Breaking the Rules, Feeling the Story

What do wannabe novelists and excellent, established pros have in common? They ignore the “rules” of good writing. The difference is that amateurs don’t know the rules, the conventions. Top-of-the-line pros do. (Then there are those of us, published or unpublished, who know the rules and are seriously trying to become better writers. “Middlers,” I’ll call us.)

With ebooks and self-publishing opening the door for anyone to publish anything, we’re seeing a lot of poor writing. Amateurs often don’t know how to make the choices that will best serve their stories, because they don’t know what the choices are. (I’ve been there. All middlers and pros have.) True, some amateurs hit near enough the mark the first time out. But then they face the second novel, and the third, and they can’t go far without learning the “rules” so they can break them like a pro.

Pros intentionally break the right “rules” at the right places, to stunning effect. They are better able to serve their story, because they sense what it needs and when, and they know how to get the effect they want. (But even pros never reach a level at which they are not learning. It’s just that they’re comfortable in their own writing skin and consistently write at a publishable, enjoyably readable level.)

What about middlers? We walk the path between amateur and top-of-the-line pros. We’re either learning the rules, or we pretty much know the “rules” (we know we can say “pretty much” in certain contexts), but we’re learning when to get off our own backs and let the story flow. Because writing good fiction is not about rules. Nor is being published. It’s about connecting emotionally with readers, engaging their imaginations.

Any accomplished musician knows that the best music is not created by playing notes but by feeling the music, letting it flow. In a sense, the musician becomes the music. I don’t think any pro becomes a pro cerebrally. Pros, including novelists, reach a level at which they feel what they do. They can consistently get “in the zone.”

How do we middlers get there? Like your mom said: Practice. (Another rule? Not really. It’s more a simple reality like gravity. Cause and effect.) The more we write and read, the better sense we have of when, why, and how to break “rules” or flaunt conventions. We begin to be able to create a story that’s not just a string of events set to words but the gift of an emotional experience. As in music, heart touches heart, soul touches soul, spirit touches spirit.

Isn’t that a bit like life? We start out life with lots of rules. But there comes a point at which we have to stop using a checklist and begin listening to our spirits. And that’s when the story gets a lot better.

© 2012 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved. Photo courtesy morguefile.com

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So Why is ‘So’ so Popular?

So have you noticed the two-letter word that starts so many sentences now? I first heard it in a radio interview. Reporter: “Why do you think we’re a nation of sleep-deprived people?” Expert: “So our studies show that current sleep patterns . . .” My brain said, “What? He sounds as if he’s continuing a previous conversation, but this is the first thing he’s said in this interview.”

At first I thought the introductory use of so was that expert’s personal verbal tic. Then I heard other interviewees begin their answers with “So . . .” So then I decided it was generational – and maybe it is. But recently I was watching public TV’s Nightly News, and there it was again. The expert being interviewed began her answer with, “So . . .” At that point, I began noticing it everywhere. It’s quite possible that this has been happening for some time and I’m just now catching it. If so . . . I’m late to the party.

And so what? For awhile it was, like, every sentence was, like, punctuated with like. Which is, like, still happening. So maybe so is simply taking its turn on the podium. Technically, both like and so are being used correctly in the examples above. At least according to Webster’s.

Like is a chameleon of a word. Depending on the sentence, like can function as a verb, noun, adjective, preposition, adverb, conjunction, or in this case, interjection (as in “I’m like, ‘Who cares?’” Or “It’s like, why are we discussing this?’”) So is not so flexible, but it can be an adverb, conjunction, adjective, pronoun, or interjection. And when it begins a sentence, so is an introductory participle. Who knew?

Still, I wonder if there’s not more going on with the introductory so. Maybe in these interviews, the expert is using “So . . .” as a conjunction. These days we seem to be in a perpetual conversation with ourselves. We never stop talking (tweeting, texting, Facebooking, blogging, posting), so we start an interview as if we’re picking up from the last point we made, wherever we made it.

Or maybe starting with the conjunction so is just a new form of an ancient practice: “And it came to pass . . .”

So if you haven’t noticed, listen up. So is everywhere.

(By the way, in “Maybe so,” the so is an adverb substituting for some preceding clause. In my blog title, “Maybe So,” the clause is the blog itself.)

© 2012 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved. Photo courtesy morguefile.com

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Ten Favorite Books on Writing

At Vermont College of Fine Arts, where I got my master’s degree in writing, we were required to read broadly and deeply in a variety of genres. (Not a bad assignment for a writer.) So I would come home from the library with stacks of books, and I would read. Sometimes all day. Which previously I would have considered a decadent thing to do. Now I could say, “It’s required. I’m doing my homework.”

Some of those books were about the art and craft of writing. Now there are probably hundreds of such books out there. Maybe thousands. But I found a few gems that I keep coming back to. Below is a list of the Top Ten that I’ve found most helpful and inspiring.

P.S. Even if you’re not a writer, I think you’ll still enjoy the quotes I’ve included.

P.P.S. I would be hard-pressed to put these in order of preference, because I feel the need of one or another at different times, depending on where I am in my writing process. So I’ve placed them here in alphabetical order by author.

1. Bayles and Orland, Art and Fear. Straight talk that always brings me back to center. “The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars.”

2. Browne and King, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. Two editors give specifics. “…writing and editing are two different processes requiring two different mind sets. Don’t try to do both at once.”

3. Robert Olen Butler, From Where You Dream. A deep guide into the process of creating. “The primary point of contact for the reader is going to be an emotional one.” “Rewriting is redreaming till it all thrums.”

4. Elizabeth George, Write Away. Takes you through her process, which is rigorous, relevant, and inspiring. “There are no rules; there are only informed choices. But you can’t make an informed choice if you remain uninformed.”

5. Ann Lamott, Bird by Bird. A classic. “You need to trust yourself, especially on a first draft . . . Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.”

6. Holly Lisle, How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers. Each lesson of Think Sideways is an ebook download. But I recommend all of Holly’s books on writing. She’s a straight talker and gives effective, workable how-to specifics. “Problem and Opportunity are the same thing. To find Opportunity, you reframe Problem.”

7. Donald Maass, Writing the Breakout Novel. Both the book and workbook will challenge you to think long and deep about what your story really needs. “These [breakout] novels change us because their authors are willing to draw upon their deepest selves without flinching. They hold nothing back, making their novels the deepest possible expression of their own experience and beliefs.”

8. Robert McKee, Story. Another classic and an eye-opener. “Rather than agonizing over the odds, put your energies into achieving excellence.”

9. Jordan E. Rosenfeld. Make a Scene. I had trouble with scene, and this book taught me a lot of what I needed to know. “To write well, you must take the readers in hand and teach them how to move to your beat.”

10. Christopher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey. Guidance into expert storytelling through mythic structure; useful to all writers of fiction. “Sometimes the best way to measure a story’s effect and diagnose its problems is to ask ‘How did it make me feel – in the organs of my body? Did I feel anything physical at all, or was I just having mental processes that didn’t much involve anything but the brain?’”

I’m sure I’ll find other inspiring books in the coming years, but they’ll have to top these if they want to stay on my shelf.

© 2012 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved. Photo courtesy morguefile.com

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The Joys of Rereading

You know that proverbial stack of books on the nightstand? It’s becoming more rare these days. Yes, some of us still have a real stack of real hard copies. But for me that stack has shrunk. What I have instead is a folder containing lists and scraps of paper with titles jotted on them – my “stack” of to-read books for my Kindle.

But I still own shelves of hard copies, books I want to keep and reread, my personal library of tomes that have become classics for me. I’ve recently begun rereading some of these – especially the ones on the art and craft of writing – and Eureka! I’ve discovered gold. It’s strange how you can read something and glean from it, then years later you pick it up again, and the rereading yields a treasure.

Here’s what I think happened with me, and I suspect it happens with everyone. I first read most of these books before I wrote a novel or during the writing of my rough drafts. The expert advice that I read was helpful, no doubt about that. But then I went through the entire process of rewriting, revising, finding an agent, rewriting, revising, finding a publisher, rewriting, revising, being edited, being published, doing the PR, then starting the process all over again with the next rough draft. (Yes, that’s the process, except I skimped on listing just how many revisions.)

Now that I’m rereading these books, I find that I’m understanding them – because I’ve been through the process. I now know what these authors are trying to say. And wow! I’m soaking it in! I wonder how much more I’ll get from them in ten years? And where will my “stack” of books reside then?

(Currently, I’m rereading From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler. Next blog, I’ll post a list of my faves.)

© 2012 Karyn Henley. All rights reserved. Photo courtesy morguefile.com

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