Breaking the Rules

 

Rules are made to be broken - or so they say. When it comes to writing, I love to break a rule or two. I even broke a few rules in my latest release. Did you catch any? 👀👀👀 Here's a few writing rules that I  personally like to conveniently omit from time-to-time.

1. Character Descriptions. I'm not big on writing character descriptions. In fact, in The Love We Had, I completely skipped over this step. Did you notice? I'd like to think that you didn't or if you did, you found it to be irrelevant. I like for my readers to imagine the characters however they'd like. What's attractive to me, might not be attractive to the next person. And why do characters have to be attractive at all? People, regardless of their looks, are deserving of love. It gets tiring trying to describe how superior someone looks, as if it was by their own doing.  I like for the focus to always be on the characters thoughts and values - that's what really defines a person. 

2. Word Count. Word count guidelines are insane. For the life of me, I can't figure out why a story has to be a certain length to be considered acceptable. I've always believed in telling a story until it was done. If that meant 20,000 words or 100,000 so be it. It is what it is. To put limits on it seems kind of silly. As long as your readers don't feel duped for buying a rushed read or bored by a story that seems to never want to end, where's the problem? Most of my stories come in a little under the "appropriate" word count. I attribute  this to the fact that I cut out a lot of fluff  that would have been added if I cared about living up to word counts. 

3. Subplots? Scrap 'em! If you've read my work then you know I'm not a big fan of subplots, not in romance anyways. I view my romance novels a lot like a real relationship, and that means it doesn't need a lot of outside characters other than the two that are in love. Sure, I have books with multiple characters and side stories too, but I truly only like to add people if they're integral to the story. For me, nothing can make me lose interest as quickly as having to weed through a bunch of useless characters and side plots that often derail the original story. Don't get me wrong, some people do this beautifully, but as for me and my writing - it's a no. 

Now that we've explored the ways in which I break the rules - here's some other rules that may be worth breaking. 

1.  Show, Don't Tell. Yes, in most cases it will be more effective to paint a picture for the reader rather than to tell them. But some things can stand for you to just come out and say it. A little bit of telling is OK, especially if it's something that's pivotal to the story.

2. Create Likable Characters. While this is generally good advice, it isn't true one-hundred percent of the time. Your characters don't actually have to be likeable at all, but they do need to be intriguing. 

3. Your Characters Must Evolve. As humans, we should all be striving to be our very best. But changing a characters entire personality and/or views can come off kind of fake depending on the timeframe of your story. Allow your characters to naturally evolve. Or not. 

Bonus: Never Start a Story with the Weather. Here's another rule I bypassed in The Love We Had. The important thing is how you discuss it. Starting a story out with "it was a dark and stormy night" might seem cliché or rambling on and on about the beautiful summer day may seem pointless if it doesn't add to the storyline. When discussing the weather, or anything for that matter, make sure that it makes sense for the story. 

In the end, I suppose these guidelines were put in place for good reason. I doubt literally scholars created them to curb creativity. And while in some cases rules may come in handy, one must always have enough confidence and courage to break them when it doesn't make sense for the story they're trying to tell. What rules (if any) do you break in your writing?