Question: What are your rules of writing?

[LJ Beck]

A friend read to me a particular writer's 4 rules of writing. They didn't really fit for either of us, so we made our own rules. What are yours?

Here's Hemingway's Rules :
And Gaiman's : Neil Gaiman's 8 Rules of Writing

I came up with these for me:
1) Never be boring. If I'm bored writing it, don't.
2) Never be lazy, if it needs fixing, fix it.
3) Never shy away from being bold.
4) Be honest.

 

[E G Logan]

A friend read to me a particular writer's 4 rules of writing. They didn't really fit for either of us, so we made our own rules. What are yours?

1. If, re-reading it, it reads like 'writing', think again.

 

[Hannah F]

• Let your characters wear your heart on the page, but let them change it into their heart first.
• This is your characters' story, not yours, so don't interrupt.
• Show it to the world. If you don't, you won't hear if they hate it but neither will you hear if they love it.
• Keep trying. It only takes one person to say yes.
• Nothing is too silly if you tell it well.

 

[Jake E]

I think my rules for myself are pretty simple:
1) always pick the funniest out come.
2) jokes only land if they're set up properly.
3) ^ the same is true for plot twists.

 

[Hannah F]

A friend read to me a particular writer's 4 rules of writing. They didn't really fit for either of us, so we made our own rules. What are yours?

Here's Hemingway's Rules :
And Gaiman's : Neil Gaiman's 8 Rules of Writing

I came up with these for me:
1) Never be boring. If I'm bored writing it, don't.
2) Never be lazy, if it needs fixing, fix it.
3) Never shy away from being bold.
4) Be honest.

Ha. I do the [square bracket] thing often: for the right word as Neil Gaiman said, for continuity questions I need to go back and check up later (but right now, keep moving forward, for layers I want to add e.g. [describe clothes] [describe food] [add smell and taste] [describe room] . . .

 

[Rich.]

Four rules of writing:

1) You must finish what you sta​

2)​

3)​

4)​

 

[Pamela Jo]

Rules, I dont need no stinking Rules. More like Guidelines. Kurt Vonnegut's are what I aspire to. My biggest failure is inevitably no. 8. Working on it.

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things— reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them, in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible, to heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

 

[LJ Beck]

I'm reading a book now called "Pity the Reader: On Writing With Style" by Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell. It's pretty funny so far.

 

[RK Wallis]

Rules of writing:

1. Entertain the reader, the rest will follow.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

I have no rules. The stories tell themselves. I try to get out of the way. When I revise, same thing. The story is its own story.