Writing Wednesday: Following the "Rules"

Trying to help my 10 year old with a writing assignment at school reminded me strongly of the ways in which writers try to protect themselves and ultimately end up hamstringing themselves by adherence to "the rules."

When I published my fantasy, The Princess and the Hound, an early Amazon reviewer complained that I had not followed the "rules" of fantasy writing. (You can still see her review up if you go to my page on amazon--it's the one about "a dog of a book, really.") Apparently these supposed rules included things like "a naming convention," and "a new word for the kind of magic." I'm sure that in this reader's mind there were a long list of "rules" about fantasy writing which I had ignored, and I don't mean to say that this reader's response is any less valid than anyone else's. But I suspect that she is an aspiring writer and has carefully analyzed all the rules of fantasy writing as she has worked through her own manuscripts, to ensure that she is following them correctly.

But the problem with writing this way is that it ends up looking to a reader as a sort of paint-by-numbers attempt. Instead of inventing things new, the writer seems to be taking bits and pieces from some internalized canon of writing and then using them in a system that may or may not be coherent. But the real problem is that there is a lack of individuality. When you write to an agent or editor and pitch your book as the "new Harry Potter" or the new anything, a flag goes up. Because they've all seen derivative books before and that isn't what they want. They don't write writers following the rules of fantasy via Harry Potter. They want all new rules. They want a writer who feels confidence enough to break the rules and reinvent them all.

When I wrote The Princess and the Hound, I purposely refused to make up a new word for my magic (until pressured by the editor of the third book in the series, a caving I now regret). I feel that fantasy in the adult world often has a high "barrier to entry," that is, it is so difficult for those who are not used to reading fantasy to get into it that they often simply give up. YA fantasy appealed to me from the beginning in part because of this lack of barrier to entry. I know some writers and readers in the adult world think that YA fantasy is simplified, that the world building is lacking, but I often prefer this kind of writing. So when I wrote my own book, I felt no need to create a new "magical" word for "animal magic." When English already has perfectly good words, why not use them so that anyone can understand them? That was my thinking, in any case.

I am not saying follow no rules. Certainly there are good rules about how to interact with an editor, how to present your manuscript at a conference or how to write a query letter. There are rules about grammar and spelling that need to be followed. But the other "rules" are rules of thumb. When I say that you should introduce a character's gender and name on page one, I don't mean to simply spill it out because if you aren't following the rules, no one will read past page one. I only mean that you should find an organic way to help the reader avoid confusion. And if you have a good reason for concealing the age or name of the main character for a long time after that, just make sure that you are breaking the rules for a reason. It may or may not get you rejected, but your book will at least feel original.

When my children have learned to write essays from school, they were taught a very strict three-part structure and the teachers harped on it so often that they were all afraid to color outside the lines. They could never crack a joke or bring up a personal experience because that would be breaking the rules. Well, guess what? None of the essays written in this way are ever going to be publishable. They may fulfill some requirement that has been artificially set by a group of teachers somewhere, but they aren't good writing. Good essay writing breaks these rules all the time. And hammering those rules into students sometimes ends up making them unable to see the reasons for the rules and why they might break them. I'm not trying to say teachers are wrong (I know that with the current system, teachers are just trying to do what they've been told), but this kind of writing isn't what makes great writers.

If you want to write, write something that isn't according to the rules. If you see a rule, find a way to break it deliberately. Free yourself and your books from the rules that have only been made to protect people from having to make their own decisions. That kind of protection is only going to harm your writing. It's been said before, but I will say it again. If you aren't taking the risk of being an absolute failure in your writing, you're only ever going to reach a level of "adequate." You will never be great. You will never surprise. You will always be writing those student essays, waiting for a teacher to give you a grade. And writing your own story isn't about getting a grade and doing things "right." It's about making other people want to analyze your books and follow your "rules."