Rule 1 of storywriting8/24/2023 The questions the professor asked us over the course of the quarter were always the same, “What do you mean?” “What did you intend here?” or “Why did you use this word?” The lesson wasn’t that I needed to be clearer and more precise with my language–though I did–it was that I didn’t know what my words meant. Light could either barely trickle in, or flood in, but it couldn’t do both. “But how can light ‘barely flood’ in? Do you mean the word flood?” “Well, it is sunrise, and the sun is coming up.” I said. He turned to me, “Eric, what do you mean, ‘Light barely flooded into the room.’?” “Wait.” Less than a sentence in, the Professor stopped the student reading my story. The story began, “Light barely flooded into the room.” I had spent some time writing it, one day rewriting it, and another afternoon editing it. I learned the Golden Rule of Writing on my second day in class, as my story about a farmer and a mule was read aloud. What rule can cover journalism and blogging, poetry and prose authors like James Joyce, who struggled to write seven words a day, or Nora Roberts, who writes multiple books a year? If a golden rule exists, it needs to unite all writers. How can any rule possibly apply to everyone? I co-write my blog with my twin brother, and we don’t write the same way. The problem with learning the “rules” for writing is that none of them apply to everyone. We were a microcosm of the rest of the writing universe: no two writers write the same way. Some of us needed two drafts, others needed dozens. We were men and women, young and old, lazy and prolific, borderline illiterate and consummate professionals. We wrote literary fiction, memoirs, and detective stories newspaper articles, editorials, and e-mails. Our professor wrote memoir fiction about his sexual escapades in the Caribbean standing at a lectern a la Hemingway. Some wrote in the morning at their home, others at night with friends I wrote by myself at the library in the afternoon. Some students wrote on computers, others in journals I wrote long hand on legal pads. Our teacher, an old bald Caribbean man with missing front teeth and a stoop, began by asking the class, “How do you write?” My classmates and I first had to learn how different we were from one another as writers. Of course, I didn’t learn the rule immediately, or even in the first class. In his book Bagombo Snuff Box, the famous post-war American novelist Kurt Vonnegut listed these eight rules for writing short fiction:ġ.I learned what I consider the “Golden Rule of Writing” – the only rule that can help every writer – in the first creative writing class I ever took. This concept was originated by Sir Edward Coke, the chief justice of King James I’s reign. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.Ģ. He kept up that the King ought to be under God and the Law and he built up the supremacy of the law against the executive and that there is nothing higher than law. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.ģ.Īfterwards, Albert Venn Dicey (a British jurist. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.Ĥ. Youll probably note later on that I will be covering mediums behind books. Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.ĥ. No 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.ħ. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.Ĩ. The setting defines where and when the event took place. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. Rule 1 When the subject of the verb is the receiver of the action, the action is said to be reflected. It states the geographical location, time ( past, present or future) and where the character stands culturally and socially. Acquit, avail, adopt, apply, adjust, absent, amuse, avenge, exert, enjoy, reconcile, resign, revenge, overreach, pride, etc, are used reflexively. For example: He resigned himself to his failure. A good setting is written keeping the five senses in mind -Sight, smell, taste, feel and sound. 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. Like most rules, they’re made to be broken (as Vonnegut himself pointed out). But his writing tips may be useful as a starting point, or as a measuring stick with which to judge what you’ve already written. What are your rules for writing short fiction? Do you disagree with any of Kurt Vonnegut’s advice? Let me know in the comments section below.
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