Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The ONE RULE of Writing: Two Magic Words

What's the ONE RULE every writer should know? Here's a hint: It's only two words.

It's not POV, or style, or plotting or grammar or sentence structure.

Sure, those things help, but they're not the ONE RULE.

Character arcs are background singers and bass guitars.

Tone is best supporting actor with only a line or two in our main feature.

Books on dialogue and scene building are assistant managers and vice presidents, all of them bowing and cowing to the ONE RULE that is too often unmentioned.

Forget about spell-checker. That's a tool, not a rule.

Descriptives. Character depth. Proof-reading and revision. They lay at her feet.

She's felt, the ONE RULE, but not heard.

So what's the ONE RULE? What are those two magic words?

Simply:

BE CLEAR

Now why is that so hard?


 - Eric

5 comments:

Anastasia V. Pergakis said...

That is the underlying point after all is said and done isn't it? Great post.

Raquel Byrnes said...

That was great and very true. I hope you do well on your stranded story. Thanks for the follow!

Unknown said...

I couldn't agree more! You have a wonderful blog and I look forward to reading more of what you have to say :)

dolorah said...

A good point. And a very cool post.

.....dhole

Jessica Bell said...

LOL. A very clear and concise post. :)