EIGHT RULES FOR WRITING FICTION
Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1999)
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
HOW TO WRITE WITH STYLE
1. Find a subject you care about
2. Do not ramble, though
3. Keep it simple
4. Have guts to cut
5. Sound like yourself
6. Say what you mean
7. Pity the readers
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2 comments:
Wow. Asteeg naman nung mga yun. Tama, tama!
Nakakaganang magsulat ulit.
WAW! first comment EVER! hahaha. suber. mahal ko na nga sha eh, kahit nde pa ko nakakabasa ng libro nya. XD browse lang, pero mukha ding asteg kase funny sha. ^_^
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