Top 10 Writing Rules From Famous Writers

Hi All,

I have a penchant for surfing YouTube for videos on writing. I’ll often don my cordless headphones listening to stuff like ‘writers on writing’ or ‘how to get an agent’ or ‘tips on publishing’.

One of my strengths is multitasking, so the ability to educate myself whilst clearing my email, washing dishes, walking on the treadmill etc., is massively appealing to me.

I recently found a little gem of a video (click here). It was uploaded by Lyra Communications back in 2011, titled Top 10 Writing Rules From Famous Writers. Several of the rules come straight from the pen of Stephen King, one of my all time favourite authors.

Since I’ve read King’s book ‘On Writing’, I’ll cover three of the tips referenced in this video and explain how they relate to my own writing. To hear the rest of the tips, click on the link above. The video only runs for 5 minutes.

• Rule 10: Write a draft – then let it rest
  • I actually refer to resting as ‘marinating’. By allowing a draft to sit in its own juices for a month or so will enrich it with more flavour. By the time the month’s up, I’m dying to taste it again, to work out what parts need tweaking, adding or eliminating. When I distance myself from a draft I’m able to come back to it with a clearer perspective, making the editing process much easier and far more succinct.
• Rule 9: Read a lot
  • I’ve worked in the music industry my entire life and I’ve discovered many parallels between music and writing. In order to be a great singer, musician or song writer, you must listen to music…lots of music. It’s how you define your influences and learn your craft. The same goes for writing. You can learn what to do and what not to do by reading as much as possible in as many genres as possible. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book, great, good or average, and not learned something from it. I try to read at least one book per week or fortnight and I know it’s made me a better writer by broadening my horizons and deepening my knowledge.
• Rule 3: Good copy = draft – 10%
  • Gracie’s Girls was originally 122,000 words. It’s currently 107,000 which is around minus 12.5% (I think haha – math has never been a strong point of mine). I believe if you spoke to most editors, they would say ‘minus 20%’. I did have a chuckle at this being one of Stephen King’s rules as he always goes overboard in the word count stakes. I personally don’t have an issue with it because I find most of his writing fast paced so, for me, reading a fast paced King ‘epic’ is great value.

That’s it for now. If you’re interested in finding out more about the master story teller himself, then head on over to his website at www.stephenking.com.

Take care all, Viv x