Using Adverbs Is A Mortal Sin.

Never Use A Verb Other Than "said" To Carry Dialogue... I Once Noticed Mary Mccarthy Ending A Line Of Dialogue With "she Asseverated" And Had To Stop Reading And Go To The Dictionary.

I Started Out Of Course With Hemingway When I Learned How To Write. Until I Realized Hemingway Doesn't Have A Sense Of Humor. He Never Has Anything Funny In His Stories.

A Friend Of Mine Who Is In The Publishing Business Knew I Was Writing A Book, And He Said, 'have You Said Anything Yet About The Good Guy? Because I Know You Spend So Much Time With The Bad Guys.' Because They're Fun. So Then You Have To Make The Good Guy Fun, In Order To Compete. That's The Challenge.

I Focus On Characters As Individuals With Attitudes And Write Each Scene From A Particular Character's Point Of View. That Way, Even Narrative Passages Take On The Character's Sound. I Don't Want The Reader To Be Aware Of Me, Writing.

Avoid Prologues: They Can Be ­annoying, Especially A Prologue ­following An Introduction That Comes After A Foreword.