Writing Rules & Guidelines... Ick

Whenever I come across an article about bettering your writing, I always take the time to read it because, duh. But I've learned to take the advice of others with a grain of salt. And I often disagree completely with what other writer's ideas of "dos and don'ts" are. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those writers who is unwilling to change their story because they think it's perfect the way it is. Uh, no. If that was the case, why would I be reading all these articles in the first place? I'm not in denial of my faults and limitations. I just don't like the "new" ideas of how writing should be done or these rules that are becoming the known, common thing in the writing community. (Like, everyone knows that!)

One thing that every editor and blogger in the world is saying now is this: never use the word suddenly. Apparently, nothing happens suddenly in novels. Things happen or don't happen. There are no sneaky people or unexpected magic. Let's have a look at these two sentences.

Jim was standing by the road talking. A car hit him.

Jim was standing by the road talking when suddenly a car hit him.

I guess I'm just weird because I like the second sentence better. But you should NEVER DO THAT! According to the web, never use the word suddenly. Or the word very. Just take them out of your vocabulary. 
Writers are also supposed to never use adverbs and crack down on your use of adjectives. Basically, take your dictionary and rip about half the pages out of it. 
We need to make our sentences short and choppy. Writers shouldn't be too wordy. We don't need to overly describe anything. Yet we have to make our readers taste, see and hear every little detail of the surroundings in a scene. We have to create lush worlds and draw our readers into them. Huh?
Oh, and never use the passive voice. That is a thing that writers never do. 

There are so many rules and guidelines on the web for writers. It seems like anyone who's ever had anything published has writing tips to share with others (Myself included.) Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. There are a number of blog posts that have helped me hone my skills as a writer and I'm very thankful. 

I guess what I'm really trying to say here is that you shouldn't read any of these articles before you write. Just write your story. If you're busy worrying about overusing adjectives while you're writing, you'll never be able to concentrate on the story itself. Worry about that first. That's why it's called a first draft. You have to go back and tinker with it to prepare it for reader's eyes. And every writer, even the professionals who've been doing this for years, have to go back and clean up the first draft.
I just think the tinkering should be judged case by case. Just look at some famous modern writers who are overly wordy. Why, some even use the passive voice! *Horror music sounds in the background* 

I still read every article I come across. How can I not when so many have helped me? But I also still use the word suddenly sometimes. Maybe an editor will scoff at the use but oh well. I just can't remove the word from my dictionary. I'm very, very bad.


There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. ― W. Somerset Maugham

 Don’t take anyone’s writing advice too seriously. – Lev Grossman

You Think About It When You're Reading, But Not When You're Writing

Yes, it's a pretty long title for a blog post, I know. 
There are plenty of problems we can easily see in another author's writing as we read them. It's catching these things in our own works that we may have a problem with. I am just as guilty as the next guy so don't be offended; I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in particular. I'm pointing fingers at EVERYONE. (he he)

When a story has more than six main characters, it's so easy for a reader to confuse them all. Especially if they have similar speech patterns, sense of humor, etc. Let's say you introduce Bob and Ron as good friends first thing in a story. You describe their physical differences at the beginning and go from there. Two chapters and a lot of dialogue or action or whatever from now, will I really remember which one is a redhead and which is a blonde? Which is tall and lanky and which is slightly shorter? Most likely not.

Now imagine that we have to try and remember this for multiple characters. I tend to introduce new characters smack dab in the middle of my stories so, yeah, now you have someone new to try to keep up with. So let's make this easy on the reader, shall we?
Remind us of what they look like. Remind us of their quirks. Is everyone in the room a blonde? Which one is the jokester? Which one cracks his knuckles constantly? This may seem like "well, duh" advice but like I said, it's easier to catch such things when reading someone else' story. When we read our own, we already have a mental picture of that particular character that immediately jumps to mind. We made them. We know them best. We can see every detail clearly. Our reader, however, may not.

An easy way to do this is to stop using a character's name so often. Referring to a character by name only becomes old fast. I see this a lot when I beta read and it kind of drives me nuts. Here is a little paragraph as an example of what I suggest not to do:

           Ron knocked on the door with vigor. When Bob answered, they said their greetings quickly and moved to the kitchen. Bob made tea for them both and neither spoke as they stood leaning against the counter, blowing in their cups. Finally, Bob looked up.
"Should we get to it, then?"
Ron sipped slowly and said nothing. Bob continued to stare at Ron in earnest. After another moment of sipping, Ron met his gaze. 
"Alright then, where's ya tax forms?" Ron asked.


Not bad, but it could be better. This is what I would do differently.

          Ron knocked on the door with vigor, swatting the dark locks from his eyes as he did so. He cursed his long, curly hair and swore to himself that he'd see the barber before the day was out. 
When Bob answered, they said their greetings quickly and moved to the kitchen. Bob made tea for them both and neither spoke as they stood leaning against the counter, blowing in their cups. Finally, the farmer looked up.
"Should we get to it, then?"
Ron sipped slowly and said nothing. His old school friend continued to stare at him in earnest. After another moment of sipping, the guest met the shorter man's gaze. 
"Alright then, where's ya tax forms?" Ron asked.


Most of what I write has only a few main characters. One or two have about a dozen who pop in and out of the story. Either way, I like to reiterate certain things every once in a while not only for memory's sake but to keep the story more interesting. And though I use their names, I may not always need to for the reader to know who I'm talking about. Referring to someone as "the redhead" or "the vampire" for a few paragraphs is perfectly fine if they're the only redhead or vampire in that scene. 

Again, pretty basic and obvious stuff but keep these things in mind when you're going over your first, second and third draft. Ron said, Bob said, Ron said, Bob said is not going to keep a reader interested for long. And which one was Ron again?