The number one rule: have a need to write. Imagine you have made a major scientific discovery and want to tell the world about it - you have a need to write.

The number one rule: have a need to write. Imagine you have made a major scientific discovery and want to tell the world about it - you have a need to write. Imagine you have a highly dysfunctional family. You derive great benefit from writing about them, this is your therapy. Again, you have a need to write. Some people do not get into writing because they have something to write about. They do it because they fancy the lifestyle or would like their name in print or imagine they can get rich. I have met a few of these attention seekers and realised that they have a different idea of what writing is about to me. Your writings about your highly dysfunctional family may be entirely fictional. Perhaps you have made a composite character out of two unrelated friends. Perhaps some story details are changed, details omitted, but the narrative is essentially true. This is different to dreaming up a highly dysfuntional family, perhaps they live in a yurt in Outer Mongolia and have arguments over dates, dates being of the edible variety. Here details are being added for the sake of it, not being added but changed slightly so as to disguise the fact that it is George that is being talked about. I know the desk officer at the local police station would know what was fiction and what was credible with details changed to protect identities. So if what you are telling is essentially the truth albeit varnished by analogy and turned into fiction then most of the rules should come naturally given time to find one's writing voice. For instance, on adding in useless detail, if you are telling a story and the appearance of someone is noteworthy and important to the bigger story then you will go into the details of their attire. This will be required, important content, not flowery detail. You will have included it in there for a reason, not because you are trying to make some imaginary Outer Mongolians imaginably real.