Not As I Do
Strangely enough, these are going to conflict after a while. My high school creative writing teacher handed me a list once that contained a whole slew of adverbs to use while writing dialogue.
You know, "Oh my god!" He ejaculated eloquently.
The only time anyone ejaculates nowadays is after someone's been messing with their dick. Unless they're a girl, in which case the only time they ejaculate is in porn.
Of course, you should not write like this, or else you will end up like 40's pulp fiction. If you want to do that, fine. In fact, intentionally doing it can be cool. Maybe. Not when I do it.
Here's a good example of a should not list: http://www.findcliches.com/sciencefiction.htm
There's an even better one, but surprisingly (or not) google doesn't really serve up the one I picked up while writing "Convergence" a few years back.
Here's more:
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/turkeycity.html Oh wait, here's the one that I said I couldn't find. Oh joy.
So what's the point of these links? Here's what brought it up: http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/forums/viewthread/20
Good ol' Elmore Leonard. Pointing out all the things we shouldn't do. There's one problem with pointing out the things we shouldn't do - reading it is going to produce fiction hypochondria. Suddenly, every one (oh there it is! suddenly!) of our stories is going to consist of every cliche there is!
I wrote a neat story, which I'll be posting here shortly, that basically violated this principle in many ways. I still have urges to feature a White Room in my work, and I have vowed that I will manage to work it in without being a cliche...
Click me for more words!

