Heinlein’s Third Rule

No, you don’t!

Remember how the process started with you enlisting all the help you could get in working the story to the utmost state of perfection? And remember how the rejection isn’t personal, i.e. doesn’t reflect on the intrinsic quality of the story?

Well then, keep your filthy paws off your best work so far, and leave every letter, every interpunction, every diacritic in place!

(Robert A. Heinlein proposed five rules of writing:

  1. You must write.
  2. You must finish what you start.
  3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
  4. You must put your story on the market.
  5. You must keep your story on the market until it has sold.

Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer added one more rule:

6. Start working on something else.)