Rules for Writing

[rivkat]

Another random link:

If you use adjectives in your prose, do not use nouns. If you use nouns, you must not use verbs. If you use verbs, try to avoid verbs that specify a particular city.

When specifying particular cities in fiction, do not use cities that have been specified in poems. Poems have so few things left of their own anymore that we should let them have their own cities.

Comments

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

i loved the city restricted to poems, but my favorite had to be If you write a play, call it a poem, because otherwise everyone will assume it's a blog post, and trust me, you don't want that.

where do you find this stuff??? :D

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

The last two have been from the Language Log, a linguistics blog I just added to my reading list. I'm a magpie reader, as my book reviews probably indicate.

[vass]

My head aches.

What sort of verbs specify a particular city? I wasn't Melbourne yesterday, you know. Cayenne it be a joke? The idea makes my heart Helsinki. I'm going to have to Washington my brain out. Or Rome over to wherever whoever made this rule lives, and Warsaw them in half.

OK, I'm London.