Those pesky rules
Many of you will know that one of the things I will be up to at the
festival in York is running a Breaking the Rules workshop. I
know this is something a lot of people agonise over. When is
a rule not a rule, should there be such a thing as a rule at all,
what are the consequences of breaking them, how come so many
published books seem to get away with ignoring them completely ...
etc etc.
Anyway, I've just started prepping for the workshop and wondered what people would find most useful. POV switches is the obvious one. Then there's sticking to a linear chronological structure, not mixing tenses or 1st/3rd person ...
I'd be really interested to hear from people here, whether you'll be at York or not. Which 'rule' would you most like to break?
Last year, we were able to post our course notes on the site after the Festival. If that happens again, even if you can't be there in person, you should hopefully be able to see the final list of them there pesky rules, together with my suggestions re how to break them.
Thanks!
Anyway, I've just started prepping for the workshop and wondered what people would find most useful. POV switches is the obvious one. Then there's sticking to a linear chronological structure, not mixing tenses or 1st/3rd person ...
I'd be really interested to hear from people here, whether you'll be at York or not. Which 'rule' would you most like to break?
Last year, we were able to post our course notes on the site after the Festival. If that happens again, even if you can't be there in person, you should hopefully be able to see the final list of them there pesky rules, together with my suggestions re how to break them.
Thanks!
44 Comments
Mistress Elysia - I understand your frustration. The thing is there's such a thing as internalising these rules (guidelines is probably a better word) to the extent that they can stifle your creativity. And of course this is a Bad Thing. That's the reason I came up with the idea for this particular workshop. It's vital to understand them though and to know what the consequences of breaking them are. The bottom line is that you have to have a good reason for doing it. Without seeing the specific axamples you mention, I can't know if those writers pulled it off or not.
Gerilyn - yes, POV switches are not an issue if you're writing in the first person because everything is seen through one pair of eyes. Without reading your MS, I can't know if what you're sugggesting works or not in the context of the whole book. Are those 2 chapters also written in the first person but in the vloice of a different character?
I've just read a Michael Crichton 1st person fantasy novel, "Prey". He had a period of unconsciousness and he preceeded telling us what happened during that time by syaing that he was later able to view it all on the CCTV recordings. Fine. Except that when he revived, he only just managed to escape the complex before it all blew up! Plot hole, or what?
Without them- the narrator falls unconsious then wakes up a week later in hospital. All the drama that unfolded during that week is then only hinted at. The book then continues as it began- narrated by principal protagonist.
ps. as huge LOST fan - can flashback, flash-forwards and flash-sideways work in fiction like they can on screen?
BTW - I stole your image and used it on my blog. Forgive me? Please?
Gerilyn - it sounds great! From what you've said, that structure sounds like the best way of wringing the last drop of suspense from the situation you've placed your main protagonist in. Obviously, I can't be sure if it works, but it looks like your instincts about what works best for the story you're telling might well be spot on.
I've just downloaded the no-no list off the internet and ran a script to highlight them for deletion from my manuscript.
I've managed to cut my novel down from 96 thousand to just 12... words.
But the one I'd like to really get to grips with is starting a sentence with the word "but" (or "and")
Also, and here's one that I think will be almost impossible to explain, how do I break the rule that says my chosen genre, science fiction, isn't well considered in literary terms?
(That second sentence structure was in honour of EzBloke.)
The brief one: starting sentences with 'but' and 'and'. I have a how-to-be-a-writer book my daughter gave me that contains a heartening list of rules-that-aren't-rules-so-you-can-break-them, and this is one of them. I was glad to see it, because I do it all the time. Not just for the sake of it, but because sometimes that really is the best and most vivid way of saying it.
Now, SF&F. The best illustration I know of the snotty attitude some people take to this was the back blurb of a straight novel written many years ago by one Frank Herbert, which concluded the brief author's bio with 'This is his first novel.' To remind you, this was the man who'd written 'Dune,' one of the most famous SF novels of all time and winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, not to mention several sequels. OK, so 'Dune' sucks as literature, with wooden characters and not terribly brilliant writing, but 'first novel'? WHAT?
And (told you I did this!) I challenge anybody to read Ursula Leguin with an unbiased mind and tell me she isn't a good, nay, great writer. She addresses serious issues, she's insightful and perceptive, and her prose sometimes verges on poetry without ever becoming pretentious. She has been known to move me to the point of tears, and she is the only writer who has ever, in my adult life, actually made my flesh creep. does she deserve to be written off just because she happens to write SF?
If we stuck to the rules there would be no: Punk, Waltzes, cheese, big floppy hats, the name Leonard, clams that can sing, cars, electric thingy's, the ability to teleport, my mums pie, giant flesh eating cockroaches. (the cockroaches are giant not eating giant flesh)
Some of these aren't true...sod the rules, made by killjoys.
My narrators take longish turns (half or whole chapters, mainly), both first person, and one speaks in the present tense, almost 'stream of consciousness' but actually more organized, and the other past tense, because her whole persona is more distanced.
Like Mistress E, I'm fond of dreams, and just to be awkward, I put doodles at each change of narrator. Oh, and I include a few spoken stories told by characters. And my disabled characters aren't grim, desperate, or autistic, or have Down syndrome, and they aren't children.
Er... and I love walking on the grass when it says you can't.
Looking forward to York!
My natural inclination is to tell. I'm trying to break the habit and mix it up, but I've got a complex about it now.
Oh and short, snappy, 3 word titles!!
I'm interested in lots of the other suggestions made by others too.
I already had info dumps on the list and back story comes under the heading of: 'Thou shalt stick with a linear chronological narrative'.
This could turn out to be tricky to fit into an hour! Though some things (eg minor characters getting too big for their boots) can simply be summarised under the banner of 'everything has to have a purpose within the narrative and a function in moving it forwards'.
I wish I could solve the problem about genre but alas, that one's beyond me.
I haven't had a professional critique since I started doing this, but I thought it the best way after the closest I got to publishing was an Editor's letter telling me they loved the story but thought it too linear. I needed to go in on a high-point; my set pieces were exciting and well written, so edit and do resubmit.
Due to a long interruption I'm still editing! Should I ever finish and resubmit, will I be told to stop breaking the rules and resubmit? Probably.
Oh, here's one: What about starting sentences with 'ing' words? Being a stickler for the rules, he would never start a sentence with a participle.
Tony - you're not coming? I'm bereft ... If I can't post the notes afterwards (though I'm pretty sure I will be able to) you've earned yourself an email attachment.
Rampant/flagrant exclamation marks, particularly in chapter 1: inexcusable laughing at your own jokes – as F. Scott Fitzgerald suggested – or a potentially dynamic opening (Fear and Loathing, anyone)?
An X-rated chapter 1 – how to make it sail into an agent’s request-a-full stack instead of the shredder?
Captain Morgan
I believe that rigid adherence to rules can destroy the freshness of the creative spark; cramping an author's style; slowing the process. I don't want to write Literature; I want to be different.
They're thought of as rules for a reason. The best writing might break them, but not necessarily. In fact, quite often the most powerful writing is the simplest. When an author breaks the rules in a way that's truly successful, you probably won't even notice they've done it because you will be so engrossed in the story they are telling. That's what we all need to aim for.
It is extremely difficult to get an agent for SF&F, never mind get it published and I can't see why - SF&F is evocative, it's in your face, it's bigger and weirder and has more visual impact than anything contemporary. With modern CGI, SF&F is simply stunning. So why the under representation? 3-1 the next movie into the top 30 will be SF or F and the agent gets a piece of that don't they?
As for rule breakers - if we adhere to all the rules, there will be no more ground breaking works. I think of them more as guides, paths pre-cut through the publishing jungle. Following them gives you the easiest and safest ways to get where you want to go but any route is viable, although you may have to cut your own path.
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