A while back, I posted some rules for writers, written by people wiser than myself. I have just run across a few more, the rules of Eric Blair, better known by his pseudonym of George Orwell:

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive voice where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

At some point in the future I’ll post Elmore Leonard’s rules, along with any others I can dig up.