So instead I have relaxed the rule to a “less covered” topic. I equate this rule to a basic strategy of how intermediate tennis players can “play up” and seem better than they are. In tennis, hit the ball where the opposing player isn’t. Good targets are more important than pace, strategy more important than raw athleticism. In writing, topics are more important than the well-honed craft of writing though I aim for both.

I try not to center my pieces on topics of loneliness or depression or anxiety because I know they are covered — and covered well. I look for outlier topics. Why did the painting on Van Gogh’s clogs speak to me for example? How did I take the experience of leaving my hairstylist of twenty years and morph it into the topic of feedback?

On my list of uncovered topics within Medium, I’d like to write about why Elizabeth Strout’s fame is so well earned and how she speaks to me (though it might violate rule number two). Why do common expressions today use so few words? Compare “Say what you mean. Mean what you say,” with “True dat.” What does that say about us as a culture and are they, in fact, saying the same thing? I am pretty sure that no one is covering that topic.

Rule Two: Try Not to Make it All About Me

I believe that we find ourselves more interesting than the rest of the world finds us. This may explain why we’d rather talk than listen. I try not to have my pieces be too much about me. Of course the irony of ironies, this is all about my rules, and entirely about me.

I will label this rule a “stretch goal” but in general, if you peruse my pieces, I have made a conscious effort to look more outward than inward. One way I have been able to make this happen is by sharing other people’s stories, or sharing market data that relates to our world in general.

Here is a piece of data I learned the other day that I found intriguing: In 2016, one in six students in higher education was studying exclusively online, and one in three students took at least one course online (National Center for Education Statistics). From this statistic, a whole piece resulted. We are rapidly evolving into an e-learning world even before the coronavirus (I did try not to use that word in this piece because of rule number one, but sometimes rules are meant to be broken).

Rule Three: Leave the Reader with One Simple Idea

Four years ago I was working on a collection titled, At My Pace: Lessons from Our Mothers. The prompt I gave writers was to provide one lesson — good or bad — that their mother had handed down that made all the difference in the writer’s life.

Invariably, I heard back, “Only one?” “Yes,” I would respond and then explain how driving home that one lesson would be memorable and focus the piece (another rule was the piece could not exceed 1,000 words).

Have I applied my three rules to this piece? Probably not as well as I would have liked. There might be a little too much “me” in it. My simple idea was to use rules and discipline in our writing because that will benefit both our readers and us. Writers’ rules will be different and reflect our unique selves. For example, if I were creative, a rule might be, “Every piece needs to show one example of my creative spark.”

When I wrote the piece about my mom’s lesson to me, I titled it, “My Mother’s Rolling Back Pack.” I shared her example of being a life-long learner. I concluded, “We are all unfinished people with opportunities to grow, learn, and embrace the world around us.”

It is in that spirit that I wrote this piece. Please share your lessons too.