Rules of Thumb - Part 5
I am happy to present another bountiful installment from my Rules of Thumb collection - hints and tips and tricks that have served me well in thirty-three years of being a published author. These are tried-and-true rules that I promise will help you on your path to a career in writing.
1. "If you heed the advice of your agent and editor in regards to changes, chances are your story will improve. These people are not out to get you despite how it seems."
2. "If you started writing a novel ten years ago and you are still working on it, you don't really want to get it published."
3. "Remember to make the middle of your book as interesting as the beginning and ending, because if a reader gives up on your book in the middle, he or she will feel cheated. You don't want to generate that kind of sentiment against you."
4. "The best way to have a good idea is to have a lots of ideas. Linus Pauling said that."
5. "There's no such thing as writer's block. That was invented by people who can't write."
6. "The first page of your novel is a doorway to an unknown room. Make it an inviting room or the reader will close the door."
7. "Details make your story real. Write 'apple' instead of 'fruit.'"
8. "If you ever get discouraged, remember: Writing is the only profession where no one thinks you're ridiculous if you aren't making any money."
9. "Ignore the critics. Have you ever seen a statue erected to a critic?"
10. "Written dialogue might sound great in your mind, but reading it out loud will improve on it."
11. "Mark Twain said the test of any good fiction is that the reader should care about the characters - the good to succeed, the bad to fail."
12. "Inside every fat book is a thin book trying to get out. Trim as much as you can. Your editor and readers will thank you for it."
13. "If you make your characters passionately want something, the reader will care."
Re: Rules of Thumb - Part 5
15. Take your time. 20 years to write a novel is fine. Don't panic, you already have one faithful reader...you.
16. Don't write to make money. Make money to write.
17. Beautifully written long sentences are like wonderfully dressed ladies. You admire at first and it takes enough time to enjoy the stripping to get the very essence.
18. Start to write in a foreign language. When you'll come back to your mother tongue, you'll feel like a genious.
19. Being plagarized is a tribute for your talent. Unless you are a lady and another lady is wearing the same bathing suit as yours on the beach, there is no need to scream or to sue.
20. Every time you ask your right thumb what's the rule, don't forget to ask the left one. Those guys hardly agree. And the fun can begin.
e. g. John Smith
(Registered personal quotes)