Oddly, that rule almost reads like it means "Don't include sentences in which you allow your characters to speak." Heh.23: Don’t allow your fictional characters to speak in sentences. Unless you want them to sound fictional.
Chalk me up as someone who's throwing Rule 19 right out the window. I am so sick of the love triangle trope. Lovers who get together quickly (or are already together and stay that way, shock!) and then go on to fight crime together are rather awesome. It's a relief to see a story get its tension from other sources than romantic jealousy, is what I'm saying.
This just got me cracking up in laughter right there. :=DPairs of adjectives are exponentially worse than single adjectives. The ‘big, old’ man walked slowly towards the ‘tall, beautiful’ girl. When I read a sentence like that, I’m hoping he dies before he arrives at his destination. Mind you, that’s probably a cue for a ‘noisy, white’ ambulance to arrive. Wailingly, perhaps!
Very interesting. Sometimes, I prefer the audience to be able to actually put the book down though.Start scenes late and leave them early.
Classic Manga nonsense. :=P Japanese Mangakas (authors) are amazingly adapt at breaking this rule.Don’t plant information.
Dragonball Z anybody? Nobody? Just me? Alright. You caught me. I love it.Spot the moment of maximum tension and hold it for as long as possible.
Oddly, that rule almost reads like it means "Don't include sentences in which you allow your characters to speak." Heh.
Guthrie's warning against having your characters speak in complete sentences. And as a blanket prohibition, it's a bit over the top. Real people often speak in complete sentences. Some of us even think in them. (I suspect that thinking in complete sentences corresponds highly with being a writer.) But it's true that real people speak in sentence fragments a lot, and you should let your characters do the same.
Chalk me up as someone who's throwing Rule 19 right out the window. I am so sick of the love triangle trope. Lovers who get together quickly (or are already together and stay that way, shock!) and then go on to fight crime together are rather awesome. It's a relief to see a story get its tension from other sources than romantic jealousy, is what I'm saying.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. It's more gratifying to have an established couple or two people who come together rather than having a third or fourth person in the mix. Perhaps I like my love stories cleaner (possibly because in my own life I find this idea so alien as to make it frustrating and unrealistic).
I came across these "rules" this morning and thought about them while wandering through my day. I'm not wild about the automatic love triangle for a number of reasons, and I write romance in various sub genre. What I do enjoy, if done well, is to have that "third person" be the history and experiences (negative generally) of one of the characters, or of both.
32: If something works, forget about the rule that says it shouldn’t.
"John took the knife out of its sheath and stabbed Paul with it."
That can be confusing, however,
"John took the knife out of its drawer and stabbed Paul with it,"
is perfectly fine.