A Set of Rules for Writing

In the Notes section at the end of Eula Biss's On Having and Being Had, she details how she developed the ideas in the book.  She set herself conditions for writing:

As I wrote this book, I established a set of rules for writing. One of the first rules was that I had to name specific sums whenever I talked about money. Another rule was that I had to talk about money. These rules were a direct refusal of what I understood to be the rules of polite conversation around money: 1) Don't talk about it. 2) If you do talk about it, don't be specific. 3) Minimize what you have. 4) Emphasize that you've earned it. 5) Never forget that work is the story we tell ourselves about money. my

Alternative rules of my own invention dictated not just the content of my writing, but also the form and style. Every piece had to begin in the present tense, with a moment drawn from my life. (I allowed myself to break this rule occasionally, particularly when I wanted to write about a book.) And every piece had to include an exchange with another person. Rules also shaped my research. Initially, I only allowed myself to read articles and books given to me or suggested by friends. This rule enhanced my awareness of how my friends extend and limit what I know and understand. It also offered an opportunity for me to think about the intersection between my social capital and my cultural capital. One is tied to the other I would not know who I know without what I know, and I could not know what I know without who I know-and both are tied to economic capital. Many of my friends belong to my economic class and are situated as I am within the values and assumptions and blindnesses of that class.

I found this idea intriguing... another example of how, like Kleon talks about, (and many others) a set of rules helps you produce art.  In this case, it also provides the series of essays with a coherence.  It's like a series of journeys that all start from the same place.

Biss begins chapters like "At a dinner for work I'm sitting between a botanist and an economist and we're talking about kudzu." And: "You should look into the etymology of scholastic, Vojislav suggests." And "I'm putting away the silverware John has just washed."