The Rules of Writing (Part II)
Today, I’m continuing our talk about Mark Twain’s eighteen rules of writing. We begin with his third rule. The personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. Have you ever had a character that doesn’t stand out? The character has a name, but we might as well have name her, Woman #5 since no one is going to remember her anyway. Maybe we put her in the story to give another character someone to talk to and all Woman #5 does is say, “I agree.” The other character might as well be talking to a corpse. We can fix Woman #5. First, let’s give her a name, like Barbara. Next, let’s make her interesting by giving her a peg leg. Lastly, let’s give her some thoughts and motives of her own. Maybe Barbara secretly hopes the other character’s boyfriend will break up with her and ask Barbara out. That’s a lot better than a corpse. The personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient ...