The "Rules" of Writing
There are a lot of axioms that get tossed around in creative writing courses, books on writing, and of course, the Internet. Often, these little gems are explained to new writers as though they were fact, to be taken for granted.
Just as often, experienced writers will respond by saying "there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to writing", or "rules are made to be broken".
So, the purpose of this question is to provide a place where we can list these axioms or "rules" of writing, and also weigh in on whether they are really self-evident truths or utter garbage (or maybe even something in-between).
Please limit each answer to a single "rule" and express your thoughts on it in the answer itself, or in a comment.
The list so far (alphabetically):
Cut adjectives and adverbs
Don't go into great detail describing places or things
Give yourself permission to suck
Know the end before you begin
Miscellaneous
Show, don't tell
Stay off the internet while writing
Use correct grammar, punctuation and spelling
Write, don't edit
Writing is rewriting
You have to read, and read all the time
You must learn to walk before you can run
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You must learn to walk before you can run
The most important rule is, first to learn to write according to the rules. When you master that, you can break them to get better results. But, like in anything where mastering a topic is hard, breaking the rules without understanding them will get really ugly. For true beauty, following the rules however does not suffice.
Give yourself inspiration.
Now, I already gave an answer on the question "I can't write without an inspiration" that explained why you must give yourself inspiration.
But I'll write it here.
Now, of course I'm going to rewrite it, but this is what I mean by "Give youyrself inspiration":
Many writers face writer's block (including me). A large portion of writers tend to think that inspiration just comes.
I'm here to tell you that it doesn't.
I am a very creative person. I have a lot of story ideas. But they don't just come from nowhere. I have to make myself that way.
Here's how you can do it:
Don't wait for inspiration. Unless if you are one of the few blessed, it's not coming.
Read books. Not only would this improve your reading skills, it will also improve your writing and creativity. You can gain ideas from books, such as a plot twist, a character trait, or the beginning of a story line. Or other ideas. It can also help you to just plan out your stories better as well.
Fantasize. (And no, not sexually; unless if it is that kind of book) What I mean is just roleplay. For example, you imagine that you are an elf, travelling with a human knight to save a kingdom or something, and you come across orcs, giants, sea monsters, etc. You might not use all of your fantasies, but it can give you inspiration.
Look around for ideas. Such as media, books, movies, etc. You might like the idea of a colony being sent to mars or a parent having to rescue their kids or something.
Write down a bunch of ideas and put them together in a good way. What I used was, "(This is what I sometimes have to do; write down a couple of ideas, then take the parts you like and put them into a story while getting rid of the parts you don't like) Example: I have 3 different stories: a) A girl goes onto a journey to save the race of dwarves from evil elves. b) A father has to travel the world with a phoenix in order to stop a villain in an industrial castle. c) A vulture feeds on the lives of souls, and a boy must go and stop her. Now, here's how I would improve it: I like the idea of a father, and I like the girl too, so maybe it's a father and a daughter. I like the idea of a phoenix companion, but it would seem to fit the boy better. I want the characters to meet, so the boy and phoenix will end up crossing paths with the father and daughter later. I don't like the saving the dwarves, but maybe that can be a separate race? And the vulture could be the villain in the industrial castle that they have to go and stop! (As you can see, I made a story simply by looking at a bunch of different ideas)"
Practice. Just practice whenever you can. You might have to not use a lot of drafts, but perhaps they can be used for parts of another story? This will also help your writing.
Listen to music. I love music. Sometimes, when I'm listening to music, the lyrics or the beat or whatever can just give me an idea for my story or help to improve it. For example, while listening to song "Kill Everyone" by Hollywood Undead, I managed to create the story line of a book. (In it, a wolf goes around killing other wolves, due to her being driven to insanity by their cruelty)
Write. Even if you don't want to. Just force yourself to write something, even if you don't feel like doing it. You'll probably get some good stories this way, or potentially good stories.
All these, and more, can give you inspiration.
It's just important to remember that inspiration most likely won't come your way, and you're going to have to give yourself inspiration.
Writing is Rewriting
You've completed your first draft. Congratulations! Next step is to send it to an agent or a publisher, right?
Not quite yet. Especially if you are relatively new to the writing game, you will spend a lot more time revising your manuscript than you did writing the first draft. More than you think it needs now. More than you think anyone in history has ever spent. Not to sound discouraging, but you will likely need to revise it multiple times before it is saleable, and you will probably need to take breaks in between. (These can be spent working on other projects.)
With experience, you will need fewer rewrites, and less input from others on what needs to be changed to make your manuscript acceptable to a publisher. Even so, the number of writers who can sell their first drafts (or even their early drafts) is minuscule. The most successful writers still make glaring continuity errors, suffer from style inconsistencies from one part of the novel to another, have characters with unbelievable motivations, and so on, and publishers will insist that these be corrected. Some seasoned pros even have trouble with basics like grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
My sister, who has published a few romance novels, has been heard to say, upon finishing the first draft of one of her novels, "now the real work begins."
Cut Adjectives and Adverbs
This "rule" is often stated more forcefully as "remove all adjectives and adverbs," but, like most of these rules, I don't think it should be blindly followed. Sometimes, an adjective or an adverb is the best way to get across exactly what you're trying to say.
The main time to avoid using them is when a stronger noun or verb would get the same point across. This is really just a specific application of a broader rule: never use two words when one will suffice. Some examples:
Replace "The huge man loomed over him" with "The giant loomed over him."
Replace "John ran quickly" with "John sprinted."
Note, however, that in most of these cases the two-word combination will have slightly different connotations than the single-word replacement. These differences are worth thinking about. Just ask yourself if what you're trying to say is worth that extra word. Think especially hard if you're using more than one adjective or adverb, as these can really stand out to readers as being overly verbose.
So, adjectives and adverbs shouldn't be cut simply on principle, but a good rule of thumb is to look at each one and double-check that it's really worth having.
More discussion here.
I was told "Normally I tell people to never use the word conclusion in the conclusion, but leave it." If you hear something similar, you did it right.
Stay off the Internet when you're writing.
It's no timeworn tidbit, but I'll venture it's axiomatic.
A timely example:
Ten minutes ago I was primed to cap off a chapter. Now here I am, chapter-capless, browsing and clicking and typing and web-clipping, pasting notes that will make great endings or even greater stored kilobytes I'll never again ask my CPU to recall. All because I took a moment's peek into the web to see if Liu Xiaobo is trending this morning. Same goes for You, about to comment on what I posted: If this is your dedicated writing time, go away. Get offline. Online's wonderful and time-pilfering diversions will still be here when we return during less valuable hours-- such as while we set about our day jobs.
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