Elements of Fiction
The Storyteller’s Creed
1. Imagination is the light by which you see (Flannery O’Connor).
2. Be someone on whom nothing is lost (Henry James).
3. Never write anything that is not of vital interest to you (John Gardner).
4. Write for the love of it (Virginia Woolf) and love each separate word (John Fowles).
5. Write about what you know and write truly (Ernest Hemingway).
6. Say it as clearly as you can (Matthew Arnold), the fewer words the better (Jacques Barzun).
7. Describe nothing you can’t honestly imagine (Jorge Luis Borges).
8. Your character should breathe, stand up and cast a shadow (William Faulkner).
9. Let the character talk: just listen, and write (Ursula K. Le Guin).
10. Use no story gear that doesn’t turn something (John Gardner).
11. Your story must be a life that lives all of itself (John Steinbeck).
12. A note out of tune does not belong (St. Augustine).
13. Writing ought to be like running through a field (Virginia Woolf).
14. Let the rhythm choose the word (Virginia Woolf).
