the ħive

via the Language Log (2004), all links to articles broken by now

1. Show, don’t tell. (more like rule zero)
2. Be readable; grasp the reader’s attention.
3. Don’t explain.
4. Know your characters.
5. Drop the reader right into the middle of the action.
6. You can do anything.
7. Write what you know.
8. You can’t talk about fiction.
9. Be true to the characters and let the story flow from them.
10. A relieved sigh ALWAYS brings trouble.
11. Truth is stranger than fiction, so appeal to the sense of absurd to gain credibility.
12. Never, ever, let your readers be confused about the precise geographical locations of your minor characters.
13. The narrator can’t die.
14. Create a believable universe out of nothing.
15. It is not real life, but it must somehow honestly represent something of real life.
16. The voice may be yours, but the characters are just characters.

P.S. And of course, don’t treat any rule as the law (see #6).