William Goldman’s 10 Commandments On Writing

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Novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter, William Goldman became a writing legend over a career spanning fifty years.

He was born 12 August 1931 and died 16 November 2018.

In his life, he won two Academy Awards for the screenplays, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men. His novels included Marathon Man, and The Princess Bride, both of which Goldman adapted for film. He also wrote two non-fiction books about his experiences in Hollywood, Adventures in the Screen Trade and Which Lie Did I Tell?

He offered some useful, concise advice for writers. Life would probably be easier for editors, publishers, and readers if more writers followed these rules.

William Goldman’s 10 Commandments On Writing

1. Thou shalt not take the crisis out of the protagonist’s hands.
2. Thou shalt not make life easy for the protagonist.
3. Thou shalt not give exposition for exposition’s sake.
4. Thou shalt not use false mystery or cheap surprise.
5. Thou shalt respect thy audience.
6. Thou shalt know thy world as God knows this one.
7. Thou shalt not complicate when complexity is better.
8. Thou shalt seek the end of the line, taking characters to the farthest depth of the conflict imaginable within the story’s own realm of probability.
9. Thou shalt not write on the nose — put a subtext under every text.
10. Thou shalt rewrite.

From Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting by William Goldman. (source)

 by Amanda Patterson

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3. 5 Tips For Writing Vivid Fiction From Edgar Allan Poe
4. Writing Advice From The World’s Most Famous Authors

TIP: If you want help writing a book, buy The Novel Writing Exercises Workbook.