After Cameron Crowe failed to convince director Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Sunset Blvd., too many other classics to mention) to play a small role in Jerry Maguire, the two struck up a friendship. That turned into a series of conversations. That turned into a book.

That book contained Wilder’s rules for writing. They mostly involve getting attention, not letting up, and then grabbing people’s attention again. He specifies it’s for screenwriting specifically, but many if not all apply to most any kind of fiction:

• 1: The audience is fickle.
• 2: Grab ’em by the throat and never let ’em go.
• 3: Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
• 4: Know where you’re going.
• 5: The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
• 6: If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
• 7: A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
• 8: In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’re seeing.
• 9: The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
• 10: The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then — that’s it. Don’t hang around.