Ten rules for writing fiction

Guardians "Ten rules" is a delightful article for struggling writers .

Suggestions from various writers range from sublime to the absurd, generous to contradictory, practical to the pointless.

Some snippets:

Worrying: Margaret Atwood- "Prayer might work." That is so unlike the author of The Handmaid's Tale.

Cheeky: Rody Doyle - "Do not search amazon.co.uk for the book you haven't written yet."

Wise: Geoff Dyer- "Don't be one of those writers who sentence themselves to a lifetime of sucking up to Nabokov."

Cheeky2: Anne Enright- "The first 12 years are the worst."

Cynical: Richard Ford- "Don't write letters to the editor. (No one cares.)"

Practical: Jonathan Frazen- It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.

Pointless: Margaret Atwood- "Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. "

Moral fo the story though is simple: "No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write"