10 rules for writing.
the guardian's ten rules for writing fiction, as gathered from various writers (i will admit i'd only heard of maybe half of them). i read this in bed, sitting straight up.
my favorites:
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. (Elmore Leonard)
3 You don't always have to go so far as to murder your darlings - those turns of phrase or images of which you felt extra proud when they appeared on the page - but go back and look at them with a very beady eye. Almost always it turns out that they'd be better dead. (Not every little twinge of satisfaction is suspect - it's the ones which amount to a sort of smug glee you must watch out for.) (Diana Athill)
9 Don't sit down in the middle of the woods. If you're lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page. (Margaret Atwood)
8 Do change your mind. Good ideas are often murdered by better ones. I was working on a novel about a band called the Partitions. Then I decided to call them the Commitments. (Roddy McDowell)
9 Don't worry about posterity - as Larkin (no sentimentalist) observed "What will survive of us is love". (Helen Dunmore)
6 Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire. (Geoff Dyer)
5 Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. (Neil Gaiman)
6 Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go.
7 Read. As much as you can. As deeply and widely and nourishingly and irritatingly as you can. And the good things will make you remember them, so you won't need to take notes. (AL Kennedy)
4 Writing fiction is not "self-expression" or "therapy". Novels are for readers, and writing them means the crafty, patient, selfless construction of effects. I think of my novels as being something like fairground rides: my job is to strap the reader into their car at the start of chapter one, then trundle and whizz them through scenes and surprises, on a carefully planned route, and at a finely engineered pace. (Sarah Waters)
my favorites:
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. (Elmore Leonard)
3 You don't always have to go so far as to murder your darlings - those turns of phrase or images of which you felt extra proud when they appeared on the page - but go back and look at them with a very beady eye. Almost always it turns out that they'd be better dead. (Not every little twinge of satisfaction is suspect - it's the ones which amount to a sort of smug glee you must watch out for.) (Diana Athill)
9 Don't sit down in the middle of the woods. If you're lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page. (Margaret Atwood)
8 Do change your mind. Good ideas are often murdered by better ones. I was working on a novel about a band called the Partitions. Then I decided to call them the Commitments. (Roddy McDowell)
9 Don't worry about posterity - as Larkin (no sentimentalist) observed "What will survive of us is love". (Helen Dunmore)
6 Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire. (Geoff Dyer)
5 Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. (Neil Gaiman)
6 Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go.
7 Read. As much as you can. As deeply and widely and nourishingly and irritatingly as you can. And the good things will make you remember them, so you won't need to take notes. (AL Kennedy)
4 Writing fiction is not "self-expression" or "therapy". Novels are for readers, and writing them means the crafty, patient, selfless construction of effects. I think of my novels as being something like fairground rides: my job is to strap the reader into their car at the start of chapter one, then trundle and whizz them through scenes and surprises, on a carefully planned route, and at a finely engineered pace. (Sarah Waters)