Good Monday morning!

Ah! Monday. When the week starts out fresh, you're not behind on your to-do list yet and pumpkin spice bagels are in the stores. :)  Hopefully, you find yourself writing today!

Today I present 10 rules on writing from Teju Cole. Follow the link for more!

1. There are few things more resistant to tutoring than the creative arts. All artists are after that thing that resists expression.
2. Keep it simple. There are many who use big words to mask the poverty of their ideas. A straightforward vocabulary, using mostly ordinary words, spiced every now and again with an unusual one, persuades the reader that you’re in control of your language.
3. Remove all clichés from your writing. Spare not a single one. The cliché is an element of herd thinking, and writers should be solitary animals. We do our work always in the shadow of herd thinking. Be expansive in your descriptions. Dare to bore.
4. Avoid adverbs. Let the nouns, adjectives and verbs carry the action of the story.
5. When reporting speech, it is enough to say “she said” or “he said.” You must leave “he chortled,” “she muttered,” “I shouted,” and other such phrases to writers of genre fiction.
6. Aim for a transparent style so that the story you’re telling is that much more forceful.
7. Read more than you write. In expressing the ambition to be a writer, you are committing yourself to the community of other writers.
8. Your originality will mean nothing unless you can understand the originality of others. What we call originality is little more than the fine blending of influences.
9. Be ruthless in your use of what you’ve seen and what you’ve experienced. Add your imagination, so that where invention ends and reality begins is undetectable.
10. Be courageous. Nothing human should be far from you.