This week: Ten Rules to Follow Edited by: NaNoNette  
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| Dear authors of Writing.Com, I am NaNoNette and will be your guest editor for this issue. |
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Ten Rules to Follow
Can writing life be boiled down to ten bits of advice?
Why yes of course! Let me give you the rules.
Write every day
Give it a whirl. Go for 1,000 words per day. Think about it, if you were to attempt to lose weight, you'd keep track of what you eat every day. In that same vein, if you ever want to have something finished in writing: write every day.
Write what you want
Ever heard, "Write what you know"? Yeah. No. Write what you want to write. If you're writing about something real, do your research. If you're writing fiction, you're the master of your own universe. Nobody but you knows it.
Show don't tell
Actually, if you were to take that to the extreme, that would mean you can never tell. What kind of a story teller would you be? Find the balance between showing as much as possible, but don't be afraid to drive the plot forward in time or events with some telling.
No editing while writing
The idea here is to get you to a finished first draft without picking things apart when they are still taking shape. The first draft to a short piece should be written in one go. Fixing everything is for the second and third draft.
Kill your darlings
You don't have to kill a character, but ask yourself, especially in short fiction, what the purpose of every one of your characters is. Can the same work/action be done by one instead of two?
Outlines or pantsing?
Whatever works best for you. Even pantsers can benefit from a super short outline that gives beginning, climax, and ending. Even dedicated outliners can benefit from some free-form writing where they let the plot and characters shape up organically.
Never use passive voice ...
if you want your writing to come across as stilted and trying too hard. Just like you should have a balance of showing and telling, allow for some passive voice when it's the best choice for the passage in your story.
Prologue or Chapter 1?
Prologues can come across as clunky and even amateurish. Then again, there used to be a time when all books had one. A prologue that is. If there is a significant jump in time between the prologue and when your story is set, you might have a reason to have a prologue. But ask yourself: Could it simply be Chapter 1?
Read
Yes, yes, I know. Cheap advice. But so true. So true. Writers read. So you must read.
Publishing
If you want to publish your writing, publish in the way that is best for you. If you insist in reaching a world-wide audience, traditional publishing could be the best as long as you understand that it could take several years before your book goes into print. If you want to make your writing easily accessible to your family and friends and you want it published faster, self-publishing is better.
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I received the following replies to my last For Author's newsletter "Five Types of Writing"
dragonwoman  wrote: I was happy to see my flash "Home Is" in the Editor's Picks of this newsletter. Happy dance!
You're welcome. I hope you got some reviews.
Quick-Quill  wrote: I would like you to be more in dept with the above list. Could you pick some stories from WDC and show how each fits into the type/style of writing. I'm a bit confused about some of the styles as it pertains to how to write in them.
I'll keep that in mind for future For Authors newsletters.
TheBusmanPoet  wrote: I would say I'm a little of each one with the exception of the first one but would fall under the most likely one of being creative.
Creative writing is the highest form of writing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 
Octavius wrote: Creative narratives are my specialty but I only see scenes play out in my mind. Its hard translating them to paper.
Practice, practice, practice. And try to find some people here on the site that are willing to exchange reviews with you so that you can grow and get to the writing level that you want to be at.
hbk16 wrote: There are many kinds of writing indeed.It is here well emphasized towards such featured newsletter. Great!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
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For Authors: November 20, 2019 Issue [#9857]
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