Relativity

I've found that most good advice is good advice no matter what you do. "Take it one step at a time." That's good advice for cooking, doing homework, and even for walking. "Keep your elbows down." I use this in every martial art, playing every musical instrument, and in acting like a rooster.

As you learn certain principles of writing, see where else they work. When I talked about vocabulary, I said that you need to have basic words everybody knows, technical words that pertain to a particular subject, and you should be able to weave them in a flowing manner. This is great advice for talking, too. No matter what you talk about, you need both sets of words and using them in a sonorous manner helps the audience pay closer attention (or at least marvel at how great you sound).

In talking about style and audience, I said that you either have to write in a way that a certain group of people want or you have to write in a way that you like and look for people who also enjoy it. This applies to social interaction at its core. Either 'fit in' or be yourself. Eventually, you will find somebody (unless you're horrible at being a human being).

This is the beauty of principles. Learning an idea at its core allows you to see it everywhere. Once you know it exists, you can see every single version of it out there. If you can learn all the principles, you can learn the world.

It occurs to me, though, that we can also reverse direction on what we've been doing, and see what principles from other fields apply to writing.

The Religion Kevin Invented(tm) is bad at memorization, so there is only 1 commandment: Don't be an asshole. I think that writing is the same way. And for me, that means don't act like you're better than you are. Don't use words that sound smart, especially if you don't know what they mean. If you want to write a mystery book, don't try to sound like you're writing a mystery book (none of that "it was a dark and stormy night, and murder most foul occurred, by someone...or something!").

I've found that as much as people hate arrogance, they also don't care for excessive self-deprication. Being humble is good, but if all you can talk about is how much you suck, other people will start agreeing with you. When you write, you need a confidence about you. Rather than saying, "the room might have smelled like mothballs or something," tell me "the room smelled of mothballs" or even that "mothball filled the air." Uncertainty in writing wastes words and time and only makes you weaker. Such is also true of a lack of confidence in the real world.

So, take the time to learn some principles and see where they take you. You may find yourself quadrupling your knowledge without even trying.