David Hare’s 10 Rules for Writers

Discover David Hare’s 10 rules for writers. Learn practical writing advice from the acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, and theatre director.

David Hare is an English playwright, screenwriter, and theatre and film director. He was born on 5 June 1947.

Hare is well-known for his satires that examine British society in the post-World War II era. His plays include Skylight, Stuff Happens, and The Blue Room. The Blue Touch Paper is a memoir of his early life and career.

He received Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Hours in 2002, based on the novel written by Michael Cunningham, and The Reader in 2008, based on the novel written by Bernhard Schlink.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1985. He was knighted in 1998. In 2011, Hare received the PEN Pinter Prize, which is given to British writers of outstanding literary merit.

David Hare’s 10 Rules for Writers

1. Write only when you have something to say.
2. Never take advice from anyone with no investment in the outcome.
3. Style is the art of getting yourself out of the way, not putting yourself in it.
4. If nobody will put your play on, put it on yourself.
5. Jokes are like hands and feet for a painter. They may not be what you want to end up doing but you have to master them in the meanwhile.
6. Theatre primarily belongs to the young.
7. No one has ever achieved consistency as a screenwriter.
8. Never go to a TV personality festival masquerading as a literary festival.
9. Never complain of being misunderstood. You can choose to be understood, or you can choose not to.
10. The two most depressing words in the English language are ‘literary fiction’.

This advice first appeared in The Guardian / Source for image: NPR

by Amanda Patterson

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