Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published June 18, 2003

Eight simple rules for ... writing

Dreams do come true. W. Bruce Cameron knows they do if you work long enough and hard enough. Last fall this columnist and author of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, which is now a hit TV series on ABC, spoke at a meeting of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. His informal humorous talk was titled "Rules for Success: Write, Edit, Write, Rewrite." That was his life as he pursued his childhood dream of being a writer.

He took a leap into the unknown when he left his job at General Motors in Detroit and moved to Denver in 1989. Cameron had written eight novels, all unpublished, and he began to write columns on the subjects he knew well. He wrote about his family and parenting. Two teen daughters and a younger son provided lots of ideas.

In 1996, a year after he began writing "Cameron Column," he set up his own Web site, www.brucecameron.com. That Internet newsletter gradually built until today he has subscribers in 52 countries and the site gets 10,000 hits a day. In 1999, the Rocky Mountain News picked up his column, and not long after that it was syndicated by Creators Syndicate.
Cameron says he was anything but an overnight success, but he was doing OK. He now had an agent and he sent her his ninth novel. Remember, he already had eight unpublished novels. She told him she liked it but it was too long. Then she asked what else he did and he sent her some of his columns. That agent must have thought, forget the novels, this is good stuff. When the book based on those columns was released in May 2001, it quickly moved to number 14 on the New York Times best seller list. By June 14 the first printing of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter was sold out.

The book was adapted for TV and the show premiered on Sept. 17, 2002 starring John Ritter and produced by veteran Tracy Gamble, the producer of "Home Improvement" and the "Golden Girls." The original 22 episodes has just been expanded to 26 which indicates another hit show. The cast starts work on Monday and the final show is filmed on Friday before a live audience of 350. Cameron has no involvement with the TV show but his name appears on every episode, "Based on the book by W. Bruce Cameron."

Bruce has signed a movie contract with Disney and is working on a movie version of 8 Simple Rules. His next book, How to Remodel a Man, is due next fall. This 46-year-old writer gave every indication of taking his remarkable success in stride. Even though he was a featured speaker for our meeting, he registered for the entire weekend of seminars and just like the rest of us, was very much a columnist interested in learning more about his craft.

Personable and witty Bruce never gave up his dream of being a writer. In that pursuit he learned a valuable lesson which he shared with us. He said, "It wasn't until I gave up writing for sale and wrote for my own pleasure that I found my voice."

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.