Over the weekend Mick sent me a link to this article in the Guardian:
In it, several famous authors were asked what the "rules" were. Some were quite useful, some were funny, and some I could just ignore. These are the ones that are the most useful in my writing life:
Elmore Leonard:
1) Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But "said" is far less intrusive than "grumbled", "gasped", "cautioned", "lied". I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary. (I'd heard this before, but it never hurts to be reminded).
Roddy Doyle
2) Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph
3) Do spend a few minutes a day working on the cover biog – "He divides his time between Kabul and Tierra del Fuego." But then get back to work.
Richard Ford
4) Don't have children.
Jonathon Franzen
5) Never use the word "then" as a conjunction – we have "and" for this purpose. Substituting "then" is the lazy or tone-deaf writer's non-solution to the problem of too many "ands" on the page.
Esther Freud
6) Don't wait for inspiration. Discipline is the key.
Neil Gaiman
7) 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.
David Hare
8) The two most depressing words in the English language are "literary fiction."
Hilary Mantel
9) Concentrate your narrative energy on the point of change. This is especially important for historical fiction. When your character is new to a place, or things alter around them, that's the point to step back and fill in the details of their world. People don't notice their everyday surroundings and daily routine, so when writers describe them it can sound as if they're trying too hard to instruct the reader.
Rose Tremain
10) If you're writing historical fiction, don't have well-known real characters as your main protagonists. This will only create biographical unease in the readers and send them back to the history books. If you must write about real people, then do something post-modern and playful with them.
I'll leave you with the rule by Phillip Pullman, which might be the most useful one of all:
"My main rule is to say no to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work."
