Allen Guthrie's Infamous Writing Tips

[borbira]

An excellent little rulebook! I'll keep these in mind while writing going forward. Although, I've always been a little fast and loose with rules.

 

[monkeykat]

Wow, as a new writer, this is super helpful! Thank you for posting this!

 

[dickson]

Thanks for posting this essay. It’s been too long since last I read it. I cringed at the memory of committing the sins Guthrie lists, even if I only sinned in drafts.

If I had room on the wall next to my computer, I’d hang a copy there!

 

[sam.b]

Guilty of many of these. Don't know about you all but I find it easy to explain them away in my own writing. What a skill it is to see your own work objectively!

 

[Benny Molto]

Fab that although I started by changing the first paragraph from this:

"I can’t stress strongly enough that writing is subjective. We all strive for different goals. Consequently, we all need our own set of rules—and some of us don’t need rules at all! Personally, I like rules. If nothing else, it’s fun breaking them."

into

"Writing is subjective. There are different ways to different goals. Use your own set of rules—or nine ar all. I like rules as it’s fun breaking them."

 

[Kuledoode]

No. Not rocks.

May I suggest an AK-47?

AK-47 = quick death, throwing rocks = a slow, agonizing demise!

 

[ToshaStein]

Screenshot. Screenshot. Screenshot.

I once had a professor tell me I wrote beautifully, he held my hand in the air and gently pushed it. He told me to make it rigid and punched it, then he said, "now write like that."

This post, for some reason, reminds me of that moment. A lot of this I had to learn the hard way and the rest I am thankful to now know!

 

[MacAllister]

Thanks for the post report. All tidied up, now!

 

[The Never-Ending Sea]

Amazing post, thank you! Getting rid of filtering words and phrases always seems to trip me up. Here's to continually improving, no matter how slowly

 

[bernhard6804]

very helpful. Took one look and realised i made one of the mistakes in the very... first...paragraph. so thanx a bunch!

 

[ElaineB]

20: Torture your protagonist. It’s not enough for him to be stuck up a tree. You must throw rocks at him while he figures out how to get down.

I immediately thought of the 20,000 bees!

 

[dickson]

Yet again, I have taken out my dog-eared deadwood copy of Guthrie’s essay to fortify me for an intense round of revision.