Rules of Thumb - Part Four
After I posted my personal Rules of Thumb For Writing (April 14, 2009), I received such a nice response from readers that I added to the list with a second and third installment. I am happy to present a fourth list of helpful hints, secret tips, clever tricks, and guarantied-to-work guidelines that have proven successful time and again in my thirty-one years of being a published author (I use the qualifier "published" because I have actually been an author for more years than that, but I mark the publication of The Magdalene Scrolls in 1978 as my debut as a professional writer).
Use these to your heart's content. I promise you, you can't go wrong.
1. "If you don't first give your hero a thoroughly detailed past, you won't know where he or she's going."
2. "If you've just written something that sounds mightily familiar, throw it out. It's a cliché."
3. "Never count on catchy jacket cover art to sell your book. The cover can get lost and then all anyone is left with is your words."
4. "A successful story opens with sympathetic characters who are then thrown to the lions."
5. "Make things up. Everyone thinks his or her life story is interesting. Trust me, it isn't."
6. "Accept the fact that writing is a lonely business, because if there are people around, you won't get anything done."
7. "Your dialogue will be boring and annoying if you use any other words than: said, replied, asked, and answered."
8. "A powerful story calls for a powerful theme."
9. "Never say 'have got' for 'have.' Editors hate this."
10. "If your story contains, 'He stood their,' this tells the editor that you used spell-check instead of checking the spelling yourself. This is the mark of a lazy writer."
11. "Make the title of your story simple and easy to remember. As a rule, people will not buy something they cannot pronounce."
12. "If you haven't grabbed your reader on the first page, it's a sure bet you never will because he or she has put the book down."
13. "When in doubt, leave it out." (Whether a word, a character, or a storyline, even if it is the cleverest thing you have ever written, if it does not sit well with you, it won't sit well with anyone else.)
