I've mentioned at least once this ONC Mark Twain's rules for writing, and I mention it other times, but I thought to myself, hey, why not go over them for ONC, particularly since his rules are in the public domain?
What might surprise people is that Mark Twain's rules for writing were written in response to The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, a work that is now considered by many to be a classic because it stood the test of time. However, what some don't realize is the reason Cooper's work stood the test of time has nothing to do with it being good writing.
In fact, one might say that his work was the Twilight of its day, with Mark Twain calling it out for a lot of things we call works like Twilight out today. They're not subjective criteria either, even though there are people who would like you to believe this is true. Subjective means based on opinion rather than fact, which is objective, but some have indeed forgotten that while writing gives us a lot of freedom, there are objective criteria.
An example of subjective criteria is diversity checkboxes. For example, there are some who try and measure given work worth by how many diversity checkboxes they check off, with some even having diversity checkboxes of what not to include that are the exact opposite of these diversity checkboxes. But the truth is, what makes a story good isn't whether your story has a female main character or contains no male characters. It's about how one uses its characters, and these diversity checkboxes serve no real purpose.
And no, diversity checkboxes don't mean better rep. A good rep isn't just about being represented, existing within the narrative. Female characters, for example, have existed for hundreds of years. Female characters as main characters have also been around for a hundred years, so simply having can't be the answer. Nor can treating these diverse characters get special treatment, such as Plot Armor, where because they are diverse, they're not allowed to die like other characters.
So, let's dive into his rules.
One - A Tale Shall Accomplish Something and Arrive Somewhere
Yes, I've seen some people claim this means works of the Slice of Life genre don't belong, but the problem with that is it's basing this off on the most basic premise of beginning, middle, and end which is only the most basic type of plot while also focusing on the plot.
The plot is only one way a story will end up accomplishing things, and the other is through character arcs or the way the character grows over time.
Another way of putting it is, what is the purpose of your work? What is the end goal?
Of course, in saying this, stories can have more than one purpose. Beware, though, of stories ending up with a purpose you, the writer, didn't intend, such as unintended messages. However, I do wish to clarify I'm not talking about messages one has to jump to the interpretation, such as calling older works and even works involving female characters in older time frames sexist because females weren't during those time frames allowed to do what the men do.
I'm more of thinking messages such as implying those females from those time frames were incapable of things they were quite capable of, such as learning to properly use a gun to defend themselves or how to properly describe an action scene. Of course, this shouldn't be confused with a character putting forth such a claim, as the characters are flawed people, and you're going to have racist, sexist, ect. type characters in stories. It's about the narrative saying this rather than a character or the society the characters live in.
Two - Episodes of a Tale Shall be Necessary Parts of the Tale, and Shall Help Develop It.
Yes, this does mean no filler content.
