Blogger: Wendy Lawton
You’ve heard that it’s a women’s prerogative to change her mind. As an agent I’m going to claim the same prerogative. As I look back on some of the things I stated categorically about the craft of fiction writing over the years, I blush. Well, I strongly believed it at the time.
Here are a few of the things I’ve changed my mind about:
Setting. I believe I argued vociferously for sparse setting details in fiction. I probably said something like: If the building or the object does not play into the plot or characterization, our eyes should not be drawn to it. I probably told you to avoid giving us descriptions of towns and homes and. . . Well, that was before I read Donna Leon and her books set in Venice. She devotes pages and pages to description and it is luscious. After reading through her canon, I feel like I’ve walked every calli in Venice, traveled down every canali, climbed the 94 steps to Guido Brunelli’s apartment and tasted the fabulous dishes Paola whips up twice a day. I’m crying “uncle.” I was wrong. Done right, it is positively addictive.
Show Don’t Tell. In my early years as a writer and even early as an agent this was law. Not any more. Telling is a technique that moves the reader along as a faster clip. It’s a tool used for expert pacing. It’s also used to artfully skip over sexual content or graphic scenes. In the hands of an expert it is nothing short of masterful.
Don’t Head Hop. Head hopping, or mixing viewpoints in a scene, has become a huge point of criticism. But I’ve changed my mind on this as well. Lately, several of the experienced authors I’ve been reading head hop with impunity. The first book I noticed this in was the recently published Longbourne, where the author did it on purpose. It worked. Since then I’ve read three more ABA authors who do this with real skill. It doesn’t jar and it doesn’t confuse. So, again, it’s a technique that can be used artfully by a highly skilled author.
So what does this mean for you? It means that you need to feel free to disagree, to argue, to change an “expert’s” mind. We learn from each other, don’t we? Nothing we say here is written in stone and, as we’ve said before, we learn as much from your comments as you learn from our blog posts.
Now it’s your turn. Exercise your prerogative. What have you changed your mind about since you began to study the art of writing and the publishing industry?
Carol Ashby
Wendy, I almost laughed when I read this post. It is delightful to read your opinion on these oft-repeated dogmatic pronouncements of how new authors must write to be published. It never seemed logical to me that debut authors must slavishly follow these “rules” when established authors have continued to write best sellers that don’t. My old day job always involved pushing the envelope, so I naturally question formulaic “requirements” that don’t seem to apply to everyone. I started out writing in the more classic style until I kept reading that it was no longer marketable. I retrained myself to mostly abide by the new rules, but I still have a hybrid style combining new and old when it seems appropriate. For complex plots with many characters, sometimes telling is more effective than showing, and spending too much time in a single head inhibits subtle interactions between characters. What a relief to find out that an agent like you sees the value off flexibility.
Wendy Lawton
It all comes down to whether it works or not.
Shirlee Abbott
I’m glad to see “telling” on your list, Wendy. I am a story teller–and I try to show as well as tell (in writing and even more so in speaking). I recently presented the story of Joseph and his brothers to adults in our recovery group. By “telling” I could make the jump from Egypt back to Jacob and home. The boys had to tell Dad how they’d lied to him all those years. Gotta be drama there that the Bible neither shows nor tells. We had fun imagining how that might have gone down.
Wendy Lawton
Telling has gotten a short shrift lately. We can see it in the breathless manuscripts we get– all scenes, no break from the action.
Jackie Layton
Head hopping is okay now? Last year a read a secular book by an author who is often on the bestseller list and has many movies made from his books. I almost hyperventilated when he head-hopped in a scene.
For unpublished authors, should we continue to stick to the rules? (I noticed you mentioned the author was experienced.)
Thanks!
Teresa Tysinger
Good question, Jackie!
Wendy Lawton
I didn’t say head hopping is okay. If I were writing I wouldn’t do it because I think it’s a great discipline to tell a story through one person’s eyes at a time. It lets us see that part of the story through the character’s filter.
What I was saying is there are no hard and fast rules. If it works, it works. (Not saying it is easy to make it work.)
Terrance Leon Austin
Thanks Wendy.
For me, this post is liberating. For beginners like myself, learning is pivotal to this business, but less stressful if I don’t have to second guess how my story flows. At least until editing.? It’s good to know also that there are some agents who are somewhat flexible instead of totally ridged.
Thanks again for the post. I’m learning to not only read post from literary professionals but apply what I learned as well. Bless you all at Books & Such.
Wendy Lawton
Thanks, Terrance. It’s important, especially in first draft, not to get tangled up in rules. The application of technique can come in rewrites. It’s much harder to try to insert the energy and joy of the story after the fact.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
‘Ti’s said the Bard’s pentameter prose
is out of place in the world of Mod
and would leave readers in iambic doze,
so adopting it’s an idea…flawed.
But I’ll try to give the style rebirth,
to great success, or gales of mirth.
Wendy Lawton
Gales of mirth at this bit of Shakespearian-ish poetry.
Sheila King
Like Terrance, I found this liberating. I fear the world is filling up with cookie-cutter books because there are these “lists of rules” being printed everywhere. (Makes me want to reread the Harry Potter series to see if JKR used an adverb!!)
I have learned a lot and changed my writing a lot, but I have also gained confidence that in many things, I know what I am doing. All the second-guessing can paralize the creative process.
Kristen Joy Wilks
Yes she did, lots of them, and somehow it worked so very well. The trouble…does my storytelling work, adverb or no? That is the question that gives me hives.
Wendy Lawton
And that’s the question we need to ask. Did it work?
Wendy Lawton
“All the second-guessing can paralize the creative process..” Yes.
Shelli Littleton
This came to my mind: “There is nothing new under the sun” … and there is a time and a place for everything. Wendy, I love how you really evaluate what works and doesn’t work … you don’t stick to the rules just because someone said it … you take a look at it (I love how you changed your stance on blogging a while back, if I’m remembering correctly). My daughter was reading a book by a best-selling author recently and showed me where she had head-hopped. I thought–I guess you have to be a best-selling author to get by with that. But it was good to see that in time, with experience and like you said, with skill, one can push a few buttons, slide a foot over the line, color outside the lines … be creative and give something fresh and interesting and perhaps shocking to the reader. The head-hopping made my eyebrows raise and a smile to surface. And I love that my daughter knows terms like head-hopping and black moment. 🙂
Wendy Lawton
The fact that your daughter noticed probably means it didn’t work. It works when you are so lost in the story you don’t notice until later when you go back for reread to see how they did this or that.
(Kudos to that daughter!)
Shelli Littleton
Yes, that makes sense now. It didn’t work because it confused her. Caused her to stop and ask me about it. I told her what you said, and she smiled so big … a look of pride came over her! 🙂
Lara Hosselton
Ah ha, sigh. So the rules set in stone so long ago are in fact merely guidelines. I feel as if creativity has been freed from the prison of Do’s and Don’ts. (or at least released on parole) Thanks, Wendy!
*You’ve also nudged my curiosity to read Longbourne.
Wendy Lawton
Exactly. Guidelines. But don’t forget, viewpoint is a powerful tool. Know how you are using it (or “misusing” it) and know why you are employing that particular technique.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
So many of the rules remind me of Talleyrand’s famous comment…”What is treason? A matter of dates.”
* It seems to me that so many of the rules that we’re enjoined to follow – no use of omniscient narrator, intro to action on the first page, no adverbs, and so on are far more a matter of fashion and the perceived pace and style of communication today.
* “It’s the digital age, deal with…oooh, look, a CARDINAL!”
* And thus, they arise from an underestimation of the reading audience, that attention spans really have shortened and that writers are ‘competing’ with the flash of the Internet and live steaming nonsense.
* It’s not true; it never was. Those who are going to read will find books; those who are not drawn to it, will watch a phosphor screen’s dancing drivel.
* And with Donna Leon’s magnificent descriptions held firmly in our hearts and minds as example, we had better not disappoint the innate intelligence and sophistication of our readers. To them, we are truly beholden.
Wendy Lawton
Good observation, Andrew. These “rules” are like fashion. We can date the era of a book, dear readers, by the conventions employed.
Kristen Joy Wilks
Ha! That is so fun to find yourself blown away by storytelling that doesn’t follow the rules. Sometimes, it just works. I just finished Pride and Prejudice again and there is a whole lot of telling, but it is hilarious, some of the best parts of the book. And my boys love the Ranger’s Apprentice books and he head hops a lot, it does not quell their enjoyment, although I had to laugh during one passage when the author was actually in the head of the hero’s horse. But really, the horse is important and the boys wanted to know how he was doing. So fun to see story breath and grow and work, despite our efforts to organize and analyse every aspect of literary success.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Kristen, you reminded me of the story of a British diplomat who lived in Khartoum with his family around 1900.
* On arrival, he took his young son to see the statue of General Gordon, who fell defending the city from the Mahdi, and told the boy Gordon’s story.
* The child was entranced, and asked at every opportunity to return to the statue and hear of Gordon’s heroic deeds.
* Came time to leave for another post, and the boy was heartbroken. He asked his father for the chance to go and say goodbye to the image of his hero.
* And so, after the tearful farewell, the boy turned to his father and said, “Da, I have meant to ask…who is that silly man that sits on Gordon?”
Kristen Joy Wilks
That is fabulous!
It is so interesting to see what an adult reader and what a child reader want in a story. My best friend is a fabulous beta reader, noticing every grammatical error and encouraging me to dig deeper into the heart of a character’s motivations and story. So I had her read my first attempt at middle grade, while I also read it aloud to my 3 rowdy boys. Their reactions were so so different. My friend kept saying “Why do you keep talking about this silly puppy?” and “You used the word ‘slurp’ and ‘snurffle’ 46 times in chapter two, I want to hear more about the characters tragic backstory and why they miss their father.” While my sons would grow fidgety at the briefest mention of sorrow but would start leaping from one couch to another and shouting with excitement every time the puppy escaped and slurped someone’s face. They were very disappointed if a chapter did not include a liberal dose of slobber and rampaging furry creatures.
So it seems vital to know, who are you writing for…should you have a sob story, or slobber…that is the question.
Wendy Lawton
Yes. I always smile at passages like: The horse shook his head as if to say. . .”
Carol Ashby
I like that image. Horses do use sign language. The ears are practically semaphores.
James Scott Bell
An agent changing her mind? Good. How about this? 10%.
I kid because I love.
To your points: “Head hopping” is default omniscient, but clunky omniscient because it’s done by mistake. To do omniscient well requires both a deft and a deep hand. Writers who are considering it ought to read some Dreiser.
You’re right about “telling” for quickened pace. And it can be done with stylistic flourish, too, thus delighting the reader.
As for description, it obviously depends on the type of story, the scene, the mood…and the reader. Usually, if I have to climb 94 steps for a plate of pasta fazool, I’m liable to throw that plate out the window. But in skilled hands, done strategically, great descriptive prose can work magic. Like the opening pages of Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion. If I had to give a tip it would be make sure to connect description to the inner life of the character or the tone of the story. King is a master at this.
Wendy Lawton
And may I say, if you ever have a chance to take a fiction intensive from James Scott Bell your writing will never be the same.
Jim, you should read Donna Leon. Hard hitting mysteries with excellent pacing but long descriptive passages woven in. It works, defying all we’ve ever taught.
Teresa Tysinger
This is a relief, Wendy. Just a reminder that all rules can (and sometimes should) be broken. I don’t know that I’ve changed my mind about anything, per se. I’m still learning so much about the craft and really becoming comfortable in my own style/voice. I am particularly happy to see that vivid setting descriptions are acceptable, as that’s what I love most about writing. Painting a complete scene.
Wendy Lawton
And if it’s done well, you put us in that room running our hands over the furniture or in the forest, smelling the scent of decaying leaves on the forest floor.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
Is this whole “agent prerogative” post the explanation as to why Rachelle posted yesterday and you’re posting today?
And in case anyone else is sweating and breathing into a paper bag just to cope with the change…I’m FINE. I am. I’m flexible. I can handle the switcheroo.
Totally.
…fires off email to Janet Grant to have her opinion of this catastrophically traumatizing experience. But not until I finish my Costco bag of Coping Chips. AKA chocolate chips. But whatever.
Teresa Tysinger
You crack me up. 🙂
Shelli Littleton
Ha ha!!
Wendy Lawton
Rachelle wrote and apologized to me because she got the date mixed up and published a day early. I told her it was providence because, on the very same day, I prepared my blog and forgot to push the publish button. God lovingly covers for the clueless.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
Ahhhh, yes, great explanation. BUT, it’s so obviously French for : “Why yes, we did. We totally planned this for weeks and were waiting with weakening gasps, our hands clutched around worn out pearls, just to find that ONE smart chick who’d notice!!!”
OR we could go with the truth.
Hannah Vanderpool
Well, this messes things up. But, seriously, it makes me glad to continue reading classics voraciously. It’s good to sample widely when it comes to literary styles and trends. It proves that there are lots of ways to successfully skin a cat (or describe it).
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
Random fact of the …year….
In Bolivian Quechua if one says “Wha time ah sita!” it means “don’t swing the cat around by its tail.”
But, when we say “What time is it?” in the hearing range of one such person, and then look at our watch, they think we are crazy.
There, you can go chill for the whole day, now that your cat facts are up to date.
😉
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
I’m sure the Ben Cat battalion of the main force VC would have agreed…for they surely were not named after Mr. Franklin’s feline.
Hannah Vanderpool
Tucking that…away.
Wendy Lawton
Exactly. Just remember, there are “fashion” trends in writing.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
This might be worth considering –
* “Readers don’t read writers’ rules.”
Wendy Lawton
Isn’t that the truth?
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
I just received a comment on my blog, on the Viet Nam stories that I’m serializing there. Click on my name, if you want to see the latest installment.
* The stories will be collected into a book…but I am breaking the rules in that there is no real story arc, because the reality of Viet Nam was episodic. Imposing a meaningful storyline onto what was a sort of ghastly Impressionism is a lie.
* The only way that one can really relate the nature of the job is to tell it as it happened. There are loose ends, because loose ends happen in life, and are endemic to war.
* It’s a choice; be faithful to the men and their stories, or be faithful to the dictates of literary structure. I have no problem in making that decision, and will trust God to carry my efforts through to the wider audience…which is, everyone in America. The Wall is holy ground. I aim to drag the world to their knees before it, and I aim to wring every last tear from their souls.
* Please pardon my passion. This is the story I was put here to write. I will not fail.
Wendy Lawton
I’m sure it will be powerful. If you want to see how to impose a story arc you might read _Olive Kitteredge_ (Which I did not enjoy BTW, but the collected stories did have an arc to them, if I remember.)
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Wendy, thanks – I will check that out.
Jeanne Takenaka
Great post, Wendy. And, it’s always good to hear an agent’s perspective on the rules. 🙂
*As for following the rules, I admit to following most of them. 🙂 I heard Jeff Gerke say this: “In the end they aren’t rules. They are preferences.” And it made me stop and think. I see his point. As an unpublished writer, I also see the value of knowing the general things that work for crafting a great story, but not having my hands, and my creativity, tied by them.
*For show vs tell . . . Susan May Warren often says we don’t need to show the obvious—i.e. someone making coffee or tying their shoes. We should tell those things. We should SHOW the emotions; this draws the reader in. Now to master this. 😉
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Speaking to your last point, Jeanne…the meaning you bring to a family gathering,or a broken-down car in the snow would make Jane Austen green with envy.
* We all have much to learn; you have much to teach us.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Ah, my brain just took a morphine-inspired hike…I meant, of course, the roof-tied Christmas tree deciding to take its own road trip.
Jeanne Takenaka
Aww, thanks Andrew. 🙂
Shelli Littleton
I agree with that, Jeanne. If we showed the obvious, we’d never finish writing the story. 🙂
Jeanne Takenaka
Exactly, Shelli! 🙂
Wendy Lawton
And we don’t care about the obvious unless the character cares about the obvious. That’s why the Donna Leon books work. The character, Brunetti, loves food and loves Venice. He notices every nuance of both so we are treated to luscious descriptions of the city through a lifelong resident and the exquisite food his wife prepares through the eyes and nose of an epicurean.
Jeanne Takenaka
That book sounds like a must-read, Wendy. 🙂
Laurie Lucking
I really enjoyed your post, Wendy! It’s nice to hear there’s room for flexibility in these areas, and that it’s more important to learn to do these things well than to avoid them altogether. Thanks!
Wendy Lawton
We’ve got to figure out how to tell our story in the most powerful way.
Elizabeth Conte Torphy
Can I hug you?! I am sending this to my editor! Ha ha. I am an interior designer & garden designer. Settings are my thing! My beta readers LOVE it and feel like I transport them. That is good, right? But…”the rules” were out and settings were a bad thing. Adverbs…a gift of writers through the 19th Century…are a “bad” thing. Auxillary characters…are a “bad” thing. As an aspiring writer, it is hard to keep up!
I think your key points in this article are great and open up writers to being more themselves and not being “bullied” into conformity. Publishing screams they want new, fresh, authentic stories, yet they have so many demands of how one needs to write. As a new writer there is such a push to follow “the rules” that it can be overwhelming, disheartening, and confining. Good writing is good writing! Even in spite of the rules…as you point out so many are doing it and well. But rules do change…as you pointed out. We aspiring writers just need to be in the loop when it does…lest we get dinged! Thank you again.
Wendy Lawton
I had no idea how these “rules” had writers tied in knots. Write the story. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t there will be plenty of people to tell you. Just remember, don’t sacrifice pacing for description. Pacing is an advanced technique– hard to judge when you are slowly writing the book. Your readers need to carefully mark any passages they skipped over to get to the story. The need to mark on your manuscript where the story slowed and where it went too fast.
MacKenzie Willman
Yes! “Show, don’t tell”, drives me crazy, (and it’s a short but scenic trip, let me tell ya). How, exactly would an author ” show”….. and my heart’s hammerin’ in my chest like a post hole digger…… unless the hero in question is sharing this with the readers? Yes, it is in first person pov, he is narrating his reaction to seeing the heroine for the first time. Would love to see others comments on this.
Wendy Lawton
This is one of those difficult issues for many a writer. We see the hero thinking or saying things no red-blooded man would ever say.
There’s not enough info to answer your question. Is it first person alternating? Is it first person for the heroine, third person for the hero? Is it first person limited guy-only viewpoint (probably unsellable, unfortunately)?
I hope you have a good writing group to work on this with you because there’s no way someone could tell you what he would say without knowing who he is and how he sees the world. He may look at her and think, Oh no. Here comes trouble. Or he may think, She’s too beautiful, she would never look at me. Or he may think. . .
Jeanette Hanscome
My new writing guideline is, break all the rules you want as long as you do it well. I know this sounds extreme, and I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t have any, but I’ve found that, just as in life, the more restrictions I put on myself the more stressful and joyless the process becomes. In my opinion, writing according to a long list of dos and don’ts results in stiff stories that all start to sound the same after a while. Some of my favorite books were written by authors who dared to break the rules.
I once read–and worked very hard to follow–a guideline suggesting that an author never name an emotion because it forces us to be more descriptive. Now I realize that, though this sounds great in theory and I think we should shoot for showing emotions rather than naming them whenever possible, it’s not realistic to do it all the time. Let’s face it, something a character just feels sad or angry or depressed and the best way to move the story along is to state that. What if, every time a friend asked us, “How are you today?” we went into an artful description of our feelings? That would be considered weird, and everyday conversations would sound more like therapy sessions.
I feel like my writing improved when I gave myself permission to relax and stop worrying so much about whether or not I was “doing it right.”
Thanks for the great discussion topic, Wendy!
Wendy Lawton
Yes, Jeanette. You wrote: “My new writing guideline is, break all the rules you want as long as you do it well.” Bold! Risky, bold. And if it works. . . it works.
Jenny Leo
This is why one of my goals this year is to read, read, read, and read some more. The key here is to break selective rules with skill, and the best way I can think of to do that is to read skilled writers and analyze how their deft technique differs from garden-variety rule-flouting. To me it’s much like developing an ear for music or an eye for painting by studying the masters.
Wendy Lawton
The best goal ever for a writer, Jenny.
Carol Ashby
I’ve done this, too, Jenny, with Christy award winners and best sellers. Guess what? Many of them deviate from the rules!
Jason Hague
I agree this is a liberating perspective, and I wonder how many of these rules actually come down to the degree of difficulty. For example, is head hopping frowned upon because it is bad technique, or simply because it is hard to do well? I suppose in either case, it makes sense for a less experienced writer like myself to avoid.
Jaxon M King
Thank you for your honesty, Wendy. Before I began writing, I thought it sounded silly when authors spoke of their characters as if they were living beings, and that it was their characters who sometimes shaped the outcomes of events in their writing. But now that I have developed my own characters, I have to admit I fully understand what those authors meant. When you allow your characters into your heart, it’s almost like a real relationship, and they become like real people. It was my own characters that changed my mind about the writing process.
Carol Ashby
One place I’ve seen the problem of rigid adherence to stylistic rules is in comments from contest judges. In a story of greed, envy, hatred, love, remorse, selfishness and self-sacrifice with five main characters, one judge thought it a major negative when a third POV character showed up in the first 15 pages. Go figure!
Contests are a wonderful way for new writers to get feedback from experienced professionals, and I’m immensely grateful for all I’ve learned about improving my craft. Still, I suspect even excellent writing that lies outside the bounds of the current “rules of the game” will never garner enough points to place. If a person didn’t have a relatively thick skin when it comes to criticism, the scores even for excellent out-of-the-box writing could be low enough to inflict pain.
Karen Sargent
From an English teacher and a Ralph Waldo Emerson “Self-Reliance” fan…Your post reminds me of this quote: “Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. “
Mary Kay Moody
I think the operative words are “done right.”
Refreshing post, Wendy. Thanks for being so open and honest. Reading this helped reconcile “the rules in cement” we writers are taught and what we see in print. That discrepancy drives my husband nuts!
I attempt to write my stories to create a movie in the reader’s mind. But I’ve learned that describing every little thing just stalls the process. The reader will see a lot from a short but well-crafted bit.
David Todd
Wendy:
Welcome to the wonderful world of the tellers and head-hoppers. I’ve been saying for years that, as a reader, I didn’t mind either one little bit, and that the “rules” as stated to writers were way over the top. Some things are better told than described. And hopping to another head is so much better than torturous descriptions by the original POV character to try to pry one little item out of the head of another.