Henry Miller Archives - View from the Front Porch

3 08, 2026

Writing Rules- Advice to Aspiring Authors

By judythemorgan|2026-08-02T20:30:53-05:00August 3rd, 2026|A Writer's Life, judythe's books, writer, Writer's Corner, writing, Writing Craft|1 Comment

When I first decided to pen the next great American novel, I simply sat at my computer and typed. The story played in my head. It wasn’t hard to get it on the page. Once I finished, my novel went off to New York publishers.

It didn’t take many rejections to realize that what I was doing wasn’t working.

Convinced I could author a novel, I searched for the writing rules of famous writers. After all, I’m a rule follower. If I had the rules, I would get my novel published.

Only I discovered every author had a different rule.

W. Somerset Maugham said:

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

Neil Gaiman disputed Maugham and suggested writing’s main rule:

The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

Kurt Vonnegut offered 8 rules for a great story.

Henry Miller offered Eleven commandments 11 commandments

John Steinbeck provided 6 pointers

Confused? I sure was.

All the suggestions made sense. I already followed most of them, yet publisher rejections continued.

What I concluded was I didn’t need rules. I needed HOW TO instructions. That’s when I joined author organizations and took writing classes. I wrote more and sent to agents, publishers, and entered more writing contests.

Suddenly the words I wrote were winning contests and getting positive feedback. It wasn’t a fast or easy journey to publication. It took years before I held that first paperback in my hand.

Today, you can check out my published works here and here. If you have Amazon Prime and a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can read all my books for free.

If you’re an aspiring writer, my advice is don’t give up.

P.S. This advice works if you want to be a chef or an electrician or a doctor or a merchant chief or whatever. Study and learn. Mostly, don’t give up.

How’s your writing schedule compare to Henry Miller’s?

By judythemorgan|2016-09-15T22:37:47-05:00September 21st, 2016|Wednesday Words of Wisdom|0 Comments

In 1932-1933, while working on what would become his first published novel, Miller devised and adhered to a stringent daily routine to propel his writing.

While working on his first published novel, Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller devised a stringent daily routine to advance his writing. This is his 1930s blueprint for productivity.

MORNINGS:

If groggy, type notes and allocate, as stimulus.

If in fine fettle, write.

(Now if you wondering what a fettle might be: according to the British Dictionary a fettle is state of health, spirits, etc We’d probably say mood today.)

AFTERNOONS:

Work of section in hand, following plan of section scrupulously. No intrusions, no diversions. Write to finish one section at a time, for good and all.

EVENINGS:

See friends. Read in cafés.

Explore unfamiliar sections — on foot if wet, on bicycle if dry.

Write, if in mood, but only on Minor program.

Paint if empty or tired.

Make Notes. Make Charts, Plans. Make corrections of MS.

I love his additional note for the evenings:

Allow sufficient time during daylight to make an occasional visit to museums or an occasional sketch or an occasional bike ride.

Sketch in cafés and trains and streets.

Cut the movies!

Library for references once a week.

(In our 21^st century vocabulary, we’d probably change Library to Internet or Social Media.)

His daily schedule points out to things:

Prolific writers write every day.

Prolific writers write most of the day.

I can only wish I had such discipline.

What do you think about Miller’s tight schedule?

11 Commandments for Writers

By judythemorgan|2016-09-13T21:04:06-05:00September 14th, 2016|Wednesday Words of Wisdom|2 Comments

Writers are always seeking tips on how to be more productive. I’m no exception.

A recent web search turned up this interesting list of commandments from Henry Miller (December 26, 1891–June 7, 1980). By the way, not only was Miller a prolific writer he was also a painter.

What do you think? Do these commandments work for you? Would they work if you’re not a writer?

Miller also has some daily schedule suggestions. Next Wednesday we’ll will look at those. For now, I’m off to focus on Commandment #10.