I recently attended OSC's two-day boot camp. Here are some near quotes of the things he said:"Learning point of view is the most important part of writing." - OSC indicated he felt 3rd limited (strict over the shoulder) was the strongest POV.
"The narrator needs to stay invisible."
"Don't worry about editing while writing." Then he later said, "Write every story as if it's the final draft." - I believe he was suggesting a "write then edit" style. He ended this part by saying, "If you have to write a second draft, just rewrite the entire story."
"You've been taught 'show don't tell'...Ninety-nine percent of a story must be told."
"Don't worry about ending a sentence in a preposition." - He then went into a rant about how people try to apply rules of latin to English and why that doesn't work.
He strongly hates Elements of Style.
"Don't name important characters with the same first letter."
"Don't use italics unless there's no other way of expressing something."
"Don't use accent marks in names."
"The opening must represent the story. Promise the story you intend to deliver."
"Make the ending satisfying."
"Characterization is done through relationships."
"Causality is the mainstay of fiction...Everything has more than one cause."
"Writer's block is your subconscious mind telling you 'this sucks!'"
"Every character is the hero of his own story."
"Tag every character with the perspective of the point-of-view character." - Use the names the character would call them.
"Don't start with dreams."
"Don't flashback too early in the story. There should be twice as much story as there is of flashback."
"Avoid prologues, but if you must, make them fully developed scenes."
(Edited to change "1st limited" to "3rd limited".)
[This message has been edited by philocinemas (edited August 14, 2009).]
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But mostly that quote.
