Writing Techniques

[Pete Rebb]

I found this in my emails today. This is for those of you that haven't seen it before:

** Avoid alliteration. Always.
** Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
** Avoid cliché’s like the plague. (They're old hat.)
** Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
** Contractions aren't necessary.
** Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
** One should never generalize.
** Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
** Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
** Be more or less specific.
** One-word sentences? Eliminate.
** Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
** Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
** Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
** Who needs rhetorical questions?
** Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

 

[The Ace]

Not bad at all.

 

[Orian]

I see what you're doing there, I see. I like that, a very fun way of putting a point across.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Teehee!

 

[chrispenycate]

I am proud to say I have broken every single rule on that list and, possibly excepting the alliteration one, (which I often tend to compound with rhyming forms) have every intention of surviving to do so again, although my worst fault (apart from using words nobody recognises without resort to a dictionary) is probably extending sentences, by the addition of subordinate clauses and other such distractions, considerably further than it is convenient for them to go.

 

[Commonmind]

Clever Conclusion Chris

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Teehee!

 

[jamescomehere]

lol

let me think for a while.

 

[flynx]

More humorous than useable list I'd say but I'll add another anyway (slightly more useful)

Seriously consider quickly eliminating adverbs.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Hehehe, took me until 2 to realise what it really meant. I have a tendency to sometimes go nuts with alliteration

 

[Ursa major]

One that would be suggested by a a certain Mr. S. King:

** The passive tense should be avoided.

 

[Oligonicella]

Write how you speak or think your characters speak. People don't talk in grammatically correct sentences. Just read Mark Twain. If you prefer, modern writers like E.E. Cummings. There is no "correct" way. If it's understood, it's fine.

Always understand grammar 'rules' are nothing more than suggestions.