Rules of Writing

William Somerset Maugham a British playwright, novelist and short story writer, who was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. Has been quoted as saying “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” Which I find quiet funny as I have heard multiple times from different sources that one of the rules for writing is “Write what you know.” I have recently seen that listed as the number one rule of writing followed by number two stating not to let rule one stop you from telling a good story. But then maybe people started making up their own rules after remembering one rule.

Then I decided to see what are some other rules to writing people are saying are. I remember the big one in many queries as well as writing is show don’t tell. I even came across a blog that listed eight rules and that was the number one rule with the write what you know down at number five. There there is the book by Elmore Leonard entitled 10 RULES OF WRITING based on a new york times article about the rules he did apparently. Even found a UK website that had gone and asked a number of authors their rules for writing inspired from Mr Leonard’s book. It is quite interesting seeing all the different 10 rules of writings there are based on who is doing the writing.

I think when it comes right down to it Mr Maugham might be right when he says no one knows what they are. That just means that everyone must come up with their own rules. Or just follow what they think are the most important of the rules they have heard over the years. Course there are those who say rules are meant to be broken and some authors can get away with doing this as well.

So I guess it finally boils down to which you are? Are you a rule maker or breaker? OR are you just a plain old follower? And we are back down to those three rules of Mr Maugham…Make the rules…Follow the rules or Break the rules.

As for me I think my most important rule is to Write, just write and keep writing. you can always fix it in editing. So what is everyone else’s most important rule on writing? post it as a comment below I would love to see them And remember just keep writing.

 

Write or Die -vs- Written? Kitten!

Write or Die I had heard of it and tried it some back in November during my first NaNoWriMo. I have even used it to do some good writing on some days for this June Camp NaNoWriMo. Well recently Kein told me about Written? Kitten! in one of the comments to me on my last Camp update. I had never heard of Written? Kitten! before so I thought I would give it a bash. I mean what could it hurt, worst case it wouldn’t work for me. Now for those of you who have never heard or used ether of these let me tell you a bit about them. Both of them are writing programs you can use on the web to keep track of your word count as you type. Though Write or Die does have a pc version and Ipad versions as well I have not tried those versions as I can’t even afford the small $10 payment for them and besides I don’t own a Ipad. My husband hates apple products and would hate me if I got one. Written? Kitten! even admits in their about that they created Written? Kitten! based on Write or Die “but cuter and fuzzier”.

Now for the differences between the two.

Write or Die has a timer that lets you set how long you want to type for and do sprints with it. Only have 10 or 15 minutes to write between chores this is the program for you. Draw back on the timer is it doesn’t stop your typing or make a sound at end of time so you have to watch the timer. You can also set a word count goal for that time. It you have not met the word count goal and you pause in typing for a time the screen goes red if you still don’t type then an annoying sound is played till you do. I find this helps me keep writing during the 10 or 15 minutes I have the time set for. I have tried 30 minutes or 1 hour times on it but I find I just can’t do the continuous typing that long due to pain in my back and hands. I need to pause every now and again to stretch and move a bit. This program does not save the words. You have to copy and paste them into a save file in another program like Yarny or open office…or word if you have it.

Written? Kitten! puts up a cute little kitten pic off to the side every 100 words you write. Draw back it is a white screen no picture on start up. Would be nice if it had a picture on start then changing after the first 100 instead of not seeing the first picture till after the first 100 words. Also not sure if this is something depending on browser but I know when I started it with firefox it said it would be able to save what I type but still recommended like with Write or Die to copy and paste what you type to another program file to be safe. I was even surprise to see when I opened the program a full day latter it still had what I had typed there the day before though as before even though there was over 100 words there was no kitten picture. The pictures are random and pulled off of “Flickr’s “most interesting” photos matching the tags “kitten” and “cute”” So if you just want to keep track of how many words you type in a day time not a matter and LOVE cute little kittens this is the program for you.

And there you have it. My little comparing of Write or Die and Written? Kitten!. While I do like Written? Kitten! and the cute furry little kitten pictures I so need a timer with the punishments to keep me writing so during Camp I will continue to write doing little sprints on Write or Die. Wish you all luck in your writings, take care and have fun.

Camp NaNo – JUNE = Worst Writing Month EVER!

Alright now. Looking back I guess Day 13 was an unlucky day. Was only able to write 347 words that day. This led into Day 14 with no time to write due to kids last day of school so was at the school the full half day then dealing with the kids at home for lunch and other things. Then Day 15 Friday…kids home all day and I had doctor’s appointment followed by my daughters violin lessons…so ya another day no time to write. Then the weekend hits and seems I hit a block over the weekend. So now it has been 5 days have gone by and me already behind on the count is even farther behind on my count. At least I was able to push out about 500 words on day 17 and hope to push out some more today. Though it is looking like the best time for me to write is November when the kids are in school full time I swear doesn’t look like I can win this thing. Unless I get hit by a writing muse granting me a writing miracle of thirty thousand plus words for my story and the time to write them all down. So anyone know where to find the muse of writing? I will settle on a writing fairy if a muse can not be found.

For those who do not know what a muse is. they are from Greek Mythology and are said to be the goddesses of the inspiration. They inspire people in literature, science and the arts. The nine muses—Clio, Thalia, Erato, Euterpe, Polyhymnia, Calliope, Terpsichore, Urania, Melpomene. I am thinking since stories were orally then written back then they might have branched out from poetry and songs into stories as stories have grown into written. Thalia would be the most useful since my camp fantasy is on the comic side and she is the comic muse. Or maybe a new muse for fantasies has been born. I can hope I guess. Well even if the Greek muses fail me maybe a nice writing fairy will help.

Camp NaNo – Unlucky 13?

Well as promised it is Day 13 and new update. You know in these last few days what I wished. I could hook my brain to my computer and the story I can imagine would write itself from my brain directly to computer. Sometimes finding the right words is hard. Other times I find myself dreaming up the scene and getting lost in it instead of writing it all down. Then I have to real myself in and remember I need to write the scene not just dream it up. I keep telling myself I need to FOCUS.

Why is day thirteen unlucky? Well really my writer’s block started on day 11 back in November and lasted till day 16. So very unlucky for me though back then I had a nice buffer of over 32k this time as I do not have the buffer like I had in November. I wonder why I am writing so slowly this time? I know it is not the story. I am so hyped on it and the images come to me easily. Well it is a new idea instead of one that has been brewing up for years like November’s. Maybe that is part of it. Another part is probably the fact I had started it once before and had lost it so the words I had used before ware still in my head and easier to find even if the file itself was lost years ago.

Then on the plus side of things my writers blocks I have gotten have been short ones that I can at least still get a few hundred words done in at least. Then again this story has spurts for me. I seem to be moving from scene to scene with me going into block as I dream up the next scene writing slowed down to under 500 words a day till I get in full swing. So not so sure day 13 is unlucky per-say, but it does seem to always fall on a slow time of writing for me. Though this time day 11 and even 12 have been a good time for writing for me. What was really unlucky was that weekend where I had no time to write much at all. Back then it wasn’t so much I had a block just no time to sit and type or even handwriting some (I have done some of that in these last weeks. Taking a print out of what I had to help and then handwriting in places I can’t take a computer or get WiFi) Though I do have to say I get more words done in 10-15 minutes of typing then I do handwriting.

Oh well, still not sure if day 13 is unlucky. Do know I have stuff I need to do. with some luck I will get some writing done today and increase the 17.7k words I have into almost 19k or maybe even up into 19k. Well I am running a bit late. Special day at my kids school today. Field Day. Told my daughter I would show up so I have to get going. Tomorrow is their last day ending with a half a day of honors assemblies. Well luck in your writings everyone. Till later.

Camp NaNo – Day 6 and Rule #1

Hello everyone, It is now day 6 of Camp NaNo. Now everyone knows what rule number one is for all NaNo’s. That’s right, Just write do NOT edit ever during NaNo. So you would think I would know better. I know I should not edit. and so far other then quick correcting of misspellings I have been good and not edit. Then today I was stupid. I asked my husband “If you had nothing to cook with yet you had food how would you cook it while camping?” New rule number one. Never ask my husband about a situation I have already written about. ESPECIALLY when I know he is one a big camper, two an eagle scout and three a survivalist and the scene in question falls in those things. Ya I was really bad of me to ask him. Now I want to totally rewrite that NaNo dare scene and I know I am already behind on my word count. So I have two choices…just leave what I have written and add in the new scene before or after the old one adding to my count and deleting the old one latter or delete old one now in essences editing the old scene out. Boy what a quandary I have to think about. And I just broke my self nano rule of no blogging till after I get min words done. Gees I am good at breaking rules and thinking about breaking them lately. course we wont mention how I am constinally breaking the self exercise rule. >.>

Camp NaNo day…what day is it now?

Well after day one I started to fall behind almost immediately. While day one I was able to do a double day count. The only thing that saved me on day two as I had my daughters violin recital and so I only got in 122 words that day.

Day three was not much better as I was busy with backing up all my data on my computer. I was having some major computer problems. Could not save anything and my music program couldn’t see my music yet would still play it if I hit open on the file. So had to hand write that day as I backed everything up and then f-disked the whole thing. Thank God I use Yarny or I would have lost some of my writing when my computer crashed giving me the blue screen of death. I got more then day two but still only a paltry 219 words that I had to ahnd count nad then update count in camp.
Day four was better. Started off with me typing up what I ahnd wrote the day before in my Yarny file. Then I kept writing, plugging away trying to write as I did a few other things at home…like cleaning and exercising. Though thanks to a cabin-mate of mine (Topaz) reminding me about Write or Die my word count was able to get over 1k that day to 1728. Now I did see this back in November. Thing is there I was not thinking that I could write in there and then post to my Yarny account. Don’t ask me. Just wasn’t thinking straight I guess.

Now it is day 5, See I did figure out what day it is now. Thanks to Write or Die I was able to get soo close to par today. Not quite there but I should be able to fully catch up tomorrow. Today I did a total of 2750 words. Yea Me. I tried to shoot for 2k in one hour but found out two things. One I am in way too much physical pain to sit still and do nothing but type for one hour straight. And two I might be able to hit that 2k in an hour if I could only type straight though with not squirming and moving and pausing and editing. See doing all that in that one hour and seeing loads of red and hearing loads of “It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time…” I still got 1544 words. Not too bad I think. So after a break I decided to do a 30 minute sprint using Write or Die again. Once more I saw I just could not sit though the full 30 min straight. But I did get 678 words in that time. Then another break to rest and I decided on a quick 10 minute one as it was getting close to midnight here and I wanted the count to be updated in camp. So after that quick 10 I did 528 more words to top my day off. and was still 180 words shy of par for the day. But between Write or Die and Yarny I am sure I will be able to get to par come the morning. And with luck get a nice cushion back in my count.

Pity other writings don’t count for count.

The Three Lies and CampNaNo and Writing. (self ranting or yelling at myself)

Lie one: There is NO Tomorrow: I am over 2k behind on my word count for my story. Oh I can just catch up tomorrow.
NO. Big NO you will just get more behind and will end up failing. Write, Write as much as you can every day. If your behind then increase how much you write each day. More words a day equal better chances of catching up TODAY and not Tomorrow which will never come.

Lie Two: Oh I am helping other people out, I help them get over their problems so it is okay I don’t get much writing done in my story.

WRONG Yes helping others is good but it doesn’t help you stay focus, it doesn’t help you write your book and it so doesn’t help your own word count.

Lie three: Remember those Camp rules? Remember how you were not going to blog till after getting your word count minimum in? how you were not going on the forums till your minimum word count was done? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE! You are blogging and you are over 2k words behind the minimum words to finish in a month.

But people are watching my blog, they like my blog and blogging is writing.

Yes, yes and yes but it isn’t BOOK or NOVEL WRITING. This does not count for the 50k words in a month to win (unless you rebel) nor does it help you finish your book.

Well ya but people are waiting to read something on my blog.

Well then let them wait a bit and get back to writing. You can blog again after you get 2k more words written tonight.

Okay I will try.

No there is no TRY there is only Do or DO NOT!

(okay done with self rant/yelling at myself. Now off to Yarny to write my story. Wish me luck on getting 2k in two hours)

Random Everything and Names

Random Villains – Lair of the Red Dragon’s villain random generator. Just select 1 to 5 to be generated and then hit the generate button. A nice little window will pop up listing all the villains generated.

Random Encounters – Lair of the Red Dragon’s random encounter generator. Creates one to five minor characters or NPC’s listing Race – racial origin of the character, Occupation – the class or main vocation of the character, Motivation – the present circumstance of the character, and Quirks – notable features or attributes of the character.

Names by Nationality – This isn’t a random generator but a site that lists all names boys and girls by their country. Find the country you want a name from and then pick if you want a girl name or boy and then look though the lists and the meanings of each name.

Abulafia’s Random Generators – The god of random generators. This page has so many generators I could not count them all. seems he has everything and the kitchen sink there but most likely not. Still great place to go looking for a generator if none of the others from other lists I have posted has helped. Need a demon? a Bow? a Name? A bond girl or even a villain of some sort go here.

Lastly a little fun random generator

Random Heroes and Villains – the song from the beach boys with random lyrics in a continual play

Camp NaNo – day one

Well first day is half over and as planed I took an early nap got up near midnight and ended up starting writing ten after midnight. Though did not write till six thirty as I had planed. I wrote till four. I had written over the minimum recommended to reach 50k by months end. I wrote 1,849 then took a nap till six thirty. Got the kids off the school and cam back and wrote some more. Did one sprint…I am not good at those. in 10 min I only got 186 while most were getting over 300 if not over 400. I am such a slow typer. I don’t think I will ever get the speed typing badge. So far these are what I have.

Well back to typing. The story waits for no one…well okay it does. It waits for me. So far over 2k in words and counting.

More Random Story Generators

This is thanks to mjgriffor comment on my random generator. Ironically his steampunk link was from the same creator as Cool Bits in the blog updated list before this one. All were created using seventh sanctum’s script and I went and got his other generators. So below you will find the steampunk one mjgriffor told me about in comments and a few others all from the creator of Cool Bits

Steampunk – from the creator of Cool Bits comes this generator for steampunk story ideas. So you want to write a steampunk story but don’t know what to write try this random generator

YA Dystopia – this one says it all. Need a young adult society in a repressive and controlled state, under the guise of being an utopia setting for a story then this is the random generator for you.

Kinkfic – this one is for only writers that are not minors in their countries as it is a random generator contains some elements here and there that may not be suitable for those under the age of maturity in their countries, or those of a nervous and fainting disposition. The link is to the cover page not a direct one to generator so you conform you want to see smut story ideas.