In an addendum to my post below about the Gene Wolfe fracas, a LiveJournal user named Natalia Lincoln who was apparently there posts her version of what happened, along with a follow-up. What I found interesting was a collection of "rules" or "guidelines" for writing that are apparently from Mr. Wolfe, and I'm stealing them for use here:
1. Live. Have life experiences. Ride horses. Fly planes. Travel.
2. Learn to read. How does the other writer do it? Play with their idea: switch POVs or settings around. Evaluate it: did the writer fail/succeed?
3. Read the markets you're submitting to.
4. Learn to write (Strunk, Transitive Vampire, etc.)
5. Don't worry about what the reader will think of you personally, worry about making yourself perfectly clear.
6. Don't write sentences like ad copy.
7. Read the type of material you mean to write, for a wide range of ages, levels of seriousness, audiences, classics.
8. Don't read endless series.
9. Find a quiet place to write.
10. Writing time: aim at writing at least one hour a day. What will you give up to get this? Sleep? Social time? TV? For 28 years, Wolfe held down a day job, mechanical engineer, and still wrote.
11. Come to grips with the fact that you're not going to be able to write at the same time & place all the time. Adjust and keep going. Writing on a train is great.
12. You will need a computer/typewriter, dictionary and a wastebasket, and printing and mailing supplies.
13. When you correct galleys, use a colored pen, not black.
14. Write your ideas down as they occur to you. Make notes more detailed than you think you need to be.
15. Initial situations are easy. You don't have a story until you have an ending. Furthermore, you don't have a story until you write it.
16. No amount of planning, world-building, etc. constitutes a story. Don't spend more than an hour researching/planning a short story, or a day on a book, before you begin. Only by writing do you find out what you need.
17. Don't mirror your outline or your research. You made it, or found it, you can change it.
18. Writers' groups can be good or bad depending on who's in the group. Creative writing classes are the same, only they cost more. Find out who the teacher is; that's important.
19. Writer's Digest is for people who haven't published a word. Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop online is better. Kathleen Woodbury, editor.
20. Network. Odyssey is good. Get to know the local bookstores, and who works in them. Go to cons (esp. World Fantasy Con, in DC this year). WorldCon used to be good, but it's so big now it's hard to find the right people. You can find valuable friends at these cons.
21. Get to know the fans, but esp. get to know the editors, agents, writers. Sit up front and ask questions. To get into the green room, ask if you can help.
22. Collect all the best writing advice you've ever gotten.
23. Prepare to be able to teach. Study until you know it backwards, forwards, and upside-down.
24. It's easy for you as the writer/teacher to tell people how to write. What's hard is getting them to believe you.
25. Know the rules, and if you must break them, have a good reason to.
26. Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line. (OK, I added that one myself.)
I don't know if Mr. Wolfe actually outlined these rules in precisely this form, or if this is just Miss Lincoln's distillation of lecture notes. But they're still pretty interesting.
The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
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