Rules of Thumb: 73 Authors Reveal Their Fiction Writing Fixations
edited by Michael Martone and Susan Neville
ISBN 1582973911
$19.99 hardcover with linen spine, 256 pages
Insightful Essays From Literary Authors
Whether it’s the simplest of prohibitions (don’t use too many adjectives) or a cherished writing maxim (show, don’t tell), all writers have a rule of thumb that guides their work. In this book, contemporary fiction writers share, in essay form, their one rule.
Table of Contents
The Ink-Stained Thumb by John Barth
Using Words With Musical Precision by Barbara Shoup
Complexity by Paul Maliszewski
You Must Eat Broccoli Before You Begin by M.T. Anderson
Plankland Rules by Kate Bernheimer
A Primer on the Proper Use of Thumbs in the Revision Process by Michael Wilkerson
That That Job and Show It by Alyce Miller
No Tears for Me, Please by Jennifer S. Davis
Circling the Unsayable by Jocelyn Lieu
Four Rules by Jane Yolen
The Semicolon and the Infrequency of Its Use by Vincent Standley
On Advice by S.L. Wisenberg
Sleep On It by Heid E. Erdrich
Enough Already by Steven Barthelme
With a Frond Like Me Who Need Anemone by Molly Giles
Make It More Complex by Peter Turchi
We Are Not Your Mother by Janice Eidus
The Five Senses by Stewart O’Nan
The Very Rule by Jill Christman
Write When You Feel Lousy by Dinty W. Moore
Teeth Gnashing by Dan Wakefield
You Really Don’t Have Anything Better to Do by Robert Olen Butler
Divine Reading—Holy Writing by Melanie Rae Thon
Names ‘n’ Such by Robert Rosenblum
Laissez-Faire Writing by Karen Brennan
Pay Attention by Scott Russell Sanders
Susan Neville’s Secret Rules by Pablo Medina
The Great I-Am by Brian Kiteley
Never Write About Writing by R.M. Berry
Sage Advice From an Acknowledged Master of the Form by Robin Hemley
Write Short Chapters Whenever Possible by Joey Goebel
Dixon’s Rules by Stephen Dixon
Big Dogs and Little Dogs by T.M. McNally
Eat First by Joan Silber
Blow It Up by Stephen Kuusisto
A Writing Habit by Lydia Davis
Upholsterer’s Block by Dan Barden
Writing That Sings by Jiro Adachi
A Brief Note on Point of View by Marjorie Sandor
Prescriptions/Proscriptions by Michael Martone
The Thumb’s the Thing by Tim Parrish
Revising Revision by Valerie Miner
Obsessed First-Person Narrators Are the Best First-Person Narrators by Josh Russell
The Art of the Graphing Calculator by Becky Bradway
Staunch the Mush by Debra Spark
The Return of the Bread by Gina Ochsner
Dress for Success by Bret Lott
The Busy Attributive: A Case for Said by Steve Almond
Contrarian Thumb by Janet Burroway
Trimming (Notes to Myself. A To-Do List.) by Lia Purpura
A Sort of Recreation by Ander Monson
Fifteen Provisional Remainders for the Sake of Clarity by Joseph Skibell
Go Where Your Writing Leads You, at Home or Abroad by Patricia Henley
Junk Your Junk Words by Wilton Barnholdt
Just Shut Up by Phyllis Alesia Perry
Shape-Shifting by Philip Graham
“There’s Only One Rule: Never Be Boring” (Henry James) by David Shields
Won’t, Don’t, and Can’t by Cris Mazza
Ten Signs That You Should Stop Reading Books That Offer Advice on Being a Better Writer by David Haynes
Don’t Tell It Like It Is by Deb Olin Unferth
Plucking Your Character’s Eyebrows by Thisbe Nissen
Thumbs by Joseph Geha
Don’t Break That POV, Hand Me the Pliers by Jay Brandon
To Hell With Likability by Rick Moody
Water and Dreams by Rikki Ducornet
I ALWAYS by Steve Tomasula
Writing Rule No. 1 by Fern Kupfer
Bricoleur’s Mishmash by Wendy Rawlings
Knock Knock Knock by Samantha Hunt
Use a Dying Fall in Every Work, But Not Too Often by Ed Skoog
Cramming by Erin McGraw
The Thirty-Nine Steps: A Story Writing Primer by Frederick Barthelme
Throw Up, Then Clean Up by Will Allison
About the Editors
Michael Martone is the author of six books and a winner of the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction. He directs the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Alabama, and lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Susan Neville is the author of four books, and teaches at Butler University. She lives in Indianapolis.