Rules for Writers From 8 Great Authors

Writing is a complicated process, and each writer must develop their own rules for writing. There are many basic rules of writing for young people interested in writing (whether they are high school student writers or college writers). Some of these writing rules are stylistic: Use active voice instead of passive voice, avoid clichés, etc. Other rules for writing are more technical: Use proper punctuation marks (exclamation points, semicolons, quotation marks, and apostrophes), avoid sentence fragments, and so forth.

Beyond the basics, though, there are many informal rules that have been tested out by established writers. Famous authors like Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Stephen King and Henry Miller have all written extensively on the craft of writing. As you start writing more and further develop your writing process, seeking out writing advice from great writers will make you a better writer and help you begin a full-time professional writing career. Surround yourself with new books on the craft of writing and keep writer’s reference books on hand: an MLA style manual, grammar books, and a thesaurus. Below are a few select writing tips and rules collected from celebrated authors:

Dan Brown is a believer in the idea of a contract between author and reader. The contract is an implied promise you make to the reader about what will be delivered by the end of the book. In any novel, there are hundreds of promises, small and large. It is crucial in storytelling that you keep every single promise you have made, no matter how trivial.

Reading good books is the best way to learn to write. Sometimes you’ll read something and figure out what you don’t want to do, as well as what you do want to emulate. Both of these are important. Read not only classic books but contemporary ones that are products of today’s publishing marketplace. Reading helps you learn how to put a book together. Learn writing from Judy Blume here.

Provide specific, concrete sensory details: You can make up an underground tunnel that doesn’t exist, but if you describe the smell of sewage and the persistent dripping of water, you draw your reader into a concrete experience that contributes to the sense of reality. Incorporate the familiar alongside the unfamiliar: Keeping the reader grounded in things they recognize is just as important as introducing new and interesting elements. Learn the art of storytelling from Neil Gaiman here.

During the revision process, you may have to discard parts of what you’ve written that just aren’t working. It’s difficult, but it’s essential to kill your darlings if they don’t serve your overall narrative. Sometimes, a shift in tone, tense, or point of view can fix a chapter that just isn’t working. Often, changing point of view strategy—from first to third, or third to first—can unlock the story for you. Changing the narration from past to present can have a similar jumpstart effect on your story. Experiment with these different modes and find the one that feels most organic to the story you’re telling. Learn creative writing from Margaret Atwood in her MasterClass.

What do you find interesting as a writer, and what do the people around you find interesting? Just because you set out to accomplish one thing with a story doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to make that thing happen. Diversions and problems that can’t be solved frequently come up. And sometimes their interesting qualities override the original idea. Learn writing from Malcolm Gladwell here.

Your job is to convey a story, ideally, by embracing the ethos of “show, don’t tell.” Try to avoid narration. The death of drama is two characters talking about something that happened off-stage. Be simple in your storytelling so that your audience can follow; they have to know what story they’re following so that you can mislead them. Anticipate their desire to jump ahead so you can throw them through a loop. Learn dramatic writing from David Mamet in his MasterClass.

If you find yourself agonizing over a section of your writing you’re struggling with, move on to something else. James Patterson says his key to warding off writer’s block is to “freight train” through the first draft. Focus on getting the story down. If you get stuck or feel blocked, write “TBD” on that chapter and move on. Don’t obsess about a single chapter or press too hard. If you’re blocked on a scene, chapter, or even a single sentence, it’s fine to move on and come back to it later.

When he’s first starting work on a poem, Billy Collins writes one or two drafts in longhand, making a mess by crossing out words and entire lines. Only after he has a first messy draft does he begin to tidy up. He types his written work up on a computer, editing as he types. If this method resonates with you, write your next project in long-hand in your notebook and feel free to make a mess with strike-throughs, asides in the margin, and the like before you type it up on a screen.

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