On the seeming heels of the Guardian‘s Rules for writers series El País has its own collection of rules, although they have titled it better, calling it “The defeat of the blank page” (La derrota de la página en blanco · ELPAÍS.com).  With contributions from writers like Enrique Vila-Matas and Elena Poniatowska, the main advice seems to be read. I would agree with that and find that’s all you need after a certain point. Those pedantic rules, especially those of Elmore Leonard, are just tedium of the unimaginative trot out when faced with the strange. In too many writing groups I have heard those kind of rules repeated and looked at their writing and thought, yep, you got the rule right, too bad it isn’t interesting.