I Broke The Cardinal Rule Of Fiction Writing

The story is king. One of the things I did in my book, that I probably won’t do in my next, is to break from traditional formatting. Make no mistake about it–it was deliberate. I departed from traditional chapters and instead chose to relay the story in small chunks. There are well defined sections, but some sections are eight pages, and some are a simple paragraph or sentence.

I did this for two reasons:

ONE. My attention span is such that I must constantly keep the story moving. If I got bored with a specific character arc, I ended the section and went with a totally different story line, knowing that all story lines would eventually connect. I have a knack for creating cliffhanger sentences at the end of chapters to push the reader into the next so I wasn’t overly concerned with it.

TWO. The whole point of the story, at least a major one was to illustrate how chaotic the world had become. Chaos, and the lack of order was a theme throughout the whole novel. The sections in the book, of varying length and subject matter, while eventually connecting, initially gives the impression of chaos. The format and style match the theme, connecting the novel more deeply to the theme than simple words written on the page.

Unfortunately, the idea was lost on a few people. It is the reason I won’t do it again. Most first impressions of the book are negative, and if the reader could make it through the first thirty pages or so, when things begin to connect, they end up loving it. Asking a reader to slog through the first thirty pages is a lot to expect. There was not a hook, there was no investment. It was a confusing mess to read, because the reader is thrust into a story that they know nothing about and there is nothing–until later–connecting each section to the next. Again, it was deliberate, albeit experimental and weird, and it could be no other way. I broke the cardinal rule of fiction writing, and that is to hook the reader early.

I believe that people who read and write books are mostly on the upper side of the intelligence scale, so I expected people to understand what I was attempting to achieve. Some did, and it was a glorious and enlightening experience for them. Those that couldn’t understand what I was going for disliked the book. I mean, they really disliked it. I was frustrated and offended at first, but I had to ground myself. Not everyone likes everything. This book was an experimental foray into how the art of writing emulates the theme of the story. It was always supposed to be an intellectual study of story and the mechanics of writing the story and making those two things connect.

I envisioned a master class, a college professor grabbing onto it and making students write a reading response on how the book connected theme with style. The book tackled some pretty big philosophical questions too, and to lighten it from the force of deeply-rooted opinions, I wrote the whole thing with a satirical tone. All of these decisions of style were meticulously planned.

I realize now, that it’s a lost cause to jump that deeply into creating something that inter-woven. People just want to be entertained. Long gone are the days of analyzing fiction to figure out what the author was trying to tell us. No one reads anymore with the intention of analyzation. They just don’t.

The book was fun to write, fun to piece together, but I hear my readers loud and clear. They want entertainment, not a workshop on theme and style.

I got several bites on the work when I sent out query letters and manuscripts to traditional publishers. They saw what I was trying to do, but they wanted me to change it into solid chapters, not sections, to give it more connectivity from page one. I understood where they were coming from, but felt that reformatting it to fit traditional standards would defeat the whole purpose of theme connecting with style. I just couldn’t do it.

My next book will hold simple entertainment value. It will be much more commercial. It will fit the traditional idea of what a book should be. Maybe the book was equal parts ahead of its time, and also too late, since people no longer want that deepness that I wanted to give them. I don’t know. The reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are pretty solid, but those are the people that had the stamina and commitment to slog through the first thirty to forty pages. Either way, I feel the book served its purpose, it did what I wanted it to do in terms of theme and style, and the sales were apparently pretty average for an indie book (a few hundred copies sold).

Currently, I’m eight chapters deep into my next book. It’s a much easier write, since the actual mechanics of writing are not meshed into the storyline. Be on the lookout for that one in the near future, and thanks to all who gave Shift! a chance.

(Image credit: mayacreativegroup.com)

Written by

Bill C. Castengera

Author of Shift!

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