“Ignite Your Fiction”
Session Six: Essence of Dialogue & Thought
by Sally J. Walker

Keep in mind that movements of the characters are the visual evidence of who they are and what they are doing. Action. The second component of the “living of the moment” is Dialogue, the words spoken AND thought by the characters. Thought unspoken, the interior monologue of a character, is still HEARD by the reader. Dialogue is the auditory “living of the moment.” Action and dialogue are what the reader seeks to absorb and vicariously experience the story with the character. Credibility in both has to guide the rudimentary structure of your effort.

Not only must it be comfortably simple “conversation,” but good dialogue must also be as succinct as it is dense. Simple to say, tough to do.

Fundamental Concepts of Dialogue
Speech patterns are made up of Syntax (phrasing of one’s sentences) and Diction (word choice and emphasis). Those patterns are learned from infancy through the early pre-school years. Sound patterns are repeatedly connected with meaning and results in the little one’s mind. Regional dialects and idioms become imbedded. Even if the child goes on to learn a second or third language, most humans will revert back to their childhood words in their own thoughts AND in moments of high stress.

Only repeated use will make most humans think in a second language. That’s the reason for “language camps” in the military or for people entering the foreign service. Six weeks of communicating ONLY in a specific language. Practice makes perfect means the electrical-neuron pathways of the brain have been used over and over so a thought can quickly skitter down one pathway when needed. Of course, there are some humans who have a gift for languages. Their brains appear to be wired a tad differently. It’s a gift kind of like natural mathematicians or musicians. Still, humans tend to revert back to their original language for “comfort.”

Think about all of that when you create the Profile of your character’s early life story (birth place, parents, family experience, early education, etc.). Were the parents/ significant people in this person’s life educated, crude-and-rude, reserved with short demands or effusive with a lush vocabulary? Did a foreign-language grandparent or close neighbor spend time with the child? Was the child exposed to different cultures, different terminology, frequently impressed by rituals or religious expectations that were meticulously identified? Best friends may share a common school experience, but their home life will be entirely unique, thus they will NOT sound alike. They will not use the same phrasing or idioms. That is an important concept to grasp when writing your dialogue and, especially when writing your internalizations.

Fundamental Concepts of Thought
Thought patterns are as important to characterization as actual spoken words. The single most important point is when you move into the character’s mind you are taking the reader on a journey into the most intimate area of personality. Where a shy person may speak softly and in brief phrases, this same person could have a brilliant mind and carry on rapid-fire, vivid internal commentary. OR a suave, charismatic man could have dreadfully carnal or gory thoughts when talking to a young woman at a party.

Be true to the personality you create but be willing to nudge your character to mentally consider unusual options or be startled by sudden awareness. Viola! A problem is solved or learning realized. Following the reasoning patterns of characters is particularly satisfying to most readers. Thoughts are where you can rapidly advance story possibilities and consequences in “What if” thoughts and make your reader BELIEVE why the character made either stupid or astute choices. This is also where you demonstrate how sturdy or fragile self-concept is in your character, how confident or terrified, how cognizant he or she is of their place in the world and dream of where to go next.

Thoughts can be summarized or “told” in paragraph form, a narrative tool for hurrying through complex thoughts rather than the details of “flow of consciousness.” Specific thoughts, statements, epithets should be italicized to set them off for emphasis. This tool, like any other literary tool, should not be over-used or your reader will grow weary and skim, especially if the SAME THING is being thought over and over. Don’t do that to your trusting reader who depends on you for a flowing, flawless story instead of the turbulence of perpetual interior angst.

ELEVEN RULES OF DIALOGUE
Always remind yourself that fictional dialogue is meant to be exaggerated, NOT mimic real life with its “um” type hesitations and mundane exchanges. Keep it condensed, purposeful, powerful!

1. Avoid “on-the-nose” dialogue that announces the obvious or precedes the visually obvious, unless it is meant to be humorous or demonstrate the ignorance of the character.

1. Delete too many direct references (speaker names) in sequential dialogue, especially if there are only two people. Each should have a unique voice so the reader KNOWS who is speaking!

1. Avoid said-isms like “he responded,” “she whispered,” “he roared,” “she snapped.” Instead, make certain the speech honestly delivers the said-ism tone you were tempted to use . . . and it is acceptable to sprinkle in physical action to break up “talking heads” and identify the speaker in a scene with multiple characters. Again, use a said-ism ONLY when necessary.

1. Avoid describing dialogue’s nuances with adverbs, those nasty -ly words. Diction should stand alone. Use ONLY those that will indicate how a sentence or phrase is said DIFFERENTLY than it is written, say etched with sarcasm or sputtered in embarrassment. Such directives provide flavor, emphasis, contrast, but use them sparingly

1. Reword heavy-handed (intellectual) dialogue containing too much information. One Speech = One Point. If the character is rambling on or lecturing, break it up. More importantly, ask yourself if the intellectualizing is really necessary AND if you can abbreviate it and have the same effect.

1. Eliminate unnecessary/trivial dialogue, the great time waster, such as “Good morning, Miss Hughes.” “And to you, Mr. Evans. Can I get you some coffee?” “Of course and bring the paper back, too.” <Yawn> Greetings are greetings are greetings. You may think you are setting the tone of relationship but there are MORE VISUAL ways of doing it than wasting precious space with this inane back and forth.

1. Think about occasional use of tension-building multi-layered dialogue that has the nuance of another message being delivered beyond the obvious meaning of the speech. Develop an ear for “something else is going on here.” Have a character say one thing, but by internalized reaction, the listening character realizes there is a meaning beyond these words.

1. Pay attention to brevity of speeches and impact of content. Every single speech given should move the story forward in some way. One way to check this is ask yourself “Would a stranger want to eavesdrop on this conversation?” How interesting is the exchange? What will be the consequence of the exchange? If the exact words are not important, narrate it. “They argued about the divorce throughout the night.”

1. Check for repetitive information, not only in sequential exchanges but throughout the entire work. You can do this by reading JUST the dialogue of each character from the beginning to the end of the work. Yes, one at a time checking for consistency of speech patterns and unique speeches, as well as for repetition of information. Emphasis is fine but saying it three or four times is down-right tiresome and sloppy writing.

1. Let the character’s unique syntax and diction flow. Render replicating a particular dialect ONLY if you are an expert. Instead use authentic idioms or phrases like a native Hispanic or a native Scot would use. If you are going to delve into jargon, you had better be an expert or seek the advice of someone familiar with it. Think professional, regional or era. As a historical reader I feel there is nothing more annoying that someone speaking a 20[sup]th[/sup] century phrase in the 13[sup]th[/sup] century or lay terminology coming out of the mouths of two medical personnel exchanging opinions.

PLEASE devote yourself to making your males sound male and your females sound female. Read Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus by Psychologist John Grey AND You Just Don’t Understand by Linguist Deborah Tannen). A basic concept is that women tend to be more verbose and MOST men (except for salesmen, con artists and attorneys) respond like the Eastwood character in ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ when he was asked “How was your childhood?” “Short.”

1. Finally, READ ALOUD facing a mirror, preferably in an enclosed space like a bathroom. Ask “Is it awkward? Does it logically flow? Are the sentences too long? Is the tone of each speech credible? Is the arguing too long-winded instead of accusatory snapping? Does the child sound like a child of that age?” You get the idea. Bottom line: Is it credible?

FINE-TUNING DIALOGUE
Dialogue’s subtle innuendo takes work. Everyday conversation is filled with this sort of communication. One innuendo example can be anger over a trivial matter as demonstrating eruption of a deeper disturbance. Blustering or bragging can reflect insecurities. Questions can also mirror insecurities rather than simply demonstrate ignorance. Words juxtaposed against facial expression or body language is another technique. But, remember, overuse of blatant innuendo grates on reader intellect in drama while creating expectation in comedy.

“A picture is worth a 1,000 words” is a very true adage in fiction as well as in screenwriting. Let the visuals or actions of your characters deliver information or facts the audience needs in order to suspend their own disbelief and “buy into the fictional illusion.” Leave the characters’ speeches as limited-view windows on their motivations and concerns. Delete lecturing and redundant information-sharing. You may think this sort of thing is necessary to impress a point on the reader. In reality, you need to EXPECT these people to “get it.” Any prolonged “lectures” wear away that thin film of illusion because your reader has to step out of the story to consider the lengthy points being made. Less is more is an appropriate adage in any dialogue of any fictional form.

If each character is speaking in a manner true to background and motivations, two vital experiences result: 1) your reader will understand and accept and 2) will discover and become involved in personalities, slipping easily in to their skin and living their lives vicariously. The fictional illusion evolves into a tangible experience for the reader.

Remember Professor Higgins in MY FAIR LADY? He was an obsessive linguist who believed he could identify every person’s origins through their speech patterns. Think about that as you “hear” your character’s words. Have you given each character a unique speech pattern? Beware your own pet phrases that may repeat in various characters. I enjoy the Tara Janzen books about the “Chop Shop Boys” of Denver who grew up to be mega warriors against the terrorists of the world . . . but it drives me NUTS that each and every one will mentally use the same epithets! NOT credible!

One revision technique I learned from screenwriting guru and UCLA professor emeritus Lew Hunter is to meticulously examine the speeches you’ve written for each character like actors do. Highlight one character’s dialogue throughout the entire work then read aloud JUST those speeches. Does the diction and syntax “play?” In other words, does the character sound credibly consistent? Has any speech said too much, lingered too long to pound a point home when it could have stopped to create tension for what is NOT said? When you follow the next character through the manuscript, does that character sound exactly LIKE the first one? If so, then you need to change something about the second character, perhaps ethnicity, intensity, or motivation. Again, every character needs to sound unique.

One well-known example of the subtle change ethnicity made was in Mike Meyers’ SHREK. He reportedly felt the dialogue of Shrek was flat. It came alive when he changed the dialogue to a Scottish accent. And who can envision Donkey without hearing the motor-mouth and witty inflection of Eddie Murphy?

AVOID THE PITFALLS
Dialogue should NEVER be used when action can portray the same thing. A novelist needs to know when a few comments have turned into an unbroken lecture (that makes the reader feel like taking notes for the test to follow) and like the screenwriter, needs to learn the mantra “This is a movie, not a talkie.” From a novelist’s point-of-view, that means the story needs to MOVE, not get bogged down trying to be realistic or explanatory. Where live theater relies on dialogue 65% of the time to move the play forward, film must focus only 35% on character speech. Personally, I believe in novels and short stories that 35% dialogue (and thought) and 65% action (and narrative) needs to hold true, as well. The current trend is to look for “white space” in fiction and scripts. White space equals a fast-paced story with back-and-forth, fast-paced dialogue, even when the story is character-driven rather than event-driven. Thus, both the action and the character words need to be broken into succinct segments. Succinct also means the “most story movement at the least expense.” Never forget the almighty dollar is a prime consideration in the entertainment industry, whether publishing or film.

Consider that money-saving concept in the modern publishing of compact books with fewer pages aimed at market of the time-starved, over-scheduled readers. You get the SAME need for saying the most in the least amount of space. Succinct dialogue and succinct, vivid narrative delivered in well-structured, intense paragraphs that relate to the reader’s “visual cortex” (in the brain) results in a lot of white space . . . which creates the feel of a fast-paced journey the characters are living . . . and taking the reader along for the ride. A “Page Turner” is one that holds the reader enthralled through all episodes of dialogue and action . . . whereas a story filled with long speeches and long paragraphs full of details SLOWS the story down to dense material that has to be digested before it is appreciated. Here it is again: Less is more.

HOW TO AVOID DUMPING AND EXPLAINING
Because of Lew Hunter’s insightful comments on several of my projects, I’ve discovered two first-draft habits I have: 1) dumping and 2) explaining.

I get so caught up in the character “saying his piece,” that the speeches dump too much on the audience. My character makes several points, addressing too many issues, confusing rather than clarifying the story movement.

One Speech = One Point

Here is an example from the recent rewrite of my spec western, STORM MAKER. Act I introduces the main character, James Bennett, a haunted young attorney making his first appearance back in a Boston courtroom after his vilified service in the Spanish-American War.

* * * * *

James slouches in his chair toying with a telegram, adrift in his own thoughts, opening and closing his right hand. Bertrand leans down.

BERTRAND
Will you put that telegram away,
James. Your sister can wait.
This is your first trial back.
At least act interested!

JAMES
Oh, I’m interested. I may just
gut that goddamn prosecutor if
he doesn’t quit pushing me.

BERTRAND
He’s just trying to influence the
judge. This is a straight forward
civil liability case. Don’t let him
make it anything else. You can
handle it, buddy. Don’t waste the
hours we spent getting ready.

* * * * *

Count how many “points” or different pieces of information were made in each speech. Besides the audience being inundated with information, look at the length of the lines of dialogue. Here’s the revision:

* * * * *
Chewing on a matchstick, James slouches in his chair toying with a telegram, adrift in his own thoughts, opening and closing his right hand. Bertrand leans down, grabs the telegram.

BERTRAND
For our client’s sake, will you
pay attention!

JAMES
(Grabbing back telegram)
I am, Bertrand!

BERTRAND
This is a straight forward
civil liability case. Don’t let
the damn prosecutor make it into
anything else. You can do this.

* * * * *
Give the reader JUST what is needed AT THE MOMENT. Create questions they want answered (but be sure to answer them later). And be true to exactly what that character would say at that moment. Remember: Dialogue should be normal conversation in succinct, dramatic short-hand. Dialogue is not meant to REFLECT life but to DEFINE it as succinctly as possible. Save your philosophy sessions for your nonfiction work. Concentrate on the thrill of your character’s life!

This is simply an overview of Dialogue. I have an entire Eight Session course that goes even more in depth. This session is a good place to start, though.

* * * * *
Exercise for IGNITE Session Six.

I have attached the entire first chapter of my contemporary romantic-suspense novel BIKES & BADGES. Get out the markers and analyze just for these elements:

- Body Language
- Action that moved the story forward & created questions
- Unique actions that characterized
- Speech patterns that depicted education, intellect, attitude
- Internalization that contrasted and revealed motivation

NOTE: This is a "long" worksheet exercise and you don't have to analyze any more than YOU think you need to understand. The idea is to look for JUST those items discussed in the Dialogue Session . . . as well as the fine points of the Action Session. Remember, Action-Dialogue is the final element of E.D.N.A. This exercise is meant to impress the nuances into your awareness. Also, pay attention to Point-of-View, who is observing and cataloguing the experience.

Once you have analyzed the assigned elements, you might want to go back through and look for Exposition's facts, Description's touching of the senses and Narration's summary. Then look at how the elements were woven together to create the ebb-and-flow of the whole for the reader to experience the story with the POV characters.

I am NOT saying MY writing is perfect, since no one's is. What I AM saying is this is how to analyze and THINK of E.D.N.A. purposes as your writing evolves. It is okay to tear mine apart and ask questions where you don't understand.

Hi All,

I want to make sure I can keep up with you all after the class is over. The only social media I've ever been really good about is Twitter. I would love to follow any of you on there, just respond with your Twitter addy, and I'll follow you.

If you want to keep in touch with me, mine is @HP4Writers.

Susan

Hi All,

Today's lesson is on working in real-world relevance into your story. In rereading this before posting, I feel like I've changed a bit on my perspective since writing it. I seem to be almost hesitant in how you can work in social commentary. I think I myself am a bit stronger now in the desire to work in commentary of any sort, but the basic message is still the same -- it needs to be in a way to works WITH your story and voice and is not preachy.

That preachiness is a problem I had with my first YA novel, the one that just came out. I think that's why it took so long to sell it, and even though I revised and revised to get that preachiness out, I know it's still there. I had much better luck with my second YA novel because I deliberately kept that aspect in mind. Also, the second was a fantasy, and it just seemed easier to me to keep the messages in subtext in that format.

For you assignment, IF you're working with some real-world commentary in your novel, please:

1) consider your voice that we discussed in lesson 2 -- how does your message/commentary/thoughts that you're working into this story relate to your author's voice?
2) how are you weaving it into your story while considering the engagement of your reader?

Also, from here on out, our lessons are fairly short. We're through the longest, most intense lessons. But until the end of the course, we can go back and revisit any and all of the lessons as people catch us! ;-)

Thanks!
Susan

Hi All,

I am so, so sorry to be this late posting this lesson today. To be honest, I thought I'd done it this morning. I had it ready and was about to post when something distracted me (got a really great review on SFW , and for some reason, just never realized I hadn't finished posting until I came here to follow up on assignments and saw that I'd not finished. So sorry!!! It's a shame when the mind goes.

So here it is now, a whole section dedicated to the Potions Master. So many people went crazy for Snape, that I think it's fun to discuss what made this character click. Personally, I think it has a lot to do with Captain Jack Sparrow as well, though not exactly the same.

For your assignment, take some time to think about your characters. Have you worked with one that you feel is of an ambiguous nature? Or perhaps an anti-hero? If so, share what makes him/her so and how you see that character arc projecting through your story.

Susan

Testing

“Ignite Your Fiction”
Session Four: Narration Fundamentals & Techniques
by Sally J. Walker

Narration is meant to summarize or hurry the trivial and bridge to the next significant event. The summarizing words and phrasing condense time and event, providing a logical connection in the reader’s mind from one part of the story to the next.

NARRATION’S FUNDAMENTALS
1. Full scenes need to be experienced thus are created with descriptive detail and Action-Dialogue. However, sequel’s bridges link or transition from one character experience to the next without boring exposition or micro-choreography that would bog down the story.
2. The transitions are achieved with a minimum of words which in turn picks up the pace.
3. Narration keeps a story’s forward momentum with awareness that every moment of time cannot be described.
4. Even in full scenes, if description, action or dialogue seems to drag, NARRATE it as succinctly as possible. (“The two terrified children huddled on the other side of the door as their parents argued the entire night over each step of the divorce.”)
5. Unbelievable action could be credible narration, especially if the writer is not expert in a particular physical arena, say hand-to-hand combat or horseback riding. Detailed action could come off as uncharacteristic, illogical or (horror!) display the author’s ignorance. The more inaccurate details you render, the greater the risk of losing your reader’s sense of illusion.
6. Heighten the tension by alluding to a greater consequence without explaining in detail what that could be.
7. Remember the purpose of narration is to condense the insignificant or boring:

TECHNIQUES OF NARRATION
Keep in mind story happenings you do not want to give in deep detail. I can give you the techniques the most efficiently with examples:

1. Passage of time phrases (Six months after the fight . . .)
2. Intensifying time (Night after night the memories surfaced.)
3. Event phrases (Boot camp lasted an eternity of six weeks.)
4. Character action (She tried on every dress on the rack.)
5. Characterization (Lee drove himself to learn Spanish that month.)
6. Succinct flashback (That kiss haunted him at awkward moments.)
7. Logical consequences (A year later Billie couldn’t wear the shoes she had worked so hard to buy.)
8. Characterizing groups (The restless crowd grew as the wait went past thirty minutes.)

Here is an example of one of the best narration passages I have ever read from Chapter Seven of Barbara Bretton’s novel One and Only :

“Back in New York, he threw himself into his work with renewed enthusiasm. The Kyoto millionaire faxed him the specs for a planned community that combined the best of both cultures, and Daniel was off and running. He barely noticed when winter melted into spring. Meetings. Midnight brainstorming sessions. Endless talks with government officials over the advisability of the deal.

Spring slid into summer, one of those hot, muggy New York summers that made the concept of hell a little easier to understand. Daniel returned from a preliminary trip to Japan where he met with Toshiro Umeki and Umeki’s partners in the speculative venture. He’d taken a crash course on Japanese sensibilities and had managed to get through seven days of excruciatingly polite business meetings without embarrassing himself. One of the businessmen had suggested taking a mountain hike, and Daniel had blanched at the thought. There wasn’t much in life that scared him at ground level. Raise the altitude, and it was a different story entirely.”

Bretton condensed months of activity and learning and thinking into two paragraphs, all significant to the story to come. You find credible detail that characterizes the man and yet depicts his “normal” life. Yes, it is TELLING, but the point is to narrate or condense the time and experiences to get the reader to the next significant point in his life when he is brought face-to-face with the woman he had confronted in Chapter Six of the book.

A writer DOES NOT have to “report” every moment of time, every action to move a reader from one era or event to the next significant scene. The purpose of narration is to transition over and through the mundane as succinctly as possible.

And do not confuse “transition” with narration. They are not all one and the same. Some "transition" phrases will narrate or condense an interval of time or series of events, but their purpose is to slightly different. They are meant to get the reader to switch gears. A "drop down" of additional space or insertion of asterisks is also a form of transition, a blatant literary contrivance notifying the reader to shift scene or Point-of-View. A transition is not always the same as narration's summary. YOU just need to be cognizant of how to logically best get your reader over the hump of boring yadda-yadda-yadda to the next important point.

Here is another important point about interrupting the flow of one scene to get to events unfolding in another plot. A vital tool for keying into a reader's logic is maintaining an awareness of each scene-and-sequel's elements. If a writer is maintaining a chronological flow where events are unfolding simultaneously, the trick is to cut away then back at points the reader can logically deduce what transpired while reading/living the other subplot's events. It is easiest to understand this process if one tracks or analyzes an episodic TV series and how they juggle three different plot lines back and forth throughout the hour-long episode. Most shows DO NOT deliver every minute of action, but cut away then back at a later point with the audience left to connect the logical dots of what transpired while "living" the other events.

If one studies episodic TV and practices writing the prose of the story, the technique of narration becomes a natural habit and not a struggle. Again, micro-analysis to discover what works and what doesn't, to define what is the difference between mere transition and narration.

* * * * *
Exercise for IGNITE Session Four.
Brainstorm a list of at least 30 transition words that NARRATE and hurry a sentence or a scene.

If you are stymied, student Laura Ann Dunks provided this list that blew me away:

1. After (e.g. after an eternity, after a lot of consideration)
2. Later (e.g. six months later, moments later)
3. Arrived (e.g. June had arrived, hot and humid. Spring arrived with the ducklings...)
4. Passed (e.g. seasons passed, as winter passed, months passed, years passed...)
5. Became (e.g. months became years. Spring became summer.)
6. Faded (Spring faded into summer.)
7. Merged (The hours merged together. The seasons merged into one.)
8. Blurred (The days blurred into one.)
9. That (e.g. that afternoon, that spring, that year...)
10. Afterwards (e.g. for years afterwards...)
11. Came (when spring came, when New Year Eve came)
12. The next/the following (The next day, the next morning. When he opened his eyes...)
13. Went (by) (As the years went by, spring came and went, when the dinner was served...)
14. Spent (He spent the year leading up to.... He spent the morning before...)
15. For (For the last few hours, for the remaining weeks of June)
16. During (During the summer months, during the day...)
17. The rest/remainder (The rest of the year, the remainder of the day was spent...)
18. Advanced (As summer advanced, as the hours advanced...)
19. Wore on (As the day wore on, as the years wore on)
20. Since (since daylight came, since he left...)
21. All (He slept poorly all night, he kept a lookout all summer.)
22. By (the time) (By summer, By the time spring came...)
23. While (While they ate, while the people slept...)
24. Now (It was now summer, it is now dark.)
25. Soon (it would be dark soon, i would soon be spring.)
26. Then (Then it was spring, then summer came...)
27. As (As spring became summer, as she waited for the bread to rise...)
28. On (On the first day of spring, on the journey home...)
29. Until (He did not return to Paris until spring, it was not light until lunch time)
30. Over (over the summer, over the course of the day, over coffee)
31. In (Sometime in May...In the light of day...In 2010)
32. One (One hot summer day, one morning in June.)
33. By (By the time spring came, by the time the bread had cooked...)
34. Last (the last week of the year, the last se
35. Final (the final seconds of daylight)
36. Shortly (Night came shortly)
37. Continued (Night continued....Spring continued)
38. Again (It was dark again, I was summer again.
39. Finally/eventually (Finally he arrived, finally spring came...., eventually the day dragged into night.)
40. As a result/after all/in conclusion/accordingly/consequently/hence/therefore (As a result, the first buds of spring appeared...As a result, he left...In conclusion it was a busy day....Accordingly the meeting went ahead)
41. Was/were (It was a busy day, it was a long week...The final hours were long...)
42. Went ahead (the play went ahead...the years went ahead...)
43. Still (still the summer was hot, still he looked at me with those sad eyes...)
44. Dragged (the day dragged, summer dragged on)

NOTE: The only one I took exception to was #41 with this comment “Wow, I AM impressed, Laura. Except for the "was/were," IMHO. The "to be" forms tell a state of being but do not MOVE a state of being anywhere. Does that make sense to you? They state but do not SHOW. Don't confuse NARRATE/summarize with passive writing. Look again at the example from Bretton's book as well as most of your other narration examples. They vividly infer movement forward in the summation of that activity. I also want the writer to notice that these are all directly related to narrating/summarizing and NOT to exact English grammar usage for sentence variety sake ( I had THAT discussion with a college English professor).

Rules for life also good for writers

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short not to enjoy it.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.
5. Don’t buy stuff you don’t need.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for things that matter.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye… But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words, ‘In five years, will this matter?’
27. Always choose Life.
28. Forgive but don’t forget.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give Time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d
grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you think you need.
42. The best is yet to come…
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.
(Source: reginabrett.com)

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2Pxc3...written-by-a-90-year-old?sthash.1J93Madi.tupo