Danyl A. Doyle

By Dr Dan Be honest. When you read a novel, do you ever skip? Maybe your eyes slide past a long paragraph about the wallpaper, or you flip ahead to see when somebody finally says something. Almost every reader does it. Elmore Leonard, the crime and Western writer behind Get Shorty and Hombre, built one of the most useful writing rules ever printed around that simple habit. The advice In 2001, Leonard wrote a short piece for The New York Times series "Writers on Writing." In i

By Dr Dan A loaded rifle hangs over the fireplace in Act One. By Act Three, the audience is waiting. If nobody ever touches it, they leave the theater feeling cheated, and possibly a little nervous. Anton Chekhov, the Russian doctor who wrote short stories and plays on the side (or perhaps practiced medicine on the side), turned that feeling into some of the most famous writing advice ever given. The advice "One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going t

By Dr Dan Some writing advice arrives as a thick system. Kurt Vonnegut gave us eleven words that do more work than most of those systems put together. The advice "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water." — Kurt Vonnegut, introduction to Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) It is rule three of the eight rules he called "Creative Writing 101" in that introduction. He also said great writers break his rules. He named Flannery O'Connor, who "broke practica