Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Writers, Don’t Let Rules Box You In



Carolyn J. Rose is the author of several novels, including Hemlock Lake, Through a Yellow Wood, An Uncertain Refuge, Sea of Regret, A Place of Forgetting, and No Substitute for Murder. She’s now at work to a second substitute teacher cozy mystery, No Substitute for Money, and hopes to have it out this summer.
She grew up in New York's Catskill Mountains, graduated from the University of Arizona, logged two years in Arkansas with Volunteers in Service to America, and spent 25 years as a television news researcher, writer, producer, and assignment editor in Arkansas, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. She founded the Vancouver Writers' Mixers and is an active supporter of her local bookstore, Cover to Cover. Her interests are reading, gardening, and not cooking.

Please help me welcome Carolyn J. Rose

Writers, Don’t Let Rules Box You In

Rules.
Regulations.
Guidelines.

Like it or not, we all live by them.
At least some of the time.
And to some extent.

Some rules are imposed on us by nature, others by family, school, society, and government—there are requirements for food, water, and shelter, mealtimes and curfews, assignments and tests, traffic laws, taxes, etc. If we ignore the rules, or flaunt them too often, there may be consequences—illness, accidents, fines, incarceration, or worse.

Then there are the rules we make for ourselves—some for excellent health or safety reasons. We avoid certain areas of town after dark, we check to make sure our doors are locked, and we read ingredients to prevent allergic reactions.

There are also rules—sometimes ill-conceived—that we make in an effort to enhance relationships. We let that other person select the movie or pick the restaurant or control the remote. We hold on to a particular hairstyle or color. We espouse a candidate or political party—or at least pretend to until we’re alone and marking a ballot.

There are rules based on superstitions. We might avoid stepping on a sidewalk crack or refuse to walk under a ladder. We might knock on a door exactly three times.

And then there are rules we make simply because we’ve reached an age where we can set standards for ourselves—no matter how ludicrous others may think they are. One friend has a policy of never seeing a movie that her mother-in-law recommends. Another won’t eat orange vegetables. A third refuses to dine at a restaurant that advertises both Chinese and American food because he’s convinced neither kind will be good. And a book club member won’t read a book if she finds a simile on the first page.

Lately, I’ve made an effort to be more flexible and easy-going about rules. (Except for the one about refusing to go to any place that requires me to wear a dress.) I fear that the more rules I develop, the more difficult it may be to discard or alter any of them, and the more rigid I may become.

As a writer, rigidity—outside of an effort to meet production goals—can be deadly. Too many rules about number of point-of-view characters allowed in a story, complete sentences in dialogue, paragraph length, or the “correct” words for attributions can have the same effect as drilling a hole in your head and pouring cement on your brain.

To free up my writing, especially in a first draft, I work to define my writing—and my characters’ thoughts and words—less by rules followed than by rules broken.

That, I confess, sometimes makes me uneasy. But uneasiness sparks creativity.

And, if I get too apprehensive or too insecure, I can always grab for a few guidelines.

Leave a comment and tell me about one of your rules—the best, the worst, the most vital, or the silliest—and get in the drawing for an e-copy of one of my books.

29 comments:

  1. Hi Carolyn, I'm sure I have self-imposed rules but I can't think of a one! Let's see, this is one, sort of, all the dishes have to be done before I go to bed. (It upsets me if have to move/wash stuff in the morning just to put water into the kettle when I just woke up!)

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    1. I'm the same. I hadn't thought of it as a rule, but I always get the dishes washed and put away before bed.

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  2. I agree about breaking some of the rules, especially in writing. Having met with many agents, they tend to want something to meet their own criteria instead of embracing creativity. When we follow someone else's rules, writing loses it's charm.
    Ann

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    1. Agents want that breakout book. It's almost as if you have two choices: follow the how-to-write-a-bestseller guideline, or write something so unique that it sells.

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  3. LOL - those dishes in the sink and on the counter. I've learned to just leave them - especially if they're not mine. Once I let go of the "kitchen rules" it was easier to let go of writing rules.

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    1. I still do the dishes. If I didn't, I'd forget about them and they'd be dried by morning and harder to clean. What I tend to forget to do is take out the trash on the right days. Like today.

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  4. Good luck to Carolyn! And great post. I break rules from time to time. Have to. Sometimes my characters demand it and haunt me in my sleep if I don't comply.

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    1. Good to know someone else has characters talking in his head.

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  5. Stephen, I know what you mean. But I don't admit that to a lot of people - especially if those people aren't writers.

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  6. Yep. No dresses. LOL! I think it's important to stretch your creativity in writing...which usually means breaking the rules. Some of them are intent on churning out cookie-cutter books.

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    1. Laura, you're definitely a rule breaker, which means you write great books.

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  7. My main writing rule is to not drive a car or walk on a busy street after writing. Seriously, I was still so immersed in a scene once that after I left my office and headed to my parking garage I was almost hit by a bus! My brain is in such a fog after writing that it takes a while to engage with the real world and function safely. My rule is like the warning on a pain killer bottle, "Do not drive or operate heavy machinery after writing!"

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    1. Alex, if you can't write at home and pad the walls, then your safety rule makes sense.

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  8. I am a scrupulously courteous driver. It really bothers me that Oregon drivers will not let people pass them, however slow they are driving in the left hand lane. Also, I always drive at least five miles over the speed limit. As far as clothing, I never wear skirts or high heels. In writing, the rule I try to follow but often break is to write every day.

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    1. That's a good rule. I always try to do something writing related everyday. It might be re-reading what I did before and editing as I read.

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    2. I also try to write every day but sometimes, if it's starting to seem laborious or I feel myself getting lazy, I make a rule that I CAN'T write for a set number of days. But the time that period is up, I'm back at the keyboard, my mind brimming with ideas.

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  9. Two quotes about rules that I love. The first is from the 14th Dalai Lama (an old drinking buddy) who said: “Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.”

    The second is from the British Writer Alan Bennett from Getting On. He said:
    “We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn't obey the rules.”

    Around our house we only have one rule. Carolyn's right. I obey it almost half the time.


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    1. And you spend the other half of the time getting the silent treatment - which, now that I think about it, you probably enjoy.

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  10. The first time I visited a juice bar, I was offered a shot of wheat grass. It smelled like grass clippings from my lawn mower. Smiling, I quickly shook my head and said, "Sorry, I don't drink green." And I've adhered to that rule ever since.

    Rules in writing? Don't describe the whole house if your characters are never going to get past the front parlor.

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  11. One thing I'd like to say about rules in writing - the successful writers seem to be the ones who ignore them. How often is a book feted to the general puzzlement of all writers? Think on that. I've spent years worrying about rules so of course some are ingrained. But I'm trying to force myself to forget them now, to forge ahead. the story's the thing.

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    1. I think breaking rules can go either way - sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't and gets in the way of the story. Story - and characters - are what it's all about.

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  12. I follow all rules that don't get in the way of the story I want to tell.

    I too avoid places that require I wear a dress.

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    1. LOL - and those of us who know you are grateful for that.

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    2. I don't mind the dress. It's the heels and panty hose that I avoid.

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  13. I'm totally with Carolyn on the wearing the dress thing. Other rules are probably optional.

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    1. I wear dresses when I have to, but prefer to wear jeans. And I admit, I haven't worn hose in years.

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  14. I think back to the jobs I had in the 70s where I wore heels every day and I wonder how I did it and got my work done as well.

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    1. I really, really hate heels. They make my back hurt. My "heels" are now only about an inch tall.

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