The other day I posted this: 25 things you should know about storytelling. It’s a terrific list, one of the best I’ve seen about writing, posted by author Chuck Wending on his blog Terrible Minds. For those who might have missed the OP, here is the list again:

1. Stories have power
2. Effect above entertainment
3. A good story is a good story regardless of its genre or form
4. That’s not to say form doesn’t matter
5. Stories have shape, even when they don’t mean to
6. The story is a map; plot is the route you choose
7. On the subject of originality
8. The bridge between author and audience
9. But also, fuck the audience in the ear
10. No tale survives a vacuum of conflict
11. The battle between tension and release
12. Peaks, valleys, slashes and whorls
13. In a story, tell only the story
14. Big ideas do well in small spaces
15. Backstory is a frozen lake whose ice is wafer thin
16. Characters are the vehicles that carry us into (and through) the tale
17. Villains have mothers
18. Heroes have broken toys
19. Strip skin off the bones to see how it works
20. Beginnings are for assholes
21. If you jump too fast into waters too deep and the audience drowns
22. Treat place like a character
23. Always ask, why do I want to tell this?
24. It’s okay to bury the lede
25. Writing is a craft, but storytelling is an art

In comments, Atlanta turned me onto yet another list from Chuck Wending: 25 things every writer should know. We go twice to the Wendig well as here is that list:

1. You are legion
2. You better put the “fun” in “fundamentals”
3. Skill over talent
4. Nobody cares about your creative writing degree
5. Speaking of luck
6. This is a slow process
7. Nobody “gets in” the same way
8. Writing feels like — but isn’t — magic
9. Storytelling is serious business
10. Your writing has whatever value you give it
11. You are your own worst enemy
12. Your voice is your own
13. Cultivate calluses
14. Stones are polished by agitation
15. Act like an asshole, you’ll get treated like an asshole
16. Writing is never about just writing
17. This is an industry of people
18. The worst thing your work can be is boring
19. No, wait, the worst thing your work can be is unclear
20. Writing is about words, storytelling is about life
21. Everything can be fixed in post
22. Quit quitting
23. No such thing as bad writing advice
24. Though, nobody really knows shit about shit
25. Hope will save you

Like last time, I’ve excerpted three points from the list:

This is a slow process

Nobody becomes a writer overnight. Well, I’m sure somebody did, but that person’s head probably went all asplodey from paroxysms of joy, fear, paranoia, guilt and uncertainty. Celebrities can be born overnight. Writers can’t. Writers are made — forged, really, in a kiln of their own madness and insecurities — over the course of many, many moons. The writer you are when you begin is not the same writer you become.

Cultivate calluses

Put differently, harden the fuck up, soldier. (And beard the fuck on, while we’re at it.) The writing life is a tough one. Edits can be hard to get. Rejections, even worse. Not everybody respects what you do. Hell, a lot of people don’t even care. Build up that layer of blubber. Form a mighty exoskeleton. Expect to be pelted in the face with metaphorical (er, hopefully metaphorical) ice-balls. It’s a gauntlet. Still gotta walk it, though.

Hope will save you

The hard boot is better than the tickling feather when it comes time to talk about the realities of writing, but at the end of the day, the thing that gets you through it all is hope and optimism. You have to stay positive. Writers are given over to a kind of moribund gloom. Can’t let the penmonkey blues get you down. Be positive. Stay sane. The only way through is with wide-open eyes and a rigor mortis grin. Don’t be one of those writers who isn’t having any fun. Don’t let writing be the albatross around your neck. Misery is too easy to come by, so don’t invite it. If writing doesn’t make you happy, you maybe shouldn’t be a writer. It’s a lot of work, but you need to let it be a lot of play, too. Otherwise, what’s the fucking point? Right? Go push a broom, sell a car, paint a barn. If you’re a writer, then write. And be happy you can do so.

Read the whole post. There’s truth there.

Which items on the list speak most directly to you? To your creative process? To your writerly self?

You can follow Chuck Wendig on Twitter: @ChuckWendig.