Authoring Stories and Adventures

The following was recently posted to the WFRP list -- you're a member, aren't you?

The 10 Commandments for a Story

1. Start with action; explain it later.
2. Make it tough for your protagonist.
3. Plant it early, pay it off later.
4. Give the protagonist the initiative.
5. Give the protagonist a personal stake.
6. Give the protagonist a short time limit.
7. Choose your character according to your own capacities as well as his.
8. Know your destination before you set out.
9. Don't rush in where angels fear to tread.
10. Don't write anything you wouldn't want to read.

The 10 Commandments of Thrillers

(as told to John Grisham)

1. Thou shalt not take the crisis out of the protagonist's hands.
2. Thou shalt not make life easy for the protagonists.
3. Thou shalt not give exposition for exposition's sake - dramatise it.
4. Thou shalt not use false mystery or cheap surprise.
5. Thou shalt respect the 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 depths of 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.

Paddie Chayevsky's Five Questions

1. Who is the protagonist?
2. What does he want? (His objective/goal)
3. What or who is keeping him from getting it?
4. What do WE as the readers want for him? (engage the audience)
5. How does he get it? (the plot)