Writing Tip of the Week: Should Your Story Have Rules? – Part One, Technical Rules
Rules. While it’s odd to think about, stories do come with their own sets of fixed rules and regulations that help the author know what can and can’t happen in a story. These can be simple or complex, but establishing a set of rules for your story and its characters can help you as you craft your narrative.
The best time to establish rules for your story is before you begin the outline/drafting process. This will help you have these guardrails in place as you venture out into the creative world of your story.
Over the next three posts, we’ll discuss the areas where you should establish rules beforehand. Let’s begin with…
Technical Rules
These are aspects that affect not just how you write your story, but how the reader experiences it. These include:
Point-of-View:
Will the story be told through first-person, second-person, third-person omniscient, or third-person limited narration? Will you use more than one point of view during the story?
Think about your story and what you want to establish about what the characters know and are aware of, and what you want the reader to know about your characters. Do you prefer the reader to hear directly from the character, or do you prefer an ever-present narrator to give insight into your characters’ lives and choices?
Tense:
I would venture to guess that most books are written in the past tense, where the story is being told to us after the fact. However, I have recently read a few books where the story is told in the present tense, placing the reader in the moment and experiencing things as the characters do, as the story unfolds.
Screenplays, plays, and TV scripts are written in the present tense. If you’re interested in experimenting with this story tense, I recommend reading some scripts or seeking out novels like Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuistion in this style to see if it would work for your story.
Basic Structure:
How will the story be told? In chapters? In sections (Part One, Part Two, etc.)? In a long-running narrative with no breaks? In chapters with segments?
Depending on the story being told, the majority of books utilize standard chaptering, but you can decide how you want to label the chapters (Chapter One or Chapter 1). Stephen King often has the main chapter, then sub-sections in those chapters designated by Roman Numerals.
The nice thing about novels versus screenplays is that there is no hard and fast rule about how long the book has to be. Screenplays are typically 110 pages, whereas a novel can be as long as needed to convey the story.
Next Time…
In the next post, we’ll explore some Narrative Rules to consider while brainstorming and plotting your story. Happy writing, and I’ll see you next time!
The best time to establish rules for your story is before you begin the outline/drafting process. This will help you have these guardrails in place as you venture out into the creative world of your story.
Over the next three posts, we’ll discuss the areas where you should establish rules beforehand. Let’s begin with…
Technical Rules
These are aspects that affect not just how you write your story, but how the reader experiences it. These include:
Point-of-View:
Will the story be told through first-person, second-person, third-person omniscient, or third-person limited narration? Will you use more than one point of view during the story?
Think about your story and what you want to establish about what the characters know and are aware of, and what you want the reader to know about your characters. Do you prefer the reader to hear directly from the character, or do you prefer an ever-present narrator to give insight into your characters’ lives and choices?
Tense:
I would venture to guess that most books are written in the past tense, where the story is being told to us after the fact. However, I have recently read a few books where the story is told in the present tense, placing the reader in the moment and experiencing things as the characters do, as the story unfolds.
Screenplays, plays, and TV scripts are written in the present tense. If you’re interested in experimenting with this story tense, I recommend reading some scripts or seeking out novels like Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuistion in this style to see if it would work for your story.
Basic Structure:
How will the story be told? In chapters? In sections (Part One, Part Two, etc.)? In a long-running narrative with no breaks? In chapters with segments?
Depending on the story being told, the majority of books utilize standard chaptering, but you can decide how you want to label the chapters (Chapter One or Chapter 1). Stephen King often has the main chapter, then sub-sections in those chapters designated by Roman Numerals.
The nice thing about novels versus screenplays is that there is no hard and fast rule about how long the book has to be. Screenplays are typically 110 pages, whereas a novel can be as long as needed to convey the story.
Next Time…
In the next post, we’ll explore some Narrative Rules to consider while brainstorming and plotting your story. Happy writing, and I’ll see you next time!
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