Top tips from Authors.

The Guardian has a couple of webpages outlining ten points of advice about writing fiction from famous authors such as Zadie Smith, Neil Gaiman, PD James and Margaret Atwood. Some are concise, others more detailed. All are worth reading if you write fiction.

See:
ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one
and
10-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-two

I do not agree with some of these, but then I'm not a famous published author. The process of writing is as individual as the pieces that are produced, and what works for Margaret Atwood may not work for you, and vice versa. Some are downright contradictory.

For instance, one piece of PD James' advice is:

'Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious',

whilst AL Kennedy's is:

'Read. As much as you can. As deeply and widely and nourishingly and ­irritatingly as you can. And the good things will make you remember them, so you won't need to take notes',

and Will Self's:

'Stop reading fiction – it's all lies anyway, and it doesn't have anything to tell you that you don't know already (assuming, that is, you've read a great deal of fiction in the past; if you haven't you have no business whatsoever being a writer of fiction)'.

There are some real gems in these two articles. If you are writing fiction, read them. At the very least it is an impressive insight into the mind of some famous authors.