Golden Rules For New Writers - Things you need to know before you begin.Rules govern everything we do in life; even if those rules are of
unwritten kind we abide by them and expect other people to do
same. Why should writing be any different? It shouldn’t be and it isn’t. The following rules are
basis for good writing. If anyone tries to tell you that rules are made to be broken, remember that you have to learn those rules before you try to bend them or break them otherwise you are just being sloppy, not radical.
The following rules are essential if you want people to take you seriously.
Be yourself Know your subject Be interested Punctuate proudly Respect
apostrophe Get great grammar Spell well Keep to
point Read and revise Sleep on it Pay attention to detail
Be yourself
Write from
heart or
head or
gut, depending upon
type of writing you are doing. You can let your heart pour passion into a love letter but your head is better for
contents of a business letter and
gut feeling should never be ignored. Never try to imitate somebody else’s style, no matter how much you might admire it, you will always appear fake. Find your own unique style, your own voice.
Know Your Subject
Write on topics you know about. Although that sounds obvious you don’t have to look very far to find masses of people publishing articles when it is clear that they have very little idea about their subject matter. This type of writing appears thin, limp and unconvincing even to
untrained eye. You should aim for writing which has substance; a rounded, healthy thing with a life of its own. If, for some reason, you are obliged to write about a topic which is alien to you, make
effort to research it. If you can’t get to
library, there is always
internet. There is no excuse for ignorance. There is no excuse for trying to foist a poorly researched article on your readers. Do you want your readers to point you out as someone who does not know what s/he is talking about?
Be interested
Write about things which interest you. If you are not interested in your subject matter, you have little hope of catching
interest of your reader. If you are in a situation where you simply have to write about a subject which holds no real interest for you, try at least to find an original angle; this could stimulate you as well as your reader. If you cannot spark even faint interest in your subject, your writing will be flat and boring.
Punctuate proudly
Don’t be one of those people who pretend they don’t think punctuation matters: it does. Ask your self this: if these people really believe that, why do they bother to punctuate at all? Why don’t they just write on and on without any dots or commas? That, surely, is more logical than putting in dots and commas in
wrong places. The truth is, they are too lazy to learn
rules of punctuation and think they can get away with this by brushing punctuation off as unimportant. Punctuation has had a very bad time over
last forty years or so but I believe it is about to undergo a revival. These things go in cycles and it seems that punctuation is about to have its day at last. Correct punctuation could be
new black. If you don’t believe this, how do you explain why so many thousands of people bought "Eats, Shoots & Leaves"? Even if you have no interest in creating elegant prose, you should learn about punctuation . Without it your writing will at best be difficult to read and at worst not make sense. You will be left wondering why people are laughing at your serious work.