Rules For Writing: Bookfox, Elmore Leonard, Margaret Atwood, 4 Strange Ideas

This video inspired this post, wherein (mostly) Elmore Leonard's rules for writers are examined. 

The presenter does a very good job by discussing counterexamples from a wide-range of sources. Since I came to admire Elmore Leonard in the last 15 years, it takes a very good presentation to make me doubt his advice.

From that video, there is a link to Elmore Leonard's rules for writers (The Guardian). I think #11 is the one I will remain most attached to:

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

Margaret Atwood is another writer that I think highly of, I got a lot of griping in my prison writing group for how much I like Atwood. These are her writing tips:

How does the character in a book handle an emotionally draining situation - what would I do?

Atwood's rules are far simpler and broader than Leonard's. That does not invalidate them.

4 Unique Writing Habits of Famous Writers (Authors Publish)

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