In her own journal, learsfool listed a bunch of things she would never do in a fantasy novel. Inspired, I endeavored to come up with my own list. However, also inspired by Shel Silversteen’s Twenty Commandments (which were all things to do rather than things not to do) and inspired by Elmore Leonard’s Easy on the Hooptedoodle (the best “rules of writing” I have ever found), I decided to come up with a list of things that I will always do in my writing.
- I will remember that people are paying for what I write.
- I will assume my reader is smarter than me.
- I will assume my primary job is to entertain the reader.
- I will fuck with preconceived notions (protagonist/antagonist identity, plot, exposition, trustworthy narrator, etc.).
- I will remember my writing teacher’s advice: “Writers don’t use cliches, they invent them.”
- I will go easy on the hooptedoodle.
- I will assume my primary job is to challenge the reader.
- I will only read authors who challenge me and not waste my time on crap.
- I will leave in-jokes for my friends to remind them, years from now, that I was thinking of them at that moment.
- I will never compromise.