While reading my way through his work, I stumbled upon one curious text: a listicle featuring writing advice from the master himself. I thought it would be fun to translate and share it with you, not for the sake of helping to learn something or adding value but just to present what Anton Pavlovich considered as rules for authors. It’s humorous, satirical, harsh, direct and completely orthogonal to writing advice in our era.
Rules for Aspiring Authors was printed in 1885, the issue №12 of The Wake-up Caller1. I am using “The Wake-up Caller” instead of “The Alarm Clock” because it’s closer etymologically to the original title “Budilnik” (“Будильник”). magazine, on page 145. The issue was dedicated to the magazine’s twentieth anniversary and the Rules were presented as a gift for the readers: “It is also said, there is no group that does not split up. The jubilee is over. In conclusion – a little gift…”
