I could make dozens of these, perhaps when I publish a book I will come back to it. But my first is, ‘be brief,’ so this is all for now.
I was asked once for 5 tips on writing. I scribbled this quickly and just re-found it, perhaps this will help someone.
Only five?
1. Protect your time. Get your ass in the chair. This is the cornerstone discipline that protects all the others.
2. Everything is shit until it has been edited at least three times. Know this. Be freed by it. Write shit, and trust the editors in the back of your brain to help you later when they come on shift, but not now.
3. Find the best sentence on the page. Go back, write all the others up to it.
4. Every sentence, every word, fights for its life. Don’t worry about ending up with something too short. If you could write a one-page novel, that would be ideal. Don’t worry, you can’t.
5. When in doubt, add a period. Take a breath. Begin again.
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