1. Never open a book with the weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.”
5. Keep your exclamation points under control!
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8.Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9.Same for places and things.
10. Leave out the parts readers tend to skip.
You can find him expanding on them a bit more, here: WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle - New York Times
I can't say I disagree with any of these. If you're going for a more artistic style, along the lines of a Peake or Nabokov, these don't work of course. But in general I think these are good guidelines (there are no rules).
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.”
5. Keep your exclamation points under control!
6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8.Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9.Same for places and things.
10. Leave out the parts readers tend to skip.
You can find him expanding on them a bit more, here: WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle - New York Times
I can't say I disagree with any of these. If you're going for a more artistic style, along the lines of a Peake or Nabokov, these don't work of course. But in general I think these are good guidelines (there are no rules).