8 Writing Tips From John Steinbeck

Insights and inspiration from the author of 'Of Mice and Men'

Drawing on letters Steinbeck wrote to friends, this article covers:

• How to abandon perfectionism

• Writing freely without self-editing

• Targeting a specific audience

• Overcoming tough writing sections

• Using poetry to break writer's block

…and more.

For further insights, check out Stephen King's Advice For Writers, 10 Writing Tips from the Original “Mad Man”, and Henry Miller’s 11 Rules of Writing.

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In a 1962 letter to Wallsten, Pulitzer Prize winner John Steinbeck (1902–1968) shared six helpful tips for writers, included in Steinbeck: A Life in Letters:

Focus on the process

Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.

Write freely

Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.

Write to someone specific

Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn't exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.

Keep moving forward

If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn't belong there.

Avoid attachments

Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.

Read it aloud

If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.

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On getting started

It is usual that the moment you write for publication—I mean one of course—one stiffens in exactly the same way one does when one is being photographed. The simplest way to overcome this is to write it to someone, like me. Write it as a letter aimed at one person. This removes the vague terror of addressing the large and faceless audience and it also, you will find, will give a sense of freedom and a lack of self-consciousness.

—From a letter to Pascal Covici, April 13, 1956

On inspiration

I hear via a couple of attractive grapevines that you are having trouble writing. God! I know this feeling so well. I think it is never coming back—but it does—one morning, there it is again.

About a year ago. Bob Anderson [the playwright] asked me for help in the same problem. I told him to write poetry—not for selling—not even for seeing—poetry to throw away. For poetry is the mathematics of writing and closely kin to music. And it is also the best therapy because sometimes the troubles come tumbling out.

Well, he did. For six months he did. And I have three joyous letters from him saying it worked. Just poetry—anything and not designed for a reader. It’s a great and valuable privacy.

I only offer this if your dryness goes on too long and makes you too miserable. You may come out of it any day. I have. The words are fighting each other to get out.

—From a letter to Robert Wallsten,
February 19, 1960.

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If you found Steinbeck’s tips helpful, you might also enjoy Stephen King's Advice For Writers, 10 Writing Tips from the Original “Mad Man”, and 30 Writing Tips from Jack Kerouac.

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