My 10+ Rule of Writing

[TheTrinary]

1. Some ideas are stronger than others, but all ideas can work with the right nuance.

2. Make the story uniquely you. Write what someone else can not.

3. It should take longer to edit than to write.

4. Do steal ideas from things you love, just make them your own.

5. Don't write to be popular; it never works.

6. Criticism hurts but is also your friend if it's clear enough to grow from.

7. Read and watch as many different things as possible.

8. Story structure is your friend.

9. Don't start a story with your main character waking up, because information can be conveyed in an infinite number of ways.

10. Writing does have rules and you need to follow them. . . unless you have a reason not to and then break with impunity.

11. Every paragraph– ideally every sentence– should be intentional.




Anything else to add to the list?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Write GB only in combination with GL.

 

[Zirrboy]

Don't try to copy movies. A book can never match the sheer visual impact.

If it doesn't hurt you to kill a character, don't

Show what's important, tell what's necessary, but never ever have them overlap in information

Acknowledging tropes or plot holes doesn't make them more acceptable

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

One must be stoned to write a crazy story, more stoned to write a masterpiece, most stoned to write trash.

There are no hateful MC, just undeveloped ones.

There are no bad genres, just unpolished ones.

Post Nut Clarity can create a perfect idea, not a perfect story.

Get high to write a good story, go even higher you'll wake up in jail.

 

[Mysticant]

Hmm, my take on this is to write with an end in mind. You do not need the final end, but at least a goal. Like what do I want to get out of this fight/interaction/arc? Why do I want to introduce these characters? Why do I feel the need to kill xxx off? Not just because it is drama, that is a really dumb reason in my opinion.

Do not be afraid to change/rewrite anything you have written before.

Not really necessary, but it is pretty good if you can develop your own lore/cast before actually starting to write. It would allow you to know which characters you can mold and which you should not invest too much into.

 

[Echimera]

11. Don't try to copy movies. A book can never match the sheer visual impact.

That may be true by something action heavy and fast paced (though even there, I'd say it's up to personal preference), but it's definitely not true for things that focus a lot on the thought process of the main character or the characters in general.

 

[Mysticant]

That may be true by something action heavy and fast paced (though even there, I'd say it's up to personal preference), but it's definitely not true for things that focus a lot on the thought process of the main character or the characters in general.

Weirdly enough, I am willing to try to write out a fast-paced scene. Of course, it would at most be a minute or two of sequences and in a different style to the movie. But yeah you can never copy action movies wholesale.

 

[Zirrboy]

That may be true by something action heavy and fast paced (though even there, I'd say it's up to personal preference), but it's definitely not true for things that focus a lot on the thought process of the main character or the characters in general.

I don't mean to say that movies are unacceptable as inspirations, but imo it should be understood that they are a fundamentally different medium.
Reference movies for your book as much as you like, but question every aspect you take. Could this be done different/better on paper?

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

3. It should take longer to edit than to write.

It takes me hours to write and only 10-30 minutes to edit, ow.

Not really necessary, but it is pretty good if you can develop your own lore/cast before actually starting to write. It would allow you to know which characters you can mold and which you should not invest too much into.

This is actually very important, I added a character out of impulse and now they don't contribute to the story at all so I'm tempted to kill them off to introduce the next arc.

 

[Mysticant]

It takes me hours to write and only 10-30 minutes to edit, ow.

This is actually very important, I added a character out of impulse and now they don't contribute to the story at all so I'm tempted to kill them off to introduce the next arc.

1.I would say it depends on the baseline quality of your work. If your work is already almost completely satisfactory (there is no such thing as a perfect work in my opinion), you will need less time to edit. And you could also do re-edits in the future.

2.That is the issue with not setting a proper background and understanding what your story needs or not in the short and long term. There are reasons why many novels out there are filled with tons of deadweight characters. They just keep adding more characters, try molding them, oops it failed, time to send him/her off after a one-night stand to some distant country or kill him/her off. Then they try again. It may not be that obvious the first or second time to new readers, but it gets painfully obvious you as an author do not know where your story is going when you do this. This is also my point against almost all xianxias with their ginormous cast of "significant" characters.

 

[Echimera]

I don't mean to say that movies are unacceptable as inspirations, but imo it should be understood that they are a fundamentally different medium.
Reference movies for your book as much as you like, but question every aspect you take. Could this be done different/better on paper?

Maybe I should have worded that more carefully, I was mostly arguing about the last part about the impact of a movie compared to a book. Movies excel at showing action and the likes, but closely following the thoughts of a character, like an inner monologue, either comes off as weird or ruins the pacing of a movie.

Acknowledging tropes or plot holes doesn't make them more acceptable

Tropes on their own are not bad, but can be used badly (especially when the story is written around the tropes).
As tropes could be described as codifies story elements that (can) work, it's also basically impossible to tell a story without using tropes.

Plot holes on the other hand are abhorrent and anyone who argues that they are OK (or even worse, that fixing them makes it impossible to tell a certain story) should relearn how to think.
How can people seriously believe that a character ark is worse if the actions of the character follow logically from their desires and the information they have instead of just happening because the plot needs it at that point, even if it goes against what we know of the character so far.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

1.I would say it depends on the baseline quality of your work. If your work is already almost completely satisfactory (there is no such thing as a perfect work in my opinion), you will need less time to edit. And you could also do re-edits in the future.

2.That is the issue with not setting a proper background and understanding what your story needs or not in the short and long term. There are reasons why many novels out there are filled with tons of deadweight characters. They just keep adding more characters, try molding them, oops it failed, time to send him/her off after a one-night stand to some distant country or kill him/her off. Then they try again. It may not be that obvious the first or second time to new readers, but it gets painfully obvious you as an author do not know where your story is going when you do this. This is also my point against almost all xianxias with their ginormous cast of "significant" characters.

I find the quality of my work satisfactory after one round of edits, at least for me. I just haven't found enough time or will to reedit my story when I'm writing the drafts of like 3 other ones.
Yeah, I tend to be aware of how the journey ends but not how to get there. I think it's best to divide the story into arcs and plot the beginning and ending of each one. It helps with not adding unecessary characters.

 

[Mysticant]

Yeah, I tend to be aware of how the journey ends but not how to get there. I think it's best to divide the story into arcs and plot the beginning and ending of each one. It helps with not adding unecessary characters.

Just adding a bit more. I have no qualms about harems, to be honest. But most people cannot even develop a single romance properly and they expect me to believe they won't half-ass a relationship of more than 1 woman/man without balancing the zones of relationship, romance, action, and everything else properly. I won't say harems are dumb and impossible, but are the writers actually capable of it? This also applies to my views in real life.

I do not care much about the characters that a writer invests minimally in. But if you spend half to 1 entire arc showing focus to a certain character, you better be ready to keep him/her for the majority of the rest of the arcs of your novel. You don't just say I married her, had sex, and then 1000 chapters later, oh she came back with a boy or she died already and this is her son. Like what the actual ****. Or even say, oh she got poisoned, now I need to leave her here for 500 chapters to find a cure while going on my tour of the rest of the world. I have seen enough of this bullshit to comment on this.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

Just adding a bit more. I have no qualms about harems, to be honest. But most people cannot even develop a single romance properly and they expect me to believe they won't half-ass a relationship of more than 1 woman/man without balancing the zones of relationship, romance, action, and everything else properly. I won't say harems are dumb and impossible, but are the writers actually capable of it? This also applies to my views in real life.

I do not care much about the characters that a writer invests minimally in. But if you spend half to 1 entire arc showing focus to a certain character, you better be ready to keep him/her for the majority of the rest of the arcs of your novel. You don't just say I married her, had sex, and then 1000 chapters later, oh she came back with a boy or she died already and this is her son. Like what the actual ****. Or even say, oh she got poisoned, now I need to leave her here for 500 chapters to find a cure while going on my tour of the rest of the world. I have seen enough of this bullshit to comment on this.

Ah yes, ATG

 

[Mysticant]

Ah yes, ATG

There are so many xianxias that commit this sin. It would be better to write about something that doesn't. I would say LOTM has a well enough developed lore, inclusive cast while balancing action, mystery, and schemes without leaving most side cast out. It isn't a xianxia, but this is my opinion of what a benchmark novel should look like.

 

[Zirrboy]

Maybe I should have worded that more carefully, I was mostly arguing about the last part about the impact of a movie compared to a book. Movies excel at showing action and the likes, but closely following the thoughts of a character, like an inner monologue, either comes off as weird or ruins the pacing of a movie.

Turns out we agree, huh? The last part about thoughts and such being awkward in movies was left out because the rule would've been too long as a result, but you are right imo.

 

[Lloyd]

"
9. Don't start a story with your main character waking up, because information can be conveyed in an infinite number of ways."

What's wrong with that?

 

[Zirrboy]

"
9. Don't start a story with your main character waking up, because information can be conveyed in an infinite number of ways."

What's wrong with that?

That's his personal point of hatred.

I don't think it refers to special scenarios like waking up with a hangover and vague memory of something very significant having happened the previous night, but the point is that "Waking Up" rarely ever tells something about the character and delays any significant development more than necessary.

 

[Flashwolf96]

For me, writing is about finding a balance between what would happen at any given moment versus what you as the author want to happen. You can usually find out the former by dropping characters into a scene and seeing what happens as you write, but sooner or later you need to do something to push things in the direction you want them to go, or just frame things in a way that'll naturally lead there anyway.

I'm a very character-heavy writer, so it's not much of a problem for me to understand what my characters would do in most situations. That's why it's easy for me to follow this... well, it's not really a "rule" per say, but it's something I always keep in mind as I write. And since I pay so much attention to characters, it's also easy for me to write them in such a way that ensures that what "would" happen often lines up with what I want based on which characters I'm dealing with.

 

[Lloyd]

That's his personal point of hatred.

I don't think it refers to special scenarios like waking up with a hangover and vague memory of something very significant having happened the previous night, but the point is that "Waking Up" rarely ever tells something about the character and delays any significant development more than necessary.

It scares me cause i was thinking of having him review my story, but it starts like that.