Distilling ‘Ten rules for writing fiction’ into one or two words
February 21, 2010 – 4:11 pm
I’ll now slaughter the multi-authored Guardian.co.uk article “Ten rules for writing fiction” by cutting several of the “rules” down to one or two words which may make more sense after reading the article. Many of the rules could apply to other forms of writing, and possibly, some to life.
- Write
- Write
- Write
- Avoid prologues
- Excise skippableness
- Read aloud
- Cut
- Rewrite
- Safeguard text
- Hold attentions
- Don’t whine
- Show friends
- Pray
- Read often
- Write quickly
- Quality later
- Title early
- Less Internet
- Hide thesaurus(es)
- Change mind
- Create rhythms
- Reread, rewrite
- Trash it
- Memorize poems
- Take walks
- Forget posterity
- Love survives
- Write privately
- Shun commerciality
- Better-ize autocorrection
- Journal entries
- Regrets fuel
- Simultaneous ideation
- Beware! Clichés!
- Write daily
- Give up
- Come back
- Persevere
- Use pens
- Use pencils
- Type
- Fill pages
- Take stands
- Be accurate
- Necessity matters
- “Realness” doesn’t
- Break rules
- Change it
- Changes you
- Frees you
- Have fun
- Marry believers
- Be childless
- Shun reviews
- No shit-taking
- Autobiographical inventions
- Uninteresting verbs
- Cut metaphors
- Cut similes
- Magic aloud
- Trust readers
- Discipline
- Eliminate interferences
- Finish it
- Put aside
- Read anew
- Fix it
- Keep moving
- Assurance
- Confidence
- Say something
- Master jokes
- Choose understandability
- Increase vocabulary
- Read widely
- Read discriminately
- Study others
- Have experiences
- Have humility
- Push limits
- Defend others
- Defend writing(s)
- Defend yourself
- No fear
- Love writing
- Edit
- Write
There’s a Part Two to this article!
87 misrepresentations from Part One is enough. I’m off to read the second part. But first, three rules verbatim:
“Fiction that isn’t an author’s personal adventure into the frightening or the unknown isn’t worth writing for anything but money.” –Jonathan Franzen
“Only bad writers think that their work is really good.” –Anne Enright
“Never take advice from anyone with no investment in the outcome.” –David Hare
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