The Creative Writing Blog

'There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.' Somerset Maugham.

At The Novelry we like to tell our writers there are no rules, only tools. Then we give them the tools. One by one, day-by-day. Use them, try them, pick them up, put them down. Do not consider them rules. We're writers. We can't abide rules, and we'd guess you can't or you probably wouldn't be writing.

There is no formula. Did you know that some writers' books can stay unborn, in their sac of rules and regulations, attached to the umbilical spreadsheet for years? It's an awful condition and one we cure fast at The Novelry where we get novels done.

'I don’t think there are any universal rules. I really don’t. We each make our own rules, and we stick to our rules and we abide by them, but you know rules are made to be broken. … [If] any rule you hear from one writer doesn’t work for you, disregard it...