@calunderlines

I underline books and then type up the wreckage

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Collecting since December 2025

Public lists

orwell's six rules for writing

01Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
02Never use a long word where a short one will do.
03If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
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Kurt Vonnegut's eight rules for a short story

01Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
02Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
03Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
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seneca letters worth reading first

01Letter I - On Saving Time
02Letter II - On Discursiveness in Reading
03Letter V - On the Philosopher's Mean
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marcus aurelius lines with the citation attached

01When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly.
02There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don't use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return.
03You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.
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elmore leonard's 10 rules of writing (2001)

01Never open a book with the weather.
02Avoid prologues.
03Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
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Zadie Smith's ten rules of writing

01When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.
02When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.
03Don't romanticise your 'vocation'. You can either write good sentences or you can't. There is no 'writer's lifestyle'. All that matters is what you leave on the page.
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