I do not like rules much, partly because a lot of them don't make much sense. I'm not including things like "drive on the correct side of the road", or "write thank-you letters", because those are things that are to do with being polite and/or not killing other people. No no. I'm talking about the kind of rules that aren't really necessary, or have been decided and set in stone by someone in a different time and context and followed blindly by people without the imagination to question them, or the desire to change them to make things better.
Do not be afraid; I am not going to start bellowing things like "rules are there to be broken!!" like an enormous spanner, but a bit like deadlines or guidelines or people in positions of authority, if rules make sense I will follow them; if they don't, I won't. (Assuming no-one will get hurt.)
I have done those Myers-Briggs things twice in five years. In that time, I have apparently undergone a complete personality transplant, which is encouraging; the second time, it was even mildly interesting, for I found out that I am a rare and special (obviously) INTJ. If you do not know much about Myers-Briggs, that means that I am a socially awkward engineer called General Ulysses S Grant who rejects formal notions of what you "should" do, some of which has a glimmer of truth about it as far as I am concerned. Anyway, we shall now draw a veil over the whole affair, partly because I find discussion of IQ, EQ, MENSA, Myers-Briggs etc etc etc very dull. ("But I have an IQ of 145!". "You are still a fucking twat, though, aren't you?")
Back to the point, if there is one: I have just found a splendid thing in The Guardian that you probably all saw when it came out in February. It is Ten rules for writing fiction; not just one set of ten rules, lots of sets of ten rules from lots of different writers. I think you will like it a lot, whether you write fiction or not. I liked a great many of them, but I liked these two best (from Richard Ford):
1. Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea.
10. Don't take any shit if you can possibly help it.
Obviously you can subsitute "writer" for whatever it is you do in the first one but still, you get the point.
Pip pip!
NWM
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6 comments:
My Myers-Briggs results change with my mood. That probably suggests I'm not doing it right.
Au contraire. I think it means you are doing it right. Some of it makes sense sometimes but then the same can be said of Tarot cards and Russell Grant. Yes.
hi there, the Myers Briggs "should" be consistent over short periods if done in an "at rest/at home" mood.
That is the trick - and yes- easy to say not so easy to do.
Check out how to use it, even for a special INTJ
http://www.thirdsigma.com.au/articles.cfm
Liz
"Liz Cassidy", are you trying to drum up business? Please don't do it on my blog.
I took the damn thing once. It told me I was INF for a start, but couldn't decide between P and J. Which means that I equally prefer "a planned and organized approach to life and having things settled" and "a flexible and spontaneous approach to life and keeping [my] options open".
Then again, I am indeed full of contradictions.
I am an INTJ too. What is our horoscope this month?
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