Writing Techniques

[Pete Rebb]

I found this in my emails today. This is for those of you that haven't seen it before:

** Avoid alliteration. Always.
** Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
** Avoid cliché’s like the plague. (They're old hat.)
** Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
** Contractions aren't necessary.
** Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
** One should never generalize.
** Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
** Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
** Be more or less specific.
** One-word sentences? Eliminate.
** Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
** Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
** Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
** Who needs rhetorical questions?
** Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

[The Ace]

Not bad at all.

[Orian]

I see what you're doing there, I see. I like that, a very fun way of putting a point across.

[Hilarious Joke]

Teehee!

[chrispenycate]

I am proud to say I have broken every single rule on that list and, possibly excepting the alliteration one, (which I often tend to compound with rhyming forms) have every intention of surviving to do so again, although my worst fault (apart from using words nobody recognises without resort to a dictionary) is probably extending sentences, by the addition of subordinate clauses and other such distractions, considerably further than it is convenient for them to go.

[Commonmind]

Clever Conclusion Chris

[Hilarious Joke]

Teehee!

[jamescomehere]

let me think for a while.

[flynx]

More humorous than useable list I'd say but I'll add another anyway (slightly more useful)

Seriously consider quickly eliminating adverbs.

[thaddeus6th]

Hehehe, took me until 2 to realise what it really meant. I have a tendency to sometimes go nuts with alliteration

[Ursa major]

One that would be suggested by a a certain Mr. S. King:

** The passive tense should be avoided.