All writers have their quirky routines, favorite pens, preferred work spaces, writers block remedies. They also, whether they know it or not, have their own set of rules and regulations they try to follow each time they sit down to their blank notebook or empty computer screen. Writing is an exercise in solitude–most writers write for themselves, following their own voices and instincts. However, it’s not a territory free from expectations and rules–writing is not, as many may believe, a free-for-all.  If there’s one thing writers like to do, it’s talking about, reading about, and writing about writing. It is in hearing others’ rules and habits and mantras that writers find a sense of community and the feeling that we are not all alone in this crazy endeavor.

Which is why The Guardian’s recent two-part story, “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction,” is so compelling. Inspired by Elmore Leonard, the paper asked 29 writers (including Leonard) to list their own rules for writing. While it’s fascinating to get a voyeur’s look into the minds and habits of some of the most prominent and talented writers of our time, it’s also amazing that so many of the rules diverge and contradict and then converge and coincide. Which leads to one ultimate conclusion: There are no hard and fast rules but the ones you write yourself. That being said, here are a few of my favorites from the list:

• Be ambitious for the work and not for the reward.–Jeanette Winterson
• In the planning stage of a book, don’t plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.–Rose Tremain
• If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane.–Colm Tóibín
• Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.–Zadie Smith
• Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.–Will Self
• Honour the miraculousness of the ordinary.–Andrew Motion
• Once the book is finished in its first draft, I read it out loud to myself. How it sounds is hugely important.–Michael Morpurgo
• You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there’s no free lunch. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you’re on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.–Margaret Atwood
• Do restrict your browsing to a few websites a day. Don’t go near the online bookies – unless it’s research.–Roddy Doyle
• Only bad writers think that their work is really good.–Anne Enright
• You have to love before you can be relentless.–Jonathan Franzen
• Be without fear. This is impossible, but let the small fears drive your rewriting and set aside the large ones ­until they behave – then use them, maybe even write them. Too much fear and all you’ll get is silence.–AL Kennedy
• Write.–Neil Gaiman