Sometimes Story Overrides Rules by Annette M. Irby

The story gushed onto the laptop screen. Wait, let’s back up a second. Not the story first. First, the characters. Vibrant. Living. Talking-to-me-already characters. I could see them. I learned their names. I easily found matching photographs online for the ensemble cast. I hadn’t written books with so many characters before. But this book’s hero had a posse. These guys hung out together, rooted for each other. And, rule-breakers that they were, they were on screen from the opening pages of the book. As if they didn’t care that we writers have a slew of rules, one of them being to keep the character count to a minimum as a story opens. Nope. Turns out, they were more concerned with the story, and jumping right in meant finding them in the inciting incident scene with my hero. A heap of peeps. Together and indifferent to my plight.

I didn’t set out to write an ensemble-cast novel, but the story took me for a ride.

NaNo is a time of fast-drafting—where you prepare ahead of time with character sketches and perhaps an outline or a thought or two, and then dive in once November 1 rolls around. Your goal is 50,000 words in 30 days. No small feat during the holidays. On deadline for a contract, that’s what I did—prepped ahead. I can tell you where I was sitting as, in late October, these guys filled my head, showing up and, as adrenaline junkies often do, showing off.

So, should rules dictate how our stories come together, or how they read at completion? Yes and no. I’ve worked in acquisitions, and I’ve published novels. I understand both sides. I’m guessing I’ve rejected a manuscript because the author didn’t follow the rules, but if the story reeled me in and held on to me, some writing rules were negotiable. (I know. Eeeps!) At various writers’ conferences in my life as an author, I’ve heard publishing representatives say repeatedly, “I’m looking for a good story. A new, fresh idea. Strong story is everything.”

Should rules paralyze us? Maybe not, and here’s why:

Rules change. Even spelling preferences change. A few years ago, the preference in the editors’ go-to choice for spelling (Merriam Webster online) for “goodbye” was “good-bye.” Then, without warning, M-W.com replaced their preference and poof! All of us had a choice to make. Publishing house style guides were rewritten. A rule had changed. What about the pesky comma before "too"? Used to be, we needed to include it. Now, not so much, most of the time. Or what I call "priority commas," where you forego using one or more commas because others already in the sentence aid meaning without an overload of punctuation. Some houses practice this, some do not.

Trends change. A decade or more ago, a genre known as ChickLit thrived. But you won’t find many books in this genre coming out these days. Point-of-view is another area that has changed over the years. Now, editors and readers prefer purist point of view, rather than switching heads within a scene (head-hopping), or seeing things from God’s perspective (omniscient), or, what I call “collective POV” where we experience more than one person’s perspective at any given time. Like: They all felt better when the fire alarm stopped blaring. That may be true, but show us through your POVC (point-of-view character) rather than getting into everyone’s perspective at once.

Various editors and publishers have their own style guides. The Chicago Manual of Style only covers so much. The writers of CMS leave many things to interpretation, indicating that clarity should be the editor's  (and writer's) goal. Because of this, editors and publishers have in-house style guides for what-to-do-when-faced-with most textual situations. You could appease seven in ten editors, and the other three may shake their heads at your grammatical, spelling, or storytelling choices.

Preferences differ. Oh, find me a roomful of folks who can all agree on anything and you may have worked a miracle. Editors have varying opinions. Readers, the same. Some love a genre, some hate it. Some have pet peeves that you’ve never thought of as you write. Poke one of those, and you may receive a negative review. Some readers balk because they read your Christian book and you included talk of . . . gulp, Christ in the narrative.

One of the keys for writers and editors is avoiding confusion. If you can write a story that engages us without disorienting us, you're halfway there. Editors can help you clean up any other manuscript issues. At times, story rules over writing rules.

Done well, story sweeps both writer and reader away, and extra kudos to the storytellers who can transport editors. Though I had a partial outline, I didn’t anticipate all the elements I’d include in my Bainbridge book. I was surprised as I fast-drafted. And then, the story seemed to be working, so, since it was NaNo and since the story line was engaging, I didn’t back down. Sure, I knew the rules. The story, the characters, the plot didn’t care.

Your turn: Have you ever had to overcome a writing rule in order to write a stronger story? How did that go? Would you do it again? Does knowing the rules of story paralyze you? How do you overcome?

When story overrides writing rules. Today at #SeriouslyWrite. @annettemirby #seriouslywrite #amwriting #BainbridgeIslandNovel

That time my ensemble-cast characters didn't care about writing rules. @annettemirby #seriouslywrite #amwriting #BainbridgeIslandNovel

~~~~~

FL on Bainbridge Island

Finding Love on Bainbridge Island, Washington by Annette M. Irby

Book Two in the Washington Island Romance series.

Find book three, the latest release, here.

Kindle Unlimited members can read the Washington Island Romance series for free.

Neither of them is ready for a relationship, but love may not give them an out.

Jenna-Shea Brown considers herself a broken therapist. Years ago, she witnessed something that caused PTSD. She can’t let her boss or her patients know about her battle. Who would want to trust her to help them, when she can’t help herself? She’s finally able to find a fresh start in her family’s beach cabin, but the renovations aren’t complete. Her parents have hired her ex-boyfriend to finalize them, but his negligence led to her being in the wrong place at the wrong time all those years ago.

Liam Barrett is trying to prove he’s nothing like his deadbeat dad. He’s working hard, yet still failing. Adrenaline and adventure offer him a diversion, but maybe he can’t escape his genes. He’d like to make things right with Shea, but he’s unsure if she’ll forgive him. Meanwhile, he’s challenged to forgive his father. He’s also worried about Shea and all these episodes she won’t explain. Now that they’re back in close proximity, he’s falling for her again. But can anything heal the past?

~~~~~

Annette M. Irby*

Annette M. Irby has been writing since her teen years when she sat pounding out stories on a vintage typewriter just for fun. Since then, she’s joined Christian writing groups and launched blogs so she could share the joy of writing. She likes to say she’s addicted to color as flowers and seascapes inspire her. In her off hours, she enjoys gardening, photography, and music. She lives with her husband and family in the Pacific Northwest.

Learn more here on her Seriously Write Page.





Laptop photo credit: Pixabay
Author photo credit: Sarah Irby; Irby Photography

Spare Me the Details by Susan Page Davis

Susan Page Davis

While writing The Prisoner’s Wife (my novel in the New England Romance Collection), I had to learn a lot about the Maine/Massachusetts legal system in colonial days. A quirk of the law led me to write this story, about a marriage intended not to last that turned out to be one of those forever unions.

My research included a trip to the old jail (Old Gaol) in York, Maine, with three of my children. We had a wonderful day, and I highly recommend a day touring Old York to anyone who has the chance. (Learn more about The Museums of Old York at http://www.oldyork.org/ )

While we were there, we toured the Jeffers Tavern and several historic houses, in addition to the Old Gaol. I learned many intriguing tidbits, but they weren’t all suitable for my story.

Did the man who beat his wife to death with a codfish make it into my story? No.

Did the fascinating mourning samplers on display in one of the houses made it into my book? No.

Did the pleached alley or the herb garden or the secret hiding place in the fireplace… You guessed it, they did not.

But all of these things are still in my mind and may show up in one form or another in another story. Immersing ourselves in the past for a day gave us a feeling for early times and the way people lived in them.

But not all the things I dig up in research can go in the book.

My first book, Protecting Amy, was also a historical romance. In it, several cavalry troopers were protecting a young woman. When confronted by a band of bad guys, they made a stand. The story is pre-Civil War, and they used muskets. The loading process takes time. I went over the steps with my husband, a former gunsmith. I wanted the reader to understand how agonizing it was to have to reload after every shot, so I described that in detail in the story.

My editor cut it all out. He wrote a note to the side—“Just let him shoot.”

At first I was upset. After all, this was my first book, and I was proud of my story and my accuracy. It took me a while to come around to his way of thinking. I had to learn that the reader didn’t necessarily want all the minutiae. The reader wanted a fast-paced, smoothly flowing story. This was an action scene, but I had slowed it to a crawl.

So, yes, writers, revel in your research. Soak it all up. Enjoy it. But don’t try to give your readers a history lesson. Set the scene with vivid touches and stay true to the times in all that is said and done, but remember, it’s the people and the relationships that count most. As a writer, I’m a stickler for accuracy, but sometimes as a reader, I can do without the details.

Dora here. As a reader, I tend to get bogged down with too many details, especially technical aspects of a particular profession, but usually I will keep reading. As a writer, it's painful to slash sections or details that have taken me hours to research, but with every book I write, I become more comfortable with what to include and what needs to go.

How do you feel about this? Readers, do you skim past areas laden with unnecessary info or do you put down the book? Writers, do you find it difficult to accept your editor's recommendations to weed out unnecessary details? 

Buy Link

Susan Page Davis is an award-winning author with more than 40 novels published in the historical, mystery, romantic suspense, and contemporary romance genres. A Maine native, she married an Oregon man and now lives in western Kentucky. She’s a winner of the Carol Award, the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and the Will Rogers Medallion. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com , where you can enter her monthly drawing for books.

The New England Romance Collection contains five complete historical novels set in Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, including Susan’s award-winning novel, The Prisoner's Wife: Jack Hunter is about to be hanged for the murder of his neighbor. Jack knows he's innocent, and the unscrupulous constables will seize his land when he's dead. He asks Lucy Hamblin, the only girl he ever loved, to marry him in the jail. Her father broke them up three years ago, but now her father is dead. Will Lucy be willing to grant his last request and become the widow Hunter? Set in Maine, 1720. Buy now from Amazon: http://is.gd/qM11Sh or Christian Book: http://is.gd/JSjF7H

Editing Tip: Words You Don't Need

Annette M. Irby

Hey everyone, Annette here. As an editor, I occasionally run into some unnecessary words and/or phrases in manuscripts. As an author, I've thrown some of these into my own manuscript. See if you can relate:

Have you ever had to write to a certain word count? Not just a goal, but an actual, set-in-stone number?
 
Say your publisher’s word count limit is 90,000 words. And say your manuscript rings in at 91,257. What can you do? The overage doesn’t warrant removal of an entire sub-plot thread. Your publisher won’t budge on the limit. And you're going to need that final half-chapter.

Here are some suggestions for non-essential words and phrases you might consider deleting:
 
That—oftentimes this word can be deleted without changing the meaning of your sentence.
 
In, as in “in between”—most of the time, you can delete “in.” Try saying the sentence without the “in.” If it works, leave “in” out.

On the—as in “she kissed him on the nose” or “he bussed him on the shoulder” Please delete “on the.” “She kissed his nose.” And “He bussed his shoulder.”

Couldn’t help but / Can't help but—this multi-word phrase is a word-limit saboteur. Ask yourself: Why did I use that phrase here? What do I actually mean? I think sometimes we use clichés like this one out of laziness. Ask yourself: Does this truly fit this scenario? this character? More than likely, you can delete it.

Each and every one—this phrase is redundant. Choose one of these two options. “Each one” is sufficient.
 
Hit the Delete Button

Go through and do a search and replace on these phrases. You’ll hopefully save yourself some words, while tightening your writing.

Your turn. Have you ever faced the challenge of whittling down your word count? What are some unnecessary phrases or words you’ve deleted from your manuscript?

~~~~~

Annette M. Irby is a published author who runs her own editing business, AMI Editing. She is also an acquisitions editor for Pelican Book Group. See her page here on Seriously Write for more information.