I love to collect inspirational quotes.  I really do find them incredibly, well, inspirational.  But I usually hate articles that ask writers for their lists of do’s and dont’s.  So often those articles do little more for me than make me feel discouraged or even depressed — and I’m quite capable of doing that on my own, thank you very much.  But yesterday’s Guardian ran an article that, despite being called “10 Rules for Writers,” was funny, interesting and extremely useful. It was four full pages of advice from almost every writer you could name writing in English now: Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle, Geoff Dyer, Anne Enright, Richard Ford, Jonathan  Franzen, Neil Gaiman, David Hare, Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith…and many more. ( You can read the article in its entirety here). This article was so long that I couldn’t help but wonder who the Guardian thinks its readers are — is its circulation made up of nothing but writers and wanna-be writers? Regardless, I thought I’d pass on some of these pearls of wisdom, and many of them are just that, pearls.

First and foremost, the 2 rules that most everyone agrees with is that if you want to write (1) you must actually do it and not just talk about it and (2) read a lot and widely. Here is a very digested sampling of some more:
Diana Athill: You don’t always have to go so far as to murder your darlings…but go back and look at them with a very beady eye. Almost always it turns out that they’d be better dead.
Margaret Atwood: Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.
Roddy Doyle: Do not place a photograph of your favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.
Helen Dunmore: Finish the day’s writing when you still want to continue.
Geoff Dyer: Never worry about the commercial possibilities of a project. That stuff is for agents and editors to fret over – or not.
Anne Enright: Have fun.
Richard Ford: Don’t have children.
Jonathan Franzen: It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction (*this one comes up a lot!)
Esther Freud: Trust your reader. Not everything needs to be explained.
Neil Gaiman: Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
David Hare: If nobody will put your play on put it on yourself.
PD James: Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell.
AL Kennedy: Remember writing doesn’t love you. It doesn’t care. Nevertheless, it can behave with remarkable generosity. Speak well of it, encourage others, pass it on.
Hilary Mantel: Read Becoming a Writer, by Dorothea Brande. Then do what it says, including the tasks you think are impossible.
Michael Moorcock: Introduce your main characters and themes in the first third of your novel.
Michael Morpurgo: It is the gestation time which counts.
Andrew Motion: Decide when in the day ( or night) it best suits you to write, and organise your life accordingly.
Joyce Carol Oates: Keep a light, hopeful heart. But expect the worst.
Annie Proulx: Proceed slowly and take care.
Philip Pullman: My main rule is to say no to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work.
Ian Rankin: Get lucky. Stay lucky. (*That’s 2 from him).
Will Self: Stop reading fiction – it’s all lies anyway, and it doesn’t have anything to tell you that you don’t know already (assuming you’ve read a great deal of fiction in the past; if you haven’t you have no business whatsoever being a writer of fiction).
Helen Simpson: Shut up and get on with it (actually a quote from Flaubert)
Zadie Smith: Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.
Colm Toibin: No going to London. No going anywhere else either. (*Again, a twofer).
Rose Tremain: Respect the way characters may change once they’ve got 50 pages of life in them.
Sarah Waters: Pace is crucial. Fine writing isn’t enough.
Jeanette Winterson: Enjoy this work!

And there’s so much more: some of which you’ll agree with, some of which you won’t, some of which is very funny, some of which is  agonizing.  But this is an article, I am surprised to say, well worth reading.