Saturday, February 27, 2010

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction

If you like lists -- and the Guardian's book section -- you'll definitely want to see the dos and don'ts for fiction writers they collected from authors such as Margaret Atwood, Colm Tóibín, Jonathan Franzen, and Neil Gaiman. While it can be a bit overwhelming to read so many admonitions at once ("Don't have children." "It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction") some are instructive ("You see more sitting still than chasing after"), and others downright funny ("Stay in your mental pyjamas all day." "If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane"). It's worth taking some time to browse through them, especially if you're taking a snow day today, as many are in my area. Then share: what's on your list of dos and don'ts?

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 10:34:33.

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