About a month ago, I posted this link for eight rules I try to follow as a writer.  And it got some good feedback.  People started to see things differently.

I guess not everyone did.

So, to follow this up, I've got another eight rules that I try to follow as a writer.

9. Make sure you know what happens in your story.

This can take many forms.  Whether it’s writing a plan for your story, building a map, sticking post it notes everywhere or just memorising what will happen, make sure you know what has happened and how it will impact your future story.  It’s a problem that I’m dealing with now, in a way.  See, I know what has happened, I know what I want to happen in the future and I know how what happens now will affect the future to my desired outcome.  I’m just stuck on the present.  But, knowing that I have my past and future pretty much set is making it easier to set the present and it kind of restricts what I do so that I don’t go wildly off topic.  Everything flows into itself.

10. Don’t sweat the little things.

You’d think, given how I love to describe things, that details matter a lot to me.  And you’d be right.  But I’d rather have my story well rounded than just focus on the details.  Sometimes I can look at those too much, but if I don’t have a good story, no amount of description and atmosphere will make up for it.  Make sure you know how your story will start, how it will finish, how it will get from A to B and write that.  Anything else is a bonus.

11. There’s always someone worse than you.

This is kind of a life lesson, but there is always someone worse than you.  Don’t put yourself and your writing down just because you’ve got a lot of grammatical mistakes in there.  Someone else won’t be able to write in English at all, so congratulate yourself on that.  It’s important that you know what you can do, not just what you can’t do.

12. There’s also always someone better than you.

Just because there’s someone worse than you doesn’t mean there’s nobody better than you.  In fact, you’re about in the middle of the group.  I’m sorry to break it to you like this, but it’s true.  Now, don’t fret about it.  Being average is good.  But make sure you look at the flaws you have and make them into challenges.  You have trouble using different words?  Learn a new word every day and use it.  There are simple ways to overcome your challenges.

13. You are not alone.

There are many writers on this site.  Some have been writing for decades.  Some are just getting into the writing arena.  But all are writers, facing the same struggles that you are.  So don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Some of them have seen what you are seeing now, so be thankful for the advice they give.

That goes for life, too.

14. Listen to your readers.

Remember when I said “Comments and reviews are never about you or your work, even the good ones” (Rule 3).  That still stands.  But as a writer, you need to listen to your readers when they tell you that you’ve done something horribly wrong.  If you have no intention to change it, then don’t change it.  If you don’t agree with what they’re saying, don’t agree with them.  But acknowledge that people don’t like it.  If you need to, explain why you made this choice.  But you don’t have to.  You can decide not to say anything about it.  It’s your prerogative.  Just as it’s your reader’s prerogative whether to like something or not.

15. You won’t know everything.  So research it.

Now, this is a complicated rule.  I’ve never researched anything for my stories, but in some cases I’ve never needed to.  For Catch Me If You Can, that was very much in the fantasy realm, so there was very little that I could research.  Maybe the historical areas, but that was about it.  There was some philosophy, but that was just personal opinion.  The rest of it was fantasy, so I could create the world from scratch.

For “Where Fairy Tales Come From,” I acknowledge that I will be taking some artistic license, especially with personal tastes and businesses and even with some laws.  These things are quite realistic and are based on some simple research, but they might be inaccurate. (I did ask people to clarify one point that I have made in the story, but nobody gave me an answer.  At all.  They gave me answers for a different question, answers that I already knew, but nothing that answered my question.  So, based on some reports that I’ve read, I’m going to assume that things will happen a certain way, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if I got it completely right.)  For example, if I said that one of my characters was a convicted killer (I don’t have any characters like that, I’m just using this as an example), I might come up with a logical and believable way for the police to let him go.  If one of my characters wants a pay rise in their job (doesn’t happen), I might find a way that works logically and is believable.  Reading it is not intended to be a wholly accurate depiction of life in the place where it is set.  But it is believable enough (I hope) to make sense.  You don’t have to suspend disbelief to make it work.  If you can’t get to that kind of point where people can believe your writings, then you need to do some research.

That being said, some research is good, even if you can get to the point where it’s quite believable.  I’ve taken inspiration from things that I know and I’ve tried not to go to places that require too much artistic creativity.  For example, one of my settings is a 1950’s American-themed diner.  I would imagine that quite a few major cities, especially ones that would be frequented by tourists, would have restaurants and cafes that don’t fit the country’s typical image, and I would imagine that in major cities, capital cities even, there would be at least one diner like this.  But if I implied that 99.9999999% of restaurants were like this, I’d be taking liberties, so I haven’t.

Now, if you’re dealing with potentially volatile issues like mental health or things like that, don’t skimp on the research.  If you get that wrong, you could potentially cause some major problems.  You want to talk about psychoses in your story?  Go ahead.  But be expected to be getting your facts at least 90% right.  For example, not everyone that hears voices is schizophrenic.  I hear them, as it happens, and I’m not schizophrenic.  These auditory hallucinations only occur when I am very tired and they don’t speak to me – they’re more like audible tourettes.

To summarise about half of the rules …

16. Respect your readers.

That’s key when you write with the intention to publish it, whether it be on a site like this or as a printed book or on your own site.  Respect your readers.  Warn them about certain things that might be upsetting or distressing for them.  Listen to their comments and act on them as appropriate.  Don’t make demands on them (just because someone hasn’t commented on your story doesn’t mean they didn’t enjoy it.  What if they didn’t comment because they enjoyed it but had no negative feedback to give to you?).  Give them the respect they deserve.

Now, I have done two of these for being a writer, but the next in this series will be about being a reader, and eight rules for being a good reader.  But what do you think?  Are there other rules that you follow?  Do you agree with my rules?  Let me know in the comments below.