This came from a handout I got not too long ago.  I don’t know if they truly are Barbara Kingslover’s 10 Rules of Writing Fiction, but there is some good advice in them.

1. Your first sentence or paragraph makes a promise that the rest of the story or novel will keep.

2. Give your reader a reason to turn every page.

3. Keep a very large trash can beside your desk. (I follow these faithfully, though I’ve updated the wastebasket to a recycling box.)

4.  Show, don’t tell.  Everybody knows this rule, and most of us still break it in every first draft. Be ruthless. Throw out interior monologue.

5. Be relentlessly descriptive.  Use details from every sense you own.

6. Set your scenes in places you know well. Otherwise, your details will be bogus.

7. Know what your theme is. If you can’t express what you intend to get across in a concrete sentence or two (or for a novel, a few paragraphs), do you really think anyone else is going to get it?  Write it out for yourself, point blank.  Then toss it, and return to your story with a better sense of direction.

8. Write with nobody looking over your shoulder. After your book’s published, you can worry about whether the subject is commercial, how your mother will like the steamy sex scenes, etc. But while you’re writing, your only worthy concern is defining your particular passion and giving it a voice.

9. Revise, revise, revise, revise. Fill up that recycling box.  A first draft is a work of construction; the seventh one is the work of an artist.

10. Don’t wait for the muse. She has a lousy work ethic. Writers just write.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 11:43 am and is filed under Tips and Tricks, Editors Desk, Aspen Mountain Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.