Writing Advice From the Godfather

Mario Puzo, who passed away in 1999, wrote a number of bestselling novels, including The Godfather, Fools Die, and The Last Don. What I especially liked about Puzo was his legendary tongue-in-cheek interviews. One of my favorite Puzo comments was when he warned aspiring scriptwriters that the only way to get a fair deal in Hollywood was to go into the studio with a mask and gun.

I’ve always been amazed by how many of Puzo’s rules apply not only to writing but to life in general. In that vein, the following are five of my most favorite Puzo rules that I believe you will find applicable to our own life.

Puzo Rule No. 1: “Never show your stuff to anybody. You can get inhibited.”

Anyone involved in writing — whether it be fiction, nonfiction, or copywriting — should take this advice seriously. The most dynamic writing is from the heart. I’ve always felt that one of the biggest reasons for the success of my first two books was that I was completely uninhibited in writing about my mistakes and shortcomings in a way that made it easy for the reader to relate to me.Puzo Rule No. 5: “Never trust anybody but yourself. That includes critics, friends, and especially publishers.”

This rule is closely related to Rule No. 1, but it goes beyond the problem of inhibition. It gets at the very heart of creating work that represents your own skills and beliefs rather than what someone else thinks your work should be.

When it comes to writing, the late essayist E.B. White summed it up perfectly when he said, “The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.”

I can tell you from a lot of firsthand experience that he was right. Avoid so-called experts like the plague. To paraphrase Viktor Frankl, an expert is nothing more than a person who no longer sees the forest of truth for the trees of facts.

It’s amazing how easily many would-be authors are influenced by the input of their friends and associates. If you don’t have enough confidence in your own writing — or whatever it is you do for a living — to follow your own instincts, you probably should consider changing professions.

Trust me, you can’t go wrong following Mario Puzo’s advice. If you don’t believe me, just ask Don Corleone.

Reprinted with permission from RobertRinger.com.

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