8 Creative Writing Rules to Follow

In most creative writing classes you will be given a list of basic rules to follow that make your writing more effective. Obviously these rules can, and in some cases should, be broken. It’s always up to the artistic discretion of the writer. But if you’re just starting out and haven’t developed your own unique writing style yet, these rules can be really useful.

Here are the eight most important rules I’ve learned:

1. Show don’t tell – This will always be my number 1 rule. A sentence is much more effective if you can demonstrate how your characters feel or look without having to spell it out for your readers. The reader is always cleverer than you expect them to be. And ‘he was old’ sounds much more juvenile than something along the lines of ‘beneath his wrinkles you could see the young man he once was'.


2. Try to cut down on ‘ly’ words – If you can find a verb that accurately describes what your character is doing, it’s much better to use it than to stick an adverb on the end of your sentence. 


3. Try to cut down on ‘ing’ words – I disagreed with this rule when I first heard it. But now I’ve realised that a lack of ‘ing’ words tends to improve a sentence. ‘He walked down the road and shook his head’ sounds better than ‘he walked down the road, shaking his head’. I can’t explain why, but I genuinely believe this rule works. 


4. Avoid long sentences – I mean really long sentences. It worked for Dickens and Tolstoy but modern readers will get bored and lose focus if they have to read paragraph-long, convoluted sentences. 


5. Don’t use verbs other than ‘said’ to describe speech – I’m not sure I agree with this rule. It’s one that could definitely be broken if you do it in the right way. But ‘he said/she said’, or even no verb at all, often sounds better than ‘she exclaimed’ or ‘he gasped’ which always sound like they’ve been snatched right out of a children’s book.


6. The best dialogue doesn’t state exactly what characters mean or want to say – Sometimes people find it hard to express what they really mean. Our characters are no different. Dialogue doesn’t sound very realistic if characters come right out and say exactly what they’re thinking. They need emotional depth and complexity in their conversations.


7. Less is more – My stories normally end up half the length they were in my first drafts. It’s usually best to cut any unnecessary description or anything that doesn’t really add to the overall effect of the story.


8. And of course… write what you know – This has to be the most common creative writing rule there is but that’s probably because it’s the most important. Writing what you know doesn’t mean that you have to recreate your life but it does mean you can make your fictional story more realistic and relatable.

So these are my top 8 basic tips for good creative writing.  I hope they’re helpful. 

Thanks for reading.