My 5 Rules for Writing

Writing is magical. For me it's a portal going wherever my mind or heart wants. I love it so much that I majored in it. However the most useful tips I found for writing stemmed from taking art classes, not my writing classes. Maybe this is the reason for my less than acceptable grammar.  But I digress.
Throughout my college career my English professors all recited the same incantations, "writing makes you a better writer" and "reading makes you a better writer." Meanwhile the art teachers focused on observation, proper practice, and refinement of skill and style.

The following are my personal rules from writing and their origin.

1. Practice makes perfect, but it does not delineate from perfectly good and perfectly bad. A former art professor who could talk for hours on end would say this a lot. Thus hammering the idea into my head. In this respect writing well makes one a better writer.

2. Observing, experiencing and living life make for better stories and original experiences. While reading is classified as observing, I don't believe it does more than improve upon one's technical ability.

3. Everything is open to interpretation once it leaves the hands of the artist. I once made a mixed media art piece that was painted with black paint and had pieces of black cutout paper on it. The professor thought it was great and attributed some ideas to it. I was stunned as I had made the piece mostly out of anger and frustration. Which leads me to-

4. Feelings.  Show don't tell. I think art can explore this better than language. The reason being is that feelings come from a more primitive center of the brain, one that doesn't use or need language. For example when we're sad we can cry. When we're happy we can jump for joy. Art can show these things in an abstract matter that can be similarly understood by everyone. Whereas written words are limited to the language and vocabulary of the writer and reader. As a result it can take an entire report to explain sadness, or in this case the feeling of it.

5. Work with others and learn to listen to critiques of others, both from peers and masters. Practically all of my art classes forced us to show all of our work to everyone in order to garner input. On the other hand most of my English courses had professors who only wanted to be pleased, even though they may have said otherwise.

These are my rules. What works for you?