{"id":9885,"date":"2022-07-26T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9885"},"modified":"2022-07-26T07:47:54","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T11:47:54","slug":"rules-for-writing-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9885","title":{"rendered":"Rules for Writing Fiction – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"draft\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Guardian<\/em>\u2019s<\/a> intrepid pursuit of writers in their dens produced yet more fiction-writing \u201crules.\u201d Such lists are excellent for those–surely rare–times when you really don\u2019t want to write, but feel you should be Doing Something related to your work-in-progress. If nothing else, you can assess how many rules you\u2019ve broken already. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these are helpful, some insightful, and a few may bring a chuckle. Last week\u2019s Part 1 is here<\/a>. [My comments in brackets.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Are you serious about this? Then get an accountant (Hilary Mantel). Later she says \u201cyou can\u2019t give your soul to literature if you\u2019re thinking about income tax.\u201d ! [I suppose by freeing herself of the tedium of arithmetic and spreadsheets, she has more time to engage in her preferred character-development strategy: having imaginary interviews with them. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall for her conversations with T. Cromwell.]<\/li>
  2. Description must work for its place (in your story). It can\u2019t be simply ornamental (Hilary Mantel).<\/li>
  3. Find an author you admire and copy their plots and characters in order to tell your own story, just as people learn to draw and paint by copying the masters (Michael Moorcock). [So crazy, it just might work!]<\/li>
  4. Think with your senses as well as your brain (Andrew Motion).<\/li>
  5. Don\u2019t try to anticipate an \u201cideal reader\u201d\u2014there may be one, but he\/she is reading someone else (Joyce Carol Oates).<\/li>
  6. To ensure that you proceed slowly, write by hand (Annie Proulx)[I do this sometimes when I\u2019m stuck.]<\/li>
  7. The writing life is essentially one of solitary confinement \u2013 if you can\u2019t deal with this you needn\u2019t apply (Will Self).<\/li>
  8. When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else (Zadie Smith).<\/li>
  9. Stay in your mental pyjamas all day (Colm T\u00f3ib\u00edn).<\/li>
  10. If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane (Colm T\u00f3ib\u00edn).<\/li>
  11. In the planning stage of a book, don\u2019t plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it (Rose Tremain) [A useful defense for us pantsers.]<\/li>
  12. Respect your characters, even the minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters\u2019 stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist\u2019s (Sarah Waters).<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Now, get out there and break a few rules!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Guardian\u2019s intrepid pursuit of writers in their dens produced yet more fiction-writing \u201crules.\u201d Such lists are excellent for those–surely rare–times when you really don\u2019t want to write, but feel you should be Doing Something related to your work-in-progress. If … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Second installment of the \"rules for writers\" by some of today's fictional leaders--that is, leaders in fiction!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,174,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2zr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9885"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9888,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9885\/revisions\/9888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}