Many writers have left us rules for writing well. Here are four of Edgar Allan Poe’s rules for writing his plot-driven narratives:
- Plan every plot backward, with the ending in sight, before any sentences are written. (“Every plot. . .must be elaborated to its dénouement before anything be attempted with the pen.”)
- Once you know the ending you want, backtrack and develop the incidents and tone that lead to that ending. (“Only with the dénouement constantly in view. . .we can give a plot its indispensable air of consequence, or causation, by making the incidents, and especially the tone at all points, tend to the development of the intention.”)
- Consider the effect you wish to show. (“Of the innumerable effects, or impressions, of which the heart. . .is susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion, select?”)
- Decide whether that effect can be achieved through ordinary incidents or through a particular tone. (“I consider whether it can be best wrought by incident or tone. . . . afterward looking [within] me. . .for such combinations of event, or tone, as shall best aid me in the construction of the effect.
English Writing Teacher 