In which Steph talks about teen sex. Again.

In Australia at the moment, there's a bit of a brouhaha going on in politics (it's pretty much over, I'm a bit slow on the uptake) - in short, the leader of the opposition and former Catholic seminarian, Tony Abbott, was interviewed by a women's magazine. Tony Abbott has daughters, and said that he wants them to remain virgins until marriage. I'm not entirely sure whether he said all women should regard their virginity as a gift, or whether it has just been misconstrued and blown out of proportion by the media. It's likely the latter. For more details, have a look here.

Here's my point of view, as a teenaged girl:

I think whilst Tony Abbott is entitled to his opinion in regards to his own daughters, I don't think it's an appropriate topic for politicians to be interviewed on. I'd really rather not know about Tony Abbott's personal views on the value of female virginity.

I think it's wrong to have differing standards for boys and girls - after all, if the girls all remain virgins until marriage, who are the boys going to have sex with? So if we're going to regard female virginity as a gift, we should regard male virginity as a gift too, shouldn't we?

There shouldn't be blanket expectations when it comes to teenagers and sex - you can't say all teenagers should become sexually active at eighteen, or all teenagers should abstain from sex until marriage.

For one thing, people mature at different rates. Teenagers are physically mature enough to reproduce a lot earlier than they are mentally or emotionally mature enough for a sexual relationship. That said, someone might be ready for a sexual relationship at sixteen, or they might be at nineteen. If sex is legal, consensual, and there's mutual respect, I really don't see the issue. If sex occurs when either or both parties are drunk, pressured by friends or the other person or otherwise reluctant, then it's probably a bad idea.

I don't see marriage or engagement as being necessary. I respect that some people have that belief, and I think they shouldn't be put down for that. A committed relationship is probably a good idea, but everyone has differing standards.

It's the job of the parents - not schools, not politicians, not friends, not the media - to instill in their children a sense of self-respect and their own moral standards.

In my mind, people regarding their virginity as a 'gift' (I'm reluctant to use that term, but that's what Tony Abbott called it) has a whole lot less to do with deliberately abstaining because your parents want you to, and a whole lot more to do with having the self-respect and self-esteem not to rush into something because you want to be liked, or loved, or feel pressured to, or because everyone else is doing it. A good parent isn't one who says, 'You must remain a virgin until marriage' but one who raises you to love yourself, and to only do things which you are comfortable with and want to do. I think that if a young person decides to remain a virgin until marriage, that should be their decision, not someone else's.

Sex - especially first sexual experiences as a teenager, because when you're young you're especially emotionally vulnerable - should be on your terms (and of course that of the other person. Or that of the other people). If you're sixteen or eighteen or thirty-five. If you're waiting until marriage or you're in a committed relationship. As I said earlier - and you may have differing standards, but this is my idea - if it's legal, consensual and there's mutual respect (and contraception), I don't see the issue. Everyone is different, okay? Don't listen to the rubbish people speak about virginity, have your own beliefs and standards.

What do you think?

What do you mean my characters aren't real?

When you're in the middle of a draft or very intense editing, and while you're getting a cup of tea for your first break in three hours, do you ever think to yourself, 'I wonder what [insert character's name here] is up to.'?

Then you realise that that person is in fact a figment of your imagination. And you feel like a bit of a loser but it's okay because all artistic types are like this, at least you think so, in order to stop yourself from coming to the conclusion that you're actually crazy.

So, let's get to the point, shall we?

Do you have any idea where your book characters come from?

Before you start writing, do you sit down with a baby naming book and a hat filled with physical traits on little slips of paper, and compile a character like that?

Or do you already have some ideas - a name and a certain ability for them swimming up from the darkness of your subconscious - and you just have to fill in some blanks?

Do you sit down and write and they just occur naturally?

Or do you base them off real people, or yourself?

How do you create well-rounded book characters?

Plotting vs. pantsing

I have an issue with the word pantsing. It reminds me of the word dacking. It gives me horrific flashbacks to bad primary school memories.

But for the sake of this discussion, we’re going to call outlining a novel prior to writing it ‘plotting’ and not outlining a novel – just going into it with a general idea of what it’s about and no other planning – ‘pantsing’.

I’m not sure which I am. The novel formerly known as These Bones – the one for which I have a book deal – was written without any outline, though I had a clear idea of the characters and their individual struggles, as well as a few scenes I wanted to add. My previous two novels were the same.

But now, I’ve written an entire outline for my new novel (third attempt at writing it). I have a chapter-by-chapter run down. I have character sketches and a brief synopsis. I have a blurb. I am so pre-planned if I were any more pre-planned I would pre-plan myself to death. So maybe I’m growing into a plotter? Or perhaps this is just a phase?

So, are you a pantser or a plotter? Do you think you’ll ever go over to the other side? What are the benefits and disadvantages of your preferred novel-writing method?

Interview with Foz Meadows, author of Solace & Grief

Foz Meadows is, according to her website, a 'bipedal mammal with delusions of immortality. Her first novel, Solace and Grief (young adult urban fantasy), has been picked up by Ford Street Publishing and should appear on shelves sometime in early 2010. She likes cheese, geekery, writing, webcomics and general weirdness. Dislikes include Hollywod rom-coms, liquorice and the Republican party.'

So, in short, she's really cool. The launch of her debut novel is coming up on February 20th at Carlton Library, so if you're in Melbourne you should definitely come along. The rest of the launch details are at the bottom of this post, after this very excellent interview. You should check out Foz's website & blog, and follow her on Twitter.

Steph: Describe your upcoming novel in 25 words or less.
Foz: Solace & Grief is a YA urban fantasy novel set in Sydney. It features vampires, friends, schemes, sarcasm and a whole lot of weirdness.

Steph: What was the inspiration behind Solace & Grief? Can you tell me a bit about the process of writing it?
Foz: When I first had the idea for Solace, which was about three or so years ago, I was working as a legal secretary; it's the sort of job where you can end up with a lot of downtime in front of a computer. At the time, I had another novel - written during school, then revised and finally finished during university - which I was busy shopping around, but for exactly that reason, I was trying not to think about it. Combine this state of affairs with my rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the umpteenth time, and one midmorning, the prologue for Solace & Grief just sort of happened. I kept writing from there, but I was still so deeply tied to the previous novel that it took 40,000 words until I admitted it wasn't actually a short story. Once that happened, though, I realised I knew where things were headed, and I've been working on it ever since.

Steph: What was the road to publication like for your novel? How long did it take you to find a publisher, and what was it like working with an editor?
Foz: There were disappointments along the way. Several agencies rejected the manuscript - although in fairness to them, the original version was very messy. I did find an agent at one point, but she was forced to close up shop for health reasons. Obviously, I was pretty distressed about that - she'd managed to get me through to the second round of submissions at a major publishing house, and I was paranoid they wouldn't take me on because I was no longer represented. In the end, the second editor there didn't like the story as much as the first one had, and that was the basis on which they passed me over. Then I submitted to Ford Street during an open period - though I was still unsolicited - and heard back within two weeks. They had a list of changes for me to make to the manuscript, almost all of which I agreed with; I beavered away for a few more months, sent it back, and then, to my delight and astonishment, they signed me on. Working with an editor was brilliant - it really helped me to look at my writing more objectively. Self-editing is a great skill to have, but a fresh pair of experienced eyes is even better!

Steph: Imagining you could travel back in time and meet yourself as a younger writer without tearing apart the universe, what advice would you give her about writing and life?
Foz: In terms of writing, I think the most valuable thing I could give my younger self is reassurance. Sometimes, it felt like I was carrying a hot, heavy coal around in my chest: this was what I wanted to do, but what if I couldn't make it? I was so possessive about my goals - I wanted more friends who were writers, but at the same time, I also wanted to be the only writer I knew, so that it could be my distinguishing characteristic. I've always been contrary like that, though hopefully I'm improving with age! When it comes to life, though, I'd tell her that knowing a thing can happen isn't the same as being prepared to experience it, and to try new things more often.

Steph: When did you know you were a writer? What experiences have most shaped you as a writer?
Foz: I've been writing for about as long as I've known how, although I didn't really fix on the idea of being an author until I was twelve, and even then, I'd still dream about journalism or archaeology. But it never crossed my mind that I might ever stop writing. Experience-wise, I can't think of any particular moments that stand out as shaping me, unless books count as moments - which, I think, they do. Whatever I read that moved me, I've always wanted to write something like it, and though that originally lead to a lot of pastiche and imitation, utlimately I think it helped me figure out what stories of my own I wanted to tell, and why. That being said, I still have fangirl moments!

Steph: What are you working on at the moment?
Foz: Very soon, I'm about to start editing The Key to Starveldt, which is the sequel to Solace & Grief - I finished writing the first draft late last year, and once that's done, I'll start work on volume three. Recently, though, I was ambushed by a sort of adult magic-and-murder-mystery novel; I finished that in about a month, while we were on holiday, and now I have Plans for it. Not very concrete Plans, I'll grant you. But Plans nonetheless.

Book launch: Solace & Grief by Foz Meadows
To be launched by Kirstyn McDermott
When: 2pm for 2:30pm, Saturday 20 February
Where: Carlton Library, 667 Rathdowne Street, North Carlton, Vic
Queries: Lindy Dadd on (03) 9426 5688 or Paul Collins (03) 9481 1120
RSVP by 15 February: info@fordstreetpublishing.com

My novel in Dutch and Catalan!

More exciting news about my book in other languages!

I'm very delighted to announce that my novel will be published in Dutch by Meulenhoff Boekerij!

And...it's also going to be published in Catalan by La Galera!

Yay!

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Don't forget to enter my contest to win a Paranormal Romance Book Pack!

F2m: the boy within by Hazel Edwards & Ryan Kennedy

Here's a guest post by Hazel Edwards on co-writing her latest YA novel, f2m, about a girl transitioning gender, with Ryan Kennedy...












Collaborating on ‘Edgy’ YA Fiction about Transitioning Gender
by Hazel Edwards

Collaborating on an ‘edgy’ novel , online via Skype has been fun. Ryan is an IT techie but I’m very much an online apprentice. So the way we have worked has been a fast learning curve for me. As well as the ftm content. We’ve actually enjoyed the plotting, and speed of story change, but the 18 months (and 40 drafts) with Ryan Kennedy my co-author of the YA novel f2m: the boy within has been one of the most challenging books I’ve written.

Co-writing fiction about transitioning gender and punk music, when you’re crossing countries (Australia and New Zealand), generations and cultures (music and gender) is like going on an expedition into the world of new ideas. Ryan has been a great co-author, and an interpreter for me.

In Feb , our novel f2m; the boy within is released by Ford Street Publishing, and that’s pretty exciting because it’s the first international YA novel about transitioning from female to male, co-written by a trans author. There is one other ftm YA Parrotfish (Less common than mtf: from male to female) but not by a trans writer. Also Luna (great book!) which is about mtf (male to female) transition.

Our book is Ryan’s first novel. I’ve written quite a few others, (including Antarctica’s Frozen Chosen, from the perspective of a 21 year old male scientist) OK, I’m not male and I’m not 21. But writing believably from the perspective of a character unlike yourself, is the greatest challenge for an author.

We’ve known each other as family friends since Ryan was an 11 year old girl. He’s now a man in his early thirties. New Zealand-based Ryan lived as female until his transition to male at twenty seven. Ryan works in IT and is a passionate environmentalist and musician.

In f2m; the boy within, the central character is an 18 year old, a crucial age for ID and also a ‘coming of age’ period when vital decisions are made about work, friends and lifestyle, especially if there is a difference between the person inside and the outside.

Character Skye plays guitar in all-female Chronic Cramps punk band but now she's presenting as a male called Finn. Her family find it difficult to accept losing a daughter.

That’s why our metallic cover with the Russian dolls within dolls was so carefully chosen. And our title of f2m, rather than ftm, the medical term for female to male, indicates our process of collaborating on the writing of this novel, because our process of collaboration has been equally fascinating as the content.

People always ask, how do you manage to co-write? And especially fiction! And on such a taboo subject. If you write about a controversial subject, the tone must be appropriate and the language was the first challenge. I had to learn a new vocab. Both for punk music and for transitioning. f2m is fiction, based on genetic fact.

And it has been a satisfying book to write, because it is needed to provide a compassionate and funny perspective on a taboo subject.

f2m: the boy within book launch
When: 2pm, Sunday 14 February
Where: Richmond Library, 415 Church Street, Richmond, Vic
RSVP by 10 February: info@fordstreetpublishing.com

f2m:the boy within
http://www.fordstreetpublishing.com/
http://www.ryanscottkennedy.com/
http://www.hazeledwards.com/

f2m: the boy within
book trailer:

Quotes for Writers, Part Four

"‘One thing that always worried me,’ she said slowly, smiling at Warren, ‘there is so much in the world to read, so much to learn, if you once got seriously started how could you stop?’"
- Joyce Carol Oates



"Don’t cast sidelong glances, and compare yourself to others among your peers! (Writing is not a race. No one really “wins.” The satisfaction is in the effort, and rarely in the consequent rewards, if there are any.)"
- Joyce Carol Oates



"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."
- Sylvia Plath



"If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write."
- Stephen King



"One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment."
- Hart Crane

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any."
- Orson Scott Card



"What writing practice, like Zen practice does, is bring you back to the natural state of mind…The mind is raw, full of energy, alive and hungry. It does not think in the way we were brought up to think-well-mannered, congenial."
– Natalie Goldberg



"The most essential gift for a good writer is a
built-in shockproof shit-detector."
- Ernest Hemingway



"There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment."
- Anonymous



"Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.
For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed."
- Ernest Hemingway’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature, read by John C. Cabot (United States Ambassador) December 10th, 1954



"The joy of writing.
The power of preserving.
Revenge of a mortal hand."
- Wislawa Szymborska, The joy of writing



"Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors."
- Rhys Alexander

Quotes for Writers, Part Three

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."
- Ray Bradbury



"Readers, after all, are making the world with you. You give them the materials, but it’s the readers who build that world in their own minds."
- Ursula Le Guin



"For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die."
- Anne Lamott



"The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on. If you can change the way people think. The way they see themselves. The way they see the world. You can change the way people live their lives. That’s the only lasting thing you can create."
- Chuck Palahniuk



"You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it."
- Neil Gaiman



"Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes the day happier."
- Kathleen Norris



"If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it."
- Anais Nin



"The best decoration in the world is a roomful of books."
- Billy Baldwin



"Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something – anything – down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head"
- Anne Lamott



"Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write."
- Natalie Goldberg

Quotes for Writers, Part Two

"Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter."
- Neil Gaiman



"No writing is a waste of time – no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. With every sentence you write, you have learned something. It has done you good."
- Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit



"I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public library, believing every crack in my soul could be chinked with a book."
- Barbara Kingsolver



"I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living."
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Locked Rooms and Open Doors (1974)



"‘Write about what you know’ is tricky advice. If I’d followed it, I would never have written 11 books about European vampires, or books about a bewitched family of psychic people. I say ‘Write what you want to write. Write the book you want to read. Write what delights you.’"
- Anne Rice



"Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that deeply engages our intellects and our hearts? Can the writer renew our hope for literary forms? Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries, so we may feel again their majesty and power? What do we ever know that is higher than that power which, from time to time, seizes our lives, and reveals us startlingly to ourselves as creatures set down here bewildered?….We still and always want waking."
- Annie Dillard, The Writing Life (Harper, 1990), 72-3.



"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?"
- Henry Ward Beecher



"There’s something delicious about writing those first few words of a story. You can never quite tell where they will take you."
- Miss Potter, 2006



"At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader."
- Alberto Manguel



"At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that the young man or the young woman must possess or teach himself, training himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance—that is to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is to be—curiosity—to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does, and if you have that, then I don’t think the talent makes much difference, whether you’ve got it or not."
- William Faulkner

Interview with freelance writer Sarah Hannah Fisher

Today I'm interviewing freelance writer and Sydney-sider Sarah Hannah Fisher. She's written for Girlfriend, Cherrie, Peppermint and Cleo and for various online publications. She's also associate editor of The Scavenger. I discovered her blog a few months ago, and what I really love about it is that she talks about things like animal rights and social and environmental issues as well as blogging on things like fashion, beauty, celebrities and pop culture. I love a smart fashion blog. (You should read this article, too.)

Steph: Tell me a bit about yourself, and when and how you started writing. What made you decide to become a freelance writer?
Sarah: Well, I'm a 25-year-old Sydney-sider and I've wanted to be a writer from the age of about 12 or so. Possibly earlier! I've always had an obsession with magazines and I knew that's where I wanted my career to be. After highschool, I studied Media and Communications at Sydney University but I didn't really enjoy it so it took me a while to finish it since I kept deferring to travel. I started doing some freelance work at the end of my degree and after I had graduated, mainly as a way to build up my writing portfolio while I was job hunting!

Steph: What does freelance writing involve? How do you go about submitting to magazines? (Tell us a bit about the process – from pitch to publication).
Sarah: It took me a while to get the hang of it. The first thing I do is come up with an idea and research a few magazines to pitch it too, re-reading back issues to get a feel for their style and tone and making sure they haven't published anything similar recently. Then I basically just email editors with my pitch and wait! I begun with no contacts in the industry at all but I've built up a fair few now.

Steph: What advice would you give to a young (or older!) writer, wanting to start working as a freelancer?
Sarah: You need to get used to rejection- it goes hand and hand with the gig, unfortunately. Politness goes a long way too, you never know what editor you will meet again later on in life and you definately don't want to go burning any bridges.

Steph: You’re working on a semi-autobiographical book at the moment, which I’m very curious about. Could you tell me a bit about it?
Sarah: I've always dreamed of publishing my own book, like most writers I suppose! During my late teens/early twenties I went through some very, very hard times mentally and that will be the focus of the book- a young girl who is diagnosed with mental illness and is hospitalised and how she copes (or doesn't cope) with her life. So it's going to be pretty dark. I kept various journals and scrapbooks during the time period and the book is going to be based on those. I'm still in the stage of collaborating all the bits and peices of writings and drawings that I have- it's going to take me a while!

Steph: What parts of the writing and submitting process do you find challenging, and which parts are the most rewarding?
Sarah: Rejection is never fun but I don't take it personally. I enjoy setting my own schedule but it can be hard when all my friends are out having fun and I'm typing away at home, especially if they don't see it as real "work." The most rewarding would definately be holding a copy of the published article in my hand and seeing my name in print!

Steph: What are your hopes for the future, career-wise?
Sarah: Definitely to finish my book! Aside from that, I would love to be a features writer on any of my favourite magazines- Vogue, RUSSH, Yen, Frankie, Marie Claire...

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Thanks, Sarah! Check out Sarah Hannah Fisher's online portfolio, and you should definitely read Sarah's personal blog, Death Wears Diamond Jewellery and follow her on Twitter.

Quotes for Writers, Part One

"I want to do something splendid… Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books."
- Louisa May Alcott



"The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its disasters."
- Ross MacDonald



"Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window."
- William Faulkner



"If you don’t think there is magic in writing, you probably won’t write anything magical."
Terry Brooks



"As a writer, you should have a sticky soul; the act of continually taking things in should be as much a part of you as your hair color."
- Elizabeth Berg



"When asked, ‘How do you write?’
I invariably answer, ‘one word at a time.’"
- Stephen King



"What writing practice, like Zen practice does, is bring you back to the natural state of mind…The mind is raw, full of energy, alive and hungry. It does not think in the way we were brought up to think-well-mannered, congenial."
– Natalie Goldberg



"There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes."
- William Makepeace Thackeray

Writing Rules

I've collected four different sets of 'writing rules' here from well-known authors. A couple of them deal with things like grammar and syntax and the nitty-gritty line-by-line stuff, and the others with writing novels as a whole.

They're all very interesting (and there are things I agree with and disagree with), so you should definitely read them, then answer my questions at the bottom of this post and tell me your views on writing rules.

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Rules For Writing Fiction

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

- Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons 1999), 9-10.

George Orwell's 6 Rules For Writers

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.

- George Orwell, Politics and the English Language (Horizon, 1946)

William Safire's Rules for Writers

• Remember to never split an infinitive.
• The passive voice should never be used.
• Do not put statements in the negative form.
• Verbs have to agree with their subjects.
• Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
• If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
• A writer must not shift your point of view.
• And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)
• Don't overuse exclamation marks!!
• Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
• Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
• If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
• Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
• Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
• Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
• Always pick on the correct idiom.
• The adverb always follows the verb.
• Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives.

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle
from the New York Times, Writers on Writing Series.
By ELMORE LEONARD

These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.

1. Never open a book with weather. If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

2. Avoid prologues.
They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.
There is a prologue in John Steinbeck’s “Sweet Thursday,” but it’s O.K. because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: “I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me what the guy that’s talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy’s thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That’s nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don’t have to read it. I don’t want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.”

3. 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 to get the dictionary.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” . . .
. . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances “full of rape and adverbs.”

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
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.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won’t be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories “Close Range.”

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” what do the “American and the girl with him” look like? “She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
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.

And finally:
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he’s writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character’s head, and the reader either knows what the guy’s thinking or doesn’t care. I’ll bet you don’t skip dialogue.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It’s my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)

If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character—the one whose view best brings the scene to life—I’m able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what’s going on, and I’m nowhere in sight.

What Steinbeck did in “Sweet Thursday” was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. “Whom the Gods Love They Drive Nuts” is one, “Lousy Wednesday” another. The third chapter is titled “Hooptedoodle 1” and the 38th chapter “Hooptedoodle 2” as warnings to the reader, as if Steinbeck is saying: “Here’s where you’ll see me taking flights of fancy with my writing, and it won’t get in the way of the story. Skip them if you want.”

“Sweet Thursday” came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published, and I’ve never forgotten that prologue.

Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Every word.

• What's your opinion on writing rules? A help or a hindrance?
• Do they naturally occur to writers, or should they be taught?
• Have any of your own personal writing rules to add?

I find writing rules a bit unnecessary and overcomplicated - personally, the only rules I think every writer need apply to are these:

1. Read.
2. Write.

But, you know, I like to simplify things.