[I have arranged the authors' advice below in order of generality and personal preference. I have found Vonnegut's advice endlessly useful in my own writing. Take what advice speaks to you. Leave what doesn't. You are the final arbiter of your own style.]

[Text copied from the Gotham Writer's Workshop]

Kurt Vonnegut created some of the most outrageously memorable novels of our time, such as Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast Of Champions, and Slaughterhouse Five. His work is a mesh of contradictions: both science fiction and literary, dark and funny, classic and counter-culture, warm-blooded and very cool. And it’s all completely unique.

With his customary wisdom and wit, Vonnegut put forth 8 basics of what he calls Creative Writing 101: *

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.

* From the preface to Vonnegut’s short story collection Bagombo Snuff Box

[Text copied from the Gotham Writer's Workshop]

George Orwell has earned the right to be called one of the finer writers in the English language through such novels as 1984, Animal Farm, and Down and Out in Paris and London, and such essays as “Shooting an Elephant.”

Orwell expressed a strong dislike of totalitarian governments in his work, but he was also passionate defender of good writing. Thus, you may want to hear some of Orwell’s writing tips.*

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And he will probably ask himself two more:

1. Could I put it more shortly?
2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

* From Orwell's essay“Politics and the English Language”

[Text copied from the Gotham Writer's Workshop]

Tracy Kidder is a renowned nonfiction writer, known as literary journalist for the way he combines story and voice with exhaustive research. He is the author of Among Schoolchildren and The Soul of a New Machine, which won a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Richard Todd served as executive editor of the esteemed magazine The Atlantic and as the editor of his own book imprint at Houghton Mifflin. Kidder and Todd collaborated on the book Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction.

1. To write is to talk to strangers. You have to inspire confidence, to seem and to be trustworthy.

2. It is always prudent to remember that one is not Tolstoy or Dickens.

3. Don't concentrate on technique, which can be the same as concentrating on yourself. Give yourself to your story.

4. The reader wants to see you not trying to impress, but trying to get somewhere.

5. For a story to have a chance to live, it is essential only that there be something at stake. A car chase is not required.

6. Try to attune yourself to the sound of your own writing. If you can't imagine yourself saying something aloud, then you probably shouldn't write it.

7. The creation of a style often begins with a negative achievement. Only by rejecting what comes too easily can you clear a space for yourself.

8. Use words wantonly and you disappear before your own eyes. Use them well and you create yourself.

9. The best work is done when one's eye is simply on the work, not on its consequence, or on oneself. It is something done for its own sake. It is, in Lewis Hyde's term, a gift.

10. Be willing to surprise yourself.

From the Biographile website

[Text copied from the Gotham Writer's Workshop]

Elmore Leonard started out writing westerns, then turned his talents to crime fiction. One of the most popular and prolific writers of our time, he’s written about two dozen novels, most of them bestsellers, such as Glitz, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, and Rum Punch. Unlike most genre writers, however, Leonard is taken seriously by the literary crowd.

What’s Leonard’s secret to being both popular and respectable? Perhaps you’ll find some clues in his 10 tricks for good writing: *

1. Never open a book with 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”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
11. My most important rule is one that sums up the 10:

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

* Excerpted from the New York Times article, “Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle”

950768

May I add another to that list?

Terry Pratchett: Advice for Aspiring Writers

[Text copied from Writerswrite.com Journal, April interview]

So to writers I say, you're going to have to read a lot -- s**tloads in fact. So many books that you're going to overflow. You've got to hook into the popular culture of the 20th century. You've got to keep your mind open to all sorts of influences. You've got to sit down for hours at a time in front of the computer. And you must make grammar, punctuation and spelling a part of your life.

In summary:

1. Read so many books that you're going to overflow.

2. Hook into the popular culture (of the 20th century, though presumably now you have to include the 21st century).

3. Keep your mind open to all sorts of influences.

4. Sit down for hours at a time in front of the computer (to work, obviously).

5. Make grammar, punctuation and spelling a part of your life.

That's a good resource; I use Vonnegut rule #6 a lot.

950768
When the first author are George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut, I know dis goin be good

I love how they seem to contradict themselves, sometimes right after they say something.
Rules are all right, but you have to know when to use them, and when to ignore or shoot them in the face.
Oh, yes, and when they apply, if they do.

951308, I think the issue is that writing is not ironclad. You cannot rely on a single author's advice. Nor can you adhere to these rules. As previously mentioned, you need to know when to use them and when to discard them.

What I prefer is reading and assimilating writing styles from multiple authors.

Oh, I got that. Rules were made to be broken, after all.

951308 I'm curious, where are you seeing contradictions?

But yes, a healthy dose of judgement and taste is an essential component of deciding which style guidelines suit you and which don't.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
...
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

It would appear that all words are equal, but some words are more equal than others.

951834

It would appear that all words are equal, but some words are more equal than others.

I see what you did there.

951308 No doubt, but I liken it to Chess. In order to really play well, you have to know those rules first. Like the adage "A knight on the rim is dim", and so on. But eventually, when you have those down well enough, than you learn when to break the rules and when to gamble.

Like with Vonnegut's rules. I take exception to this one:

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

What he says is true to an extent, but if you oversaturate with details of any situation, I've found the reader tends to be turned off by it. There has to be a balance there between setting the stage and letting the reader's imagination take over. I like to term is "conservation of real estate." Honestly, it's more a matter of personal style than anything else. Write what you happy with and don't be afraid to play with it.

951767 It might not be contradictions, but it looks that way to me.
Elmore, for example's. #3 and #4 essentially cancel each other out, and as a Western writer, he'd use a fair amount of patois and dialect (Ya reckon?), or "All hell broke loose"; they're something of a staple of the genre.
Orwell's #6 essentially says, "when in doubt, throw the rules out."
And "Father Kurt's" final statement essentially seals it.
And they say all that almost tongue-in-cheek. "They're not so much rules as ... guidelines."

951886 I find a little description goes a long way, but also you can add more later. I do that when my OC is meeting someone they don't know, and looking from their perspective. That's when the warts appear, as it were. Everyone's got them, they're just not always visible.

951978 True. A good physical description is enough to paint a picture. The details come on closer examination.

3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.

lolwut.

Well, all good advice anyhow.

2. It is always prudent to remember that one is not Tolstoy or Dickens.

I have problems remembering that sometimes. I always want more description. I just have to remember people have other modes of entertainment are much more concise.

951949 Elmore Leonard's #3 and #4 aren't contradictory. #3 is "just use 'said' as your speaking verb" and #4 is "no seriously, JUST USE 'SAID' as your speaking verb."

And yeah, you're right. Any advice from great authors always, always comes with the caveat that rules are there to be broken in the service of style or story.

952111 http://lmgtfy.com/?q=joke

953942 Ha. Ha.

That whole Passive vs Active voice, thing is always wierd, authors act like Passive voice shouldn't exist, but it does serve a purpose and there are times that it can come in handy or work better than Active voice, as in when you wan't the structure of the words to hide and conceal, maybe hide exactly who is performing the action.

951502
That's a good way to start, and also translates to art styles, just remember that eventutally, it will be your own unique style of writing

950768

6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."

I'm fairly sure Jim Butcher used that second one a couple of times in the Dresden Files.

Of course, when he uses it, it's probably literally