My Personal Rules for Storytelling

DISCLAIMER! These are my own highly subjective guidelines, reflecting both my style as an author and my likes as a reader. I'm not claiming that this is the one "correct" way to write, because there is no such thing. Lots of writers who are way, way better than I are known for breaking these rules all the time, and that's fine. Some people like the taste of octopus, some people prefer granola. There is room for everybody in the literary universe.

1. Avoid explaining what characters are thinking, feeling, remembering etc. Let their actions and choices reveal what's going on in their heads. I have always felt like telling the reader what's in a fictional figure's mind was cheating or at least lazy storytelling, like voice-over narration in TV or movies.

2. In fact, avoid explaining anything. Trust your reader to figure things out. Be a storyteller, not an interpreter. (Warning: this only works if your story is coherent and makes logical sense. If you feel the need to explain, you might have a plot problem.)

3. Two modifiers are better than three. One modifier is better than two. No modifiers is best of all. Yes, sometimes you really do need a wrench, a screwdriver and a hammer to get the job done, but if all you need is a wrench, just use a wrench. And if you can do it with your bare hands, do it with your bare hands.

AWFUL: "She ran quickly and excitedly to the closed door, eager to find out who was there on the other side."

Running implies excitement, so that's redundant. And the fact that she is running tells the reader that she is eager. And explaining specifically what she was eager to find out is totally useless. There is someone at the door, so the object of her enthusiastic curiosity is obvious.

BAD: "She ran quickly to the closed door."

How can you run other than quickly? A good writer is an expert adverb killer. Also, of course the door is closed!

GOOD: "She ran to the door."

4. Characters must always, ALWAYS bring about their own outcomes. Their fates must be the results of their decisions. When terrible things happen to virtuous, innocent people that is either real life or sloppy melodrama.

5. A good story emerges from conflict, internal or external. When nothing but good, happy things happen to good, happy characters, that gets very boring very quickly.

6. Make sure you disagree with all your characters in some way. Even your main protagonists. Especially your main protagonists. If a character is nothing but a mouthpiece for your own opinions and feelings, chances are you are writing an essay instead of a story. Disagreeing with your characters helps to prevent gratuitous self-indulgence.

7. When characters start monologuing, interrupt them.

8. Interesting characters are complicated and damaged.

9. The test of a good ending is whether the reader thinks, "Of course! It couldn't have ended any other way." Everything should lead up to that moment, which should seem inevitable in retrospect.

10. Don't ever resort to magic or supernatural intervention to resolve a problem that is integral to the plot, even if the world of your story includes paranormal elements. "He suddenly changed his mind for no reason" certainly counts as magic. Why did he change his mind? The cause must be embedded in the text.

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Dicing Time for Gladness (Book I in the Victoria da Vinci series) is available now in print and e-reader editions. Click HERE to read a FREE preview on Amazon.

Crass Casualty (Book II in the series) is coming in November.

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