J. Mark Bertrand writes about following the rules for writing. “The problem with the rules . . . is that they focus on the means rather than the ends. Remember, it’s all about the illusion, so why should we quibble with how it’s pulled off? You don’t berate the magician at the county fair for passing his swords through his barely-clad assistant in the wrong way. So long as it looks convincing and nobody gets killed, he’s pulled off the trick. . . .
“Ignoring the rules isn’t going to keep you from success, so long as you create and sustain the illusion.”
I have trouble with this one. There’s truth there, but I believe in learning the craft. Writing is as much a craft as carpentry. Theoretically you could produce great furniture by breaking all the rules of the trade, but I’d never buy your chairs, because I couldn’t be sure you hadn’t followed your vision while neglecting adequate joinery, and a fat guy like me would break it all down.
If you read stuff written by amateurs, you see the same basic mistakes repeated over and over. The rules exist to warn you not to do those dumb things. There’s nothing essentially stultifying about knowing the basics. If you have a vision and passion for your work, it seems to me, the creativity will follow. I don’t see how knowing the rules prevents that. Anyone who stops at just knowing the rules probably isn’t really a storyteller.
It’s a semantic thing. They shouldn’t be called “rules”, but “best practices”. Best practices are industry standards that have proven themselves to work in most cases. You should normally follow them unless you have a good reason not to.
Rules are meant to be followed. Best practices are just things that have a track record of being good ideas.
Those are good points. A list of essential rules or best practices may be good fodder for a post or two.
I agree with you, Lars. Writing is a craft to study and execute well. That’s why we’ve had reviews which praise a book’s style but note that it isn’t much of a story. I remember reading some poor writing that I thought was as good as the writer could get without putting a good deal more effort into it. What we got wasn’t a first draft, but it wasn’t a polished draft.
Back on craft, we’ve also had very popular stories given with relatively poor writing. That was Bertrand’s focus, I think. I wonder if he had anything specific in mind.
I think the ‘rules of writing’ are liking learning the basics of music. (i.e. if you don’t know them, it’s not likely your work will have any appeal.)
– okay; let’s say you doubt what I’ve said. Find a copy of Nancy Kress’s book ‘Beginnings, middles, and ends’ – and apply it; see if it helps you. (She suggests you apply her advice to a story you’re working on.)
– by the way I think she’s about the best help you can get if you want to improve your writing.