The Top Ten Writing Rules

The top ten writing rules are as follows, ordered chronologically from 10-1.
     10. Write a draft.  Then let it rest.
     9. Read a lot.
     8. Never use a long word when a short one will do.
     7. Never use the passive voice when you can use the active voice.
     6. Know and understand your audience.
     5. Recycle and read the good stuff before you write.
     4. Honor the miraculousness of the ordinary.
     3. Good copy=draft-10%
     2. Look at every word in a sentence and decide if they are really needed.  If not, kill them.  Be ruthless.
     1. Remember: Writing doesn't love you.  It doesn't care.  Nevertheless, it can behave with  remarkable generosity.  Speak well of it, encourage others, pass it on.                     

Now, I'll be answering three questions pertaining to these rules of writing.

Question 1: Which of the top ten writing rules makes the most sense to you?
Answer 1: I do find that all of these rules make sense.  They have a reason for being rules, after all.  However, the one rule that I favor the most is rule number 2; look at every word in a sentence and decide if they are really needed.  This is something that I deal with a lot in my own writing, and it's something that I see happening quite frequently in others' writing as well.  Basically, what this rule is saying is that using too many large and eloquent words in a sentence makes your writing, well, uh...  I'm not too sure that there is a more polite way to say this, but it makes your writing bad.  Too much of anything is harmful.  I remember that a novel I read excerpts from for my English class recently briefly spoke about this.  Well, I shouldn't really say briefly.  It was one of the main themes of the chapter that I'd read, so it was pretty important.  In the novel Black Swan Green by David Mitchell one of the characters (Madame Crommelynck) tells the protagonist, an aspiring poet, that using too many beautiful words in his poetry makes it ugly.  This is very true for prose as well, and not just poetry.  It is understandable if one wants to be descriptive, but I feel like cramming a bunch of big and complicated words is going to make your writing tedious to read, for starters, and it won't flow as well as a sentence that is, say, better composed.

Question 2: Which of the top ten writing rules do you already practice?
Answer 2: In my writing, I currently practice the second, sixth, and ninth rules.  These I feel influence my writing for the better.  The second rule, I have elaborated on a lot in my answer to the previous question, so in all honesty, I don't really feel the need to do so again.  As for the sixth and ninth rules, I'll talk about those in more detail here.  The sixth rule of writing says to know and understand your audience.  This is very important in keeping your readers not only engaged in your writing, but it leaves them wanting to read more when they reach the conclusion of say, a story you'd written.  This is also something that is extremely useful when it comes to contests (I actually did this for my Sokol entry that I submitted last night).  If you know the tastes of the judges for a writing contest, then writing accordingly won't do anything but help you write an amazing entry in the long run.  It'll give you a bigger chance of winning the competition, and the judge(s) will view your writing favorably, since I guess you could say that they're kind of biased towards their own likes and dislikes.  Now, lastly, I'll be talking about the ninth rule.  Reading a lot is obviously important if you want to be able to improve your writing.  However, don't read in a single genre.  Exposing yourself to more of what's out there will help you gain more writing experience.  I say the same not only for genres, but for writing styles too.

Question 3: Which of the top ten writing rules do you need to work more on?
Answer 3: For this response, I'm going to select the one writing rule that I need to focus the most on, and that rule is writing rule number four: honor the miraculousness of the ordinary.  I say this because I don't really get inspiration for my writing easily.  It just doesn't come natural, all those plots and storylines.  That's why I often say that I feel like I have the writing part of creative writing down, but not so much the creative portion.  By appreciating the little things, and looking at things that seem ordinary to me from a different perspective, I feel that this will help improve my writing immensely.

Anyway, that's all for this post.  I hope this was useful in some way, or at the very least, interesting.  Hope you all have an amazing day!