“Stories are built with words the way a house is built of bricks, but an accumulation of words is no more of a story, than a pile of bricks is a house.” — de Wolfe
Rules For Writing Fiction
If you haven’t already discovered this one for yourself, or stumbled on it while surfing over at the UK’s Guardian online, check out: TEN RULE FOR WRITING FICTION.
Not only is it a must-read, but there are some hilarious observations from some literary greats in there, like— Elmore Leonard: Using adverbs is a mortal sin.
Another good one from Roddy Doyle is— Do not search amazon.co.uk for the book you haven’t written yet.
And my favourite from Helen Simpson— The nearest I have to a rule is a Post-it on the wall in front of my desk saying “Faire et se taire” (Flaubert), which I translate for myself as “Shut up and get on with it.”
Oh, and watch out for Margaret Atwood and her pencils, she’ll sharpen them on anything.
Where Do You Do It?
Come on, people, I want to know. Where do you do it?
Do you do it at breakfast, or over the dinner table when alone, how about in bed or even in the bath? And would you consider doing it in the shower? Have you done it while stirring the pasta sauce, or maybe leaning up against the kitchen cabinets? Or how about with your back up against the radiator while sat on the floor? Is your thing to do it while riding the bus, the tube, or sitting in the back seat of a taxi? Maybe you’re the kind who sneaks off to the bathroom, to do it in secret, while at work?
Or maybe, you’re the kind of person who prefers to do it on the sofa, in the privacy of your own home?
What the hell, I hear you asking, am I talking about?
Why, reading, of course, what did you think I was talking about?
So tell me, where do you do it?
