Tip 8: Don’t be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
Tip 7: Keep human! See people; go places, drink if you feel like it.
Tipe 6: Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
Tip 5: When you can’t create you can work.
Tip 4: Work according to the program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous ~ George Orwell
You must begin by making notes. You may have to make notes for years…. When you think of something, when you recall something, put it where it belongs. Put it down when you think of it. You may never recapture it quite as vividly the second time.
Source: Open Culture
Don’t worry about style.
I think the story compels its own style to a great extent, that the writer don’t need to bother too much about style. If he’s bothering about style, then he’s going to write precious emptiness–not necessarily nonsense…it’ll be quite beautiful and quite pleasing to the ear, but there won’t be much content in it.
Source: Open Culture
Unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you’re good at it, you don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.
Source: New York Times
This rule doesn’t require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use ”suddenly” tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.
