Rules for Writing from Masters
In Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction
- Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
- Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
- Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
- Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
- Start as close to the end as possible.
- Be a sadist. Now 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Nice- Short, Sweet and to the point. And Delivered with Vonnegut’s trademarked wit and humor. But there must be other lists like this one, right? Other writer’s who have distilled a lifetime of writing into a few short words. Small lists of the purest essence of craft and function. What else is out there?
Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing
- Never open a book with weather.
- Avoid prologues. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
- Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” . . .
- Keep your exclamation points under control.
- Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
- Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
- Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
- Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
- Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
- And his executive summary:If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Ten too much to remember?
Orwell’s Five Rules of Effective Writing
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never Use A long word where a short one will do.
- If it is Possible to Cut a word out, Always cut it out.
- Never use the passive when you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English Equivalent.
Still Too Wordy? Still Looking for the distilled essence of effective writing? I’ve got one more, from the master of brevity and economy, taken from the “Kansas City Star’s” style guide:
Hemingway’s Four Rules:
- Use Short Sentences
- Use Short Paragraphs
- Use Vigorous English
- Be Positive, Not Negative
Think You Can Remember That?
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