In the book Pulp Fiction by Robert Turner, the author admits that during the white heat of fiction writing, he didn’t think about fiction rules. That’s what worked for him, and that’s what he recommended to others.
It’s understandable. There are worlds and worlds of writing rules, and many are not helpful during the act of writing. Dean Wesley Smith, in the book ‘Writing into the Dark,’ tells the story of how he gave a talk to a college class that had already read and analyzed a story of his. The students asked him how he knew to put in the second hidden meaning for the story, or how he knew to foreshadow that event. Which puzzled Smith, because he did not put those things into the story consciously.
Writing is something we do in creative mode, with our personalities in Child rather than in Parent or Adult. Following an infinite set of rigid rules kicks us right out of creative mode and into critical mode, and has us using the logical part of our mind that isn’t connected to our creativity.
There are writing rules and writing rules. There are the basic things we have learned about spelling and grammar in grade school. For most of us it’s probably more natural to spell and use correct grammar even in a rough first draft, because that’s how we write and there are less things to clear up later on.
Rules we learned in English literature class (or German literature class, or whatever other classes you took in school,) in my mind are often secret-decoding classes. Teacher tells us what the story really means, what the theme of the story is, what things in the story have symbolic meaning. Things that have nothing to do with figuring out how to make a story of your own. The writer may not have put these things in the story consciously. Other teachers may deny these things are in the story at all.
Literature-class derived rules may get in the way of writing a good story. If you decide on a ‘theme’ first, your story might be heavy-handedly preaching that theme instead of telling a compelling story.
Other rules that we might ignore are the kind of rules shared in writing groups by beginning amateur writers. I remember a group that promoted a rule that you should avoid the use of the word ‘and’ whenever possible— but that group saw no problem with stringing four adjectives in a row. Others worry insanely about ‘head-hopping,’ which if done in a non-confusing way can actually be a part of a professional story.
The big problem with amateur writing rules is that they are the blind leading the blind. They increase beginning writers’ insecurity— which may be one thing they are intended to do. In amateur writing groups, many insecure writers like to make other writers insecure, too.
What about more professional and practical writing rules suggested by a professional writer like Lawrence Block, James Scott Bell, Dean Wesley Smith, Jerry B. Jenkins and other writers who have written how-to-write books?
Here is the thing: different writers work in different ways. Also, some writers have more of a gift in teaching their writing process to others. So if you read ten how-to-write books, all by authors whose books are recommended as being helpful, your head becomes so filled with writing rules you may feel paralyzed. Who is your protagonist? What should your mirror moment be like? Have you included the right story beats? Have you outlined fully— or written without any outline at all?
Enough! Calm down, just start writing. Reading about writing rules, and reading lots of fiction so you can internalize what a novel is, may help you, but you have to find out which writing rules help you, and at what stage of the process you should think about them.
Experiment a little. Next time you sit down to write, ignore a writing rule that you normally keep in your head— or think about a writing rule you normally ignore. What works for you, right now? In time, you may find that you have internalized the important rules so that you are applying them without thinking about them. And, perhaps, breaking them when it feels right to do so.
My Antimatter Life 