"...it has been demonstrated through years of workshops that the Artist Within tends to make the same mistakes as the artist within everybody else."

"A good approach is to allow one dream per novel. Then, in the final revision, go back and get rid of that, too."

"We have no way of knowing what words you are going to misuse, so we cannot offer you a list. What we can offer, though, is a test that you yourself can apply to any word, whenever you are in doubt.A Test: Do I Know This Word?Ask yourself: 'Do I know this word?'If the answer is no, then you do not know it."

"When the reader has stopped to wonder at your delamificatious vocabulary, or, worse, when the reader has stopped because the word you've used has no more meaning to him than a random ptliijnbvc of letters, the reader is not involved in your story. ... Generally, saying 'edifice' instead of 'building' doesn't tell your reader anything about the building; it tells the reader that you know that word edifice."

"We do not propose any rules; we offer observations. "No right on red" is a rule. "Driving at high speed toward a brick wall usually ends badly" is an observation."

"Overuse at best is needless clutter; at worst, it creates the impression that the characters are overacting, emoting like silent film stars. Still, an adverb can be exactly what a sentence needs. They can add important intonation to dialogue, or subtly convey information."

"In real life, couples bond and war over a million different things. The causes of divorce are like beautiful, unique snowflakes."

"Here is an appropriate use of the exclamation mark:The last thing he expected when the elevator door opened was the snarling tiger that leapt at him."Ahhhhh!"...In almost all situations that do not involve immediate physical danger or great surprise, you should think twice before using an exclamation mark. If you have thought twice and the exclamation mark is still there, think about it three times, or however many times it takes until you delete it."

"For mysterious reasons, many authors consider it useful to provide a story about a forty-year-old man-about-town with a prologue drawn from his life as a five-year-old boy. ... There's only one letter's difference between "yarn" and "yawn," and it is often a long letter, filled with childhood memories."