The writing secrets of Ayn Rand

Okay, the headline is a bit misleading. The five-step writing process Ayn Rand followed isn’t exactly a secret. Let’s remember that in addition to her legendary, mammoth novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, she wrote the non-fiction how-to books The Art of Fiction and The Art of Non-Fiction, which gave detailed accounts of her writing tactics and viewpoints. She was not a woman to keep her thinking to herself.

Rand obviously had something going for her. She didn’t lack for productive firepower. Her two best-known works, “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged,” weighed in at 750 pages and 1,200 pages, respectively. In total, she authored more than 15 books and many more were written by other authors about her enduring career. There is even an Irvine, Calif.-based Ayn Rand Institute founded in her honor.

But here we boil down Rand’s best practices to her five-step writing process.  A short treatment to the hundreds of pages she produced in her books about fiction and non-fiction writing.

Step one: Limit your subject. This might sound elementary but it’s a common mistake writers make. Rand advised writers to ask three questions at the start of any project.

1. What will I write about? Define the topic and stick with that focus. And be sure that you can cover it adequately within the parameters of the project.
2. What do I want to say about this subject? Determine the theme of your project – the point of view that you want to communicate. There’s a lot of writing that takes up space and time but doesn’t really have a lucid point or destination.
3. Is what I have to say new? Am I adding something to the sum total of human thinking and creativity? If not, then don’t put pen to paper at all.

Step two: Judge the audience. Understand who that audience is. Most of us, and certainly all business writers, are writing to an audience. So, to write persuasively we need to identify the characteristics of our intended audience.

Step three: Create a plan of action. Like many experienced writers, Rand was a firm believer in the power of the outline and suggested two tests to measure an outline’s completeness. The first is the essence test. An outline is complete only when you can understand it as a unified whole. The second is the test of final causality. This test, which Rand adapted from Aristotelian philosophy, says that when your outline establishes and details a logical chain of cause-and-effect steps that lead to the established conclusion, it is complete. Many writers still refuse to do the upfront work involved in drafting the outline. Yet, a well-conceived outline can speed the writing process and make it sure-handed.

Step four: Draft from the subconscious mind. Rand suggests that you write without stopping and, to the greatest extent possible, without consciously thinking out each sentence. This technique sidelines the internal editor and allows the mind to roam freely and fully express its creativity.

Step five: Edit objectively. Rand proposed a three-level approach to editing.

1. Focus on the structure of the work. At this level, you need to ensure that it progresses logically – that scenes and ideas build on one another – and that it respects the reader’s intelligence.
2. Focus on clarity. Make sure the writing is communicating exactly what you intend it to. Rand said writing’s purpose is to communicate exactly what you intend it say. She warns writers to beware of “over-condensing” (cramming too much into a sentence or paragraph). Clarity is fundamental to writing but it’s often sacrificed for stylistic considerations.
3. Consider style. Her style tips include:

• Don’t complicate a simple thought
• The simpler the words the better
• Don’t use sarcasm, pejorative adjectives or inappropriate humor
• Don’t use bromides (i.e., trite sayings)
• Don’t use unnecessary synonyms

This approach certainly worked miracles for Ayn Rand. Though the Russian-American novelist, playwright and screenwriter passed from this world in 1982, her most popular books remain mainstays in bookstores across America. No bookstore of any size or seriousness would be without The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Her books, almost 30 years after her death, are expected to sell 2 million copies this year, up from an average of about 300,000 per year.

We would certainly do well to follow Ayn Rand’s writing techniques.