Writing Tips: To Each His Own

David Rogers

When it comes to writing, the only rules are the rules you impose on yourself, those that work for you. If you search out writing advice from other writers — famous and lesser knowns alike — you will get varying and even contradictory information. Case in point:

“Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Laugh at your own jokes.” – Neil Gaiman

Surely each piece of advice worked well for its respective author. We wanted to bring together a wide variety of writing tips here to illustrate how different advice is from every author, and maybe offer some ideas you can use.

Writing Tips from Elmore Leonard

Writing Tips from James McBride

Writing Tips from Jonathan Franzen

Writing Tips from E.L. Doctorow

Writing Tips from Billy Wilder

Writing Tips from Henry Miller

Writing Tips from Cory Doctorow

We asked our Facebook fans to weigh in with their own writing advice, and also got very different answers. One straight-to-the-point piece of advice is something we all too often forget as writers.

Writing Tip

Our prepress expert Christine brings us back around to the book printing side of things, cringing at mistakes she occasionally sees in final drafts.

Writing Tips

And a final reminder that everyone must forge their own path when learning what kind of writer they are.

Writing Tips from Lev Grossman

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