WRITING RULES

My six

I often come across fellow writers who advice me not waste time worrying about Writing Rules. Rules curb your creative process they say.
I write without rules when I create the first draft. I try to churn out at miles per hour, definitely no rules here, very creative indeed.

Writing rules can be broken to your advantage and to your writing needs but you need to know and understand rules first to know which to bend and which to break rather than not know rules and make a hash of your writing. There are some guidelines you ought to adhere to.

It is important to avoid:

1. Jumping from character to character in the same paragraph. It tends to confuse readers.
2. Use of a profusion of noun/verb qualifiers. It leads to flowery language.
3. The use clichés, too many similes and metaphors to further enlighten the reader.
4. Reduce foreign words. A smattering adds colour, too many add annoyance.
5. Overuse of weak words like ‘was and were, and –ing words’ lead to telling not to showing.
6. Passive writing. Passive loses the positive punch.

I am a big fan of ‘the simpler the writing the better’ and am working hard towards that goal.