The Art of Breaking the Rules

June 24, 2019 | By Mary Ann Marlowe | Reply More

Dear Author, have you ever hit the delete key mid-paragraph because you feared you might be breaking some grizzled piece of writing advice? We’ve all heard those pearls of wisdom that bullet-point so easily: Do this, don’t do that. Show don’t tell. Always avoid adverbs. Never open with a prologue or, god forbid, a character waking up. And under no circumstances should your characters describe themselves while looking in a mirror. If writing a book is like taking a walk through a murky forest, these rules aim to nudge a writer back to the well-trodden path. But sometimes what’s interesting, weird even, comes from wandering off and ignoring those Dos and Don’ts.

Pablo Picasso is quoted as having said, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” Like all writing tools, rules can help pinpoint something that isn’t working, but “never” and “always” are harsh absolutes that should yield to “sometimes.” There are times when playing by the rules can actually be the wrong choice for a book, and once in a while, rules even hamper a writer’s abilities to push their art to the limit. Have you ever encountered a broken rule in a popular book, and rather than raising a brow at the author in judgment, you stop and wonder why they made that choice? I find it liberating when authors buck advice for the sake of what’s right for the story. It puts a temporary muzzle on my internal editor and opens my own writing to creative invention.

Take, for instance, the advice that a book should never begin with a character waking up. There’s a valid reason for this oft-cited rule. More often than not, the start of the action does not coincide with the start of your character’s day, and it’s boring to follow someone through their morning routine, waiting for something to happen. But to say you can never start with a character waking ignores the possibility that the story may legitimately start there. A good example of this is Kristin Wright’s Lying Beneath the Oaks. In the opening scene, two strangers wake up in a parked car in Vegas to discover they’re wearing matching wedding bands, but neither recalls how they came to be married. The story needs to start with them waking up because the mystery begins with their first awareness of their new circumstances. Know what works for your story.

You might argue that surely grammar rules must always be heeded, right? In theory, yes, but in practice, not really. People don’t always speak correctly, so dialog and even narration can benefit from intentional rule-breaking. Again, know the rules in your head, but follow your intuition.

What about adverb avoidance? This advice is meant to spur creativity and help authors rise above flat, cliched, and tell-y language. But as a blanket rule, it would be impossible to follow and puts a whole part of language off-limits. Yes, there may be more evocative ways to render a phrase, but sometimes pithy beats belabored. Sometimes (? this is an adverb), an adverb is the right word for the job.

Similarly, writers are advised to avoid “junk” words at all costs. Words like just or really can often be dropped with no change to meaning, but they also add flavoring and make dialog feel more realistic. It’s not a bad idea to highlight and remove junk words to streamline your writing, but the judicious placement of such words can add a natural feel to the voice.

Along the same lines, I often see the advice to eliminate the word was (or cut it down to an arbitrary percentage). The idea is to remove passive or weak writing. But passive voice itself isn’t always wrong, and the verb was isn’t always passive. For instance, changing a past progressive verb tense to simple past removes the was but at the cost of meaning or natural-sounding language. “He was dying” is a little different than “he died.” When in doubt, use your ear.

Some of the advice I encounter strikes me as more personal preference than universal wisdom. For instance, some writers insist on using description sparingly. While that may suit some genres more than others, authors who love to paint with words will find readers who want to fall into all that detail. Not every piece of advice is good for everyone. You do you.

These are just a handful of rules that authors encounter. Writers could probably rattle off a dozen more without thinking too hard, and Google will return lists with even more well-meaning advice. For every one of these rules, there’s an exception. I’m not advocating that the rules should be flouted, but maybe take them in the spirit intended. Common sense and above all a writer’s ear should determine whether it makes sense to bend or break conventional wisdom. If a rule is stifling your creativity or torturing your rhythm or meaning, dare to defy it.

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MARY ANN MARLOWE is the author of SOME KIND OF MAGIC and A CRAZY KIND OF LOVE, winner of the 2018 RWA Golden Quill Award and the 2018 RWA Aspen Gold Readers Choice Award for Contemporary Romance. Mary Ann lives in central Virginia where she works as a computer programmer/DBA. She spent ten years as a university-level French professor, and her resume includes stints as an au pair in Calais, a hotel intern in Paris, a German tutor, a college radio disc jockey, and a webmaster for several online musician fandoms. She has lived in twelve states and three countries and loves to travel. Her third novel, DATING BY THE BOOK, is out now.

Dating By The Book

Six months ago, writer and bookstore owner Maddie Hanson was left at the altar. Since then, she’s had zero interest in romance—despite the fact that she runs a book club full of sexy eligible bachelors. But when her latest novel is panned by an anonymous blogger who goes by the name Silver Fox—and who accuses her of knowing nothing about passion—she decides to prove her nemesis wrong by seeking a romance hero in real life . . .

There’s the smoldering rock musician, the bookish college professor, and her competitive childhood friend who may want to steal her bookstore more than her heart. Even Silver Fox is getting in on the action, sending Maddie alarmingly—and intoxicatingly—flirtatious emails. And that’s not all. Her ex wants her back.

Now Maddie is about to discover that like any good story, life has twists and turns, and love can happen when you least expect it—with the person you least expect . .

Praise for Mary Ann Marlowe’s Some Kind of Magic

“Marlowe makes a name for herself in this hilarious and sexy debut.”
—Booklist

“Frisky, Flirty Fun!”
—Stephanie Evanovich, New York Times bestselling author of The Total Package

“Fun, romantic and sexy. . . . This love story will make readers smile!”
—RT Book Reviews

“Sexy, engaging and original. . . . An amazing first novel.”
—Sydney Landon, New York Times bestselling author of Wishing for Us

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