• ✍️ WORDS ✍️

    Welcome Guest!

  • Words Moderators: Mysterier

Rules You Follow when Writing

leiphos

leiphos

Bluelighter
Joined
May 8, 2008
Messages
1,147
Do you have specific rules you follow when writing? Do you have a lot of little writing quirks like I do? Some rules I always follow:

1. Don’t overuse the verb “to be”

2. Don’t overuse participles

3. Don’t use conditional statements (ie: “I look up AS the birds fly overhead”. why not just say: “I look up. The birds fly overhead.” This way instead of telling the reader they happen at the same time, I let them actually happen at the same time.)

4. Opposition is more dramatic if you don’t call attention to it. “My father smiles wide at me BUT his eyes refuse to meet mine.” versus the stronger: “My father smiles wide at me. His eyes refuse to meet mine.”

5. Form follows function. Everything style-wise should be purposeful and should emphasize the content of the poem. Style and form for the sake of style and form is pointless.

6. Sometimes the word that ought to be in the poem is not the one you wrote, but a word that sounds similar.

7. Never tell the poem what it is about. Let it decide.

8. Showing is not always better than telling.

9. Never, in neither fiction nor poetry, should a character gaze into a mirror.
 
Bummer, my character in my book gazes into a mirror a few times lol. What makes you choose that as a rule?

I probably have a lot but one of my main rules is I never start two sentences in the same paragraph (I might break this rule if it is a very long paragraph and there is no other way to say something) with the same word.

I don't like paragraphs that look like:

He shook his head, his wet hair splattering water droplets all over the table. He walked across the room to get a glass of water. He then paused, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up when he realized someone else was in the room.

Thats not a very good example but yeah. I liked your rule #4.

My other main rule: You can always break the rules if you feel it works! :)
 
1.Word variety is key. Use a dictionary and a thesaurus if you have to.

2.Learn poetry techniques. I know, I know, poetry is about "being yourself", but I find it absolutely amazing how much more powerful poetry can be when tied together with rhyming, or accented by assonance(see that? I even used a little alliteration).

3.Know why you're writing when you start, but don't let that prevent where you end up. When writing novels this is called "letting the characters play it out", and it applies just as much when writing prose or poetry.

4.Most importantly, be confident. And by "be confident", I mean, "be absolutely sure that what you're writing is gonna knock your audience dead".

5.Oh yeah, have fun.
 
I don't really think there are definite rules to writing because everything has its time and place. Be it rules might apply when a particular audience is targeted.

interesting suggestions all around though.
 
Yeh, I would say the only rule to writing - and, in fact, everything - is that there are no rules. Strange but true! I mean to say... Strange. True.
 
^Best rule!

I find it interesting that while there are tons of rules, a lot of good writers break the rules. And are successful.

Write from your heart is a good rule to follow. That one stuck out from me. SOmeone said that chances are, if you write a story that you are touched by (in whatever way) and that means something to you, it will mean something to someone else and touch them too.
 
A couple of rules from Lawrence Ferlinghetti that have always served me well:

See the rose through world-colored glasses.

Compose on the tongue, not on the page.
 
This might not apply to ALL forms of writing, but it certainly, in my opinion, applies to the writing of a great joke:

"BREVITY, MOTHERFUCKERS!"

- Sir Anthony Jeselnik




.
 
Last edited:
well. in that case, your addition of MOTHERFUCKERS is kind of redundant, not to mention hypocritical.
 
my only rule is to realize the sound of what you are writing takes forever to tune. other than that i let it come as freely as possible. one mindset shifts to the next without resolve at times but that is what editing is for.
 
cool thread. :)

one of my English teachers gave us a lecture on the overuse of the words 'get' and 'got' and how ugly and lazy they are. that stayed with me and now i rarely use them.
MynameisnotDeja said:
I probably have a lot but one of my main rules is I never start two sentences in the same paragraph... with the same word.
Click to expand...
me too! and i hate starting successive paragraphs with the word "I". another lecture from a different English teacher. ;)
 
I write poetry (haven't in a while, though). I don't have a format when writing my poems. I usually just use 3 or 4 line stanzas. I just let what's in my head, flow onto the page. I'm not sure if the structure issue takes away from my poetry, but eh, I don't give a shit?
 
good topic. I have a rule that if it does not flow from sentence one to sentence three throw it away cause it always sounds like two poems in one, once you get your flow.
 
my only rule is to realize the sound of what you are writing takes forever to tune.
Click to expand...

Beautifully put. And soooo true. I'm on my 3rd draft of my novel right now and yeah... so true.
 
my only rule is to realize the sound of what you are writing takes forever to tune.
Click to expand...

Beautifully put. And soooo true. I'm on my 3rd draft of my novel right now and yeah... so true.
 
For me, I write freestyles and shit so I have a few basic rules I go by.

1. Stay on topic

2. Make sure bars are even

3. Use good vocab, wordplay, etc...

4. If something doesn't ryme, don't make it

Thats pretty much it for basics. If anyone has a question about rappin and shit or even poetry, feel free to PM me!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top