Fiction-Writing Rules, from Fiction Writers

Inspired by Elmore Leonard’s lauded book of the same name, Ten Rules of Writ­ing, The Guardian asks a selec­tion of 28 authors (from Mar­garet Atwood to Will Self) for their ten rules of writ­ing for the aspir­ing fic­tion author (part two).

Elmore Leonard’s ten are included, and he sum­marises them with the following:

My most impor­tant rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writ­ing, I rewrite it.

The article’s been men­tioned in a few places, being dis­cussed at length by Intel­li­gent Life and Salon (the lat­ter adding five of their own rules).