Jack Kerouac's Rules for Writing (contest)

Why do we sit cross legged?

Not everyone wants to be a writer, but every writer wants to be a better writer. How? It's good to read a lot and read widely. The examples we stumble upon do much to open the mind to the possibilities of the pen. It is sometimes even better if we can glean some advice from successful writers. They do not endure by chance but by the whim of changing tastes of the audience. What will endure 100 years from now? That's what matters to those attempting to write literature. For the rest, the producers of pulp fiction, anything will do. It's all just fodder for sales. Beware the imitators. Kerouac is more influential now because he influenced so many influential people after him. He was onto something, studying Buddhism before it was trending.

Jack Kerouac's rules for good writing

(polymathematics) Oct. 17, 2018: Jack Kerouac, the king of the Beats, has 30 rules for writing to share with aspiring writers of any generation. Rule 0, which is not stated, is "Be ruggedly handsome." Look what it did for James Dean. But great writing can overcome even that.

By Jove and Jack, I think I got it — the spirit of the Beat, like when they say, "What do kids like about the crazy music today?" It's the same reason it's always been, whether the parents understand it or not: the beat, the beat, the beat!

Going Off Road

Get out of my way.

Seven (5/19/24) I swerve on each turn, like I always do, like I've always done all my life, turning to stare at people who interest me, because the ones I prefer are the madcaps, the spirited ones overwhelmed with a sense of urgency to reach the ring, to say something worth saying, to seize liberation, with a zest for everything all at once, madcap laughers like Syd B., who never utter an obliging commonplace, but revel and burn, who plummet like a shooting star, shining bright falling far, streaking phosphenes into the eye, flares, shattered glass, a thousand multiplications of the sun, each a sparkle in the heat, a gleam of steam the fogged breath of a wolverine, and everyone pants, "F yeah!" (Inspired by JK's On the Road)

Charles: Too derivative.

Seven: Of course it's derivative. I'm a student, following his example. I'm more passionately saying what he was attempting to say but at a more pounding beat, given the fiercer music we have today — grindcore and Bambie Thug, The Agonist (Alissa White-Gluz) and Dimmu Borgir, Die Antwoord and Eternal Conspiracy. It's madness, howling, burning from the inside as Bauhaus would say. Primal scream.

Charles: In that case, try it again.

Seven: We should open it up to readers of Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal. I'm sure any writer reading has in mind the deluded thought, "I'm sure I could do it better." Write it. Send it in — to the Comments Section below. We won't print it unless it's worth printing. (Comments do not automatically post).

Charles: So it's a contest?

Sort of. Here are the parameters. Pass this and be invited to send in more writing for consideration and possible publication. Writing is better when it has more restrictions, fewer degrees of freedom. Think about it. If the prompt were merely, "Do whatever." That's too many possibilities. But if there are fewer and fewer degrees of freedom, suddenly greatness emerges. We'll only give three rules to be able to judge and to be judging the same thing (comparing oranges to oranges):

1. Limit of 12 words
2. Topic: Burning from the inside
3. Use the word "road"

Charles: That sounds easy enough.

Seven: Guarantee you, Chuck, most will s***w it up, which will cut down on our number of finalists.

Charles: But a dozen words?

Seven: Honest Tea, their limit was 6 words, and people sent in amazing things that were printed on the inside of the caps. "Brevity is the heart of poetry." Get to the point. Edit. Cut the fat.

Charles: That's too hard; they'll never get it.

Seven: Okay, we'll add a fourth stipulation:

• Break one of the rules, if you want, but say which one you broke or be disqualified.

Charles: That's impossible.

Seven: No, we already have a submission. The contest has only been going on for 7 minutes, and we already have a submission.

Charles: What is it?

Sariputra saw it just as it is.

Seven: It comes from a Mr. Buddha from Scythia, who has chosen to break the third rule, and has nevertheless come up with something very profound:

"Not having been, they come to be;

once having been, they cease."

Charles: What?

Seven: Clearly, he's referring to dhammas ("phenomena," all "things"). It is explained by Andrew Olendzki Outline of Abhidhamma (buddhistinquiry.org) and stated the Anupada Sutta (MN 111).