1. First write for yourself, and then worry about the audience. âWhen you write a story, youâre telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.â
2. Donât use passive voice. âTimid writers like passive verbs for the same reason that timid lovers like passive partners. The passive voice is safe.â
3. Avoid adverbs. âThe adverb is not your friend.â
4. Avoid adverbs, especially after âhe saidâ and âshe said.â
5. But donât obsess over perfect grammar. âThe object of fiction isnât grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story.â
6. The magic is in you. âIâm convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing.â
7. Read, read, read. âIf you donât have time to read, you donât have the time (or the tools) to write.â
8. Donât worry about making other people happy. âIf you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.â
9. Turn off the TV. âTVâwhile working out or anywhere elseâreally is about the last thing an aspiring writer needs.â
10. You have three months. âThe first draft of a bookâeven a long oneâshould take no more than three months, the length of a season.â
11. There are two secrets to success. âI stayed physical healthy, and I stayed married.â
12. Write one word at a time. âWhether itâs a vignette of a single page or an epic trilogy like âThe Lord of the Rings,â the work is always accomplished one word at a time.â
13. Eliminate distraction. âThereâs should be no telephone in your writing room, certainly no TV or videogames for you to fool around with.â
14. Stick to your own style. âOne cannot imitate a writerâs approach to a particular genre, no matter how simple what that writer is doing may seem.â
15. Dig. âStories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writerâs job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible.â
16. Take a break. âYouâll find reading your book over after a six-week layoff to be a strange, often exhilarating experience.â
17. Leave out the boring parts and kill your darlings. â(kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribblerâs heart, kill your darlings.)â
18. The research shouldnât overshadow the story. âRemember that word back. Thatâs where the research belongs: as far in the background and the back story as you can get it.â
19. You become a writer simply by reading and writing. âYou learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.â
20. Writing is about getting happy. âWriting isnât about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid or making friends. Writing is magic, as much as the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink.â
