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with sally Quilford
should you
obey the rules?
W
hen people ask if I know says ‘Don’t open with dialogue’.
any rules for good writing, ‘Yet’, says Gerald, ‘I’ve read
I always reply, ‘Put bum in seat. plenty of good short stories with
Write.’ Perhaps it’s a result of a dialogue opening.’
the internet, but there seem to In fact, open any current novel
be an awful lot of confusing and or short story collection and
often contradictory writing rules you’ll see writers breaking the
out there. To clarify, by writing rules willy-nilly. For instance, I was
rules, I don’t mean the individual taught not to change point of view
rules of each competition regard- mid-section, yet there are novels
ing word counts and formatting. I by Sarah Waters and Sadie Jones
mean the sort of rules one finds which do just that. One might
in lists, either online or in writing argue that Sarah Waters, with sev-
books. For example, ‘Do not use eral bestselling novels under her heard. Hopefully newer writers all work the same, but few writ-
adverbs’, ‘Show not tell’, ‘You must belt, could do what she wanted will then learn from the debates ers do.
write every day.’ by the time she wrote The Night and make up their own minds ‘Everyone needs to establish
Over the next couple of months Watch, but Jones’ The Outcast was about what works for them.’ their own way of doing things,’
I’m going to be dissecting the most a debut novel. Joyce Carter, moderator of a says Joyce Carter. ‘You may work
commonly listed ‘rules’, trying to Perhaps the lesson to be learned lively internet writing forum, has differently from everyone else in
find out what they actually mean here is that publishers don’t really witnessed quite a few of those the entire world, and that’s fine.’
for writers. care if you follow the rules as long debates. Even if deep down a writer
But why have rules? as you tell a good story. ‘I think some of the worst argu- knows that a rule is only a guide-
Writer Gerald Hornsby makes Sue Fairhead prefers the word ments I’ve ever seen on writing line it can be difficult to put it out
a good point when he says con- guidelines to rules but thinks they websites have centred around so- of one’s mind.
forming to writing rules is like can be very useful for a new writer. called writing rules. Lots of people Judy Strachan, a lecturer in mar-
playing the piano. ‘You need to But for Sue the most important seem to have picked up ideas of keting at Leeds University, says
understand the rules before you rule is ‘Keep writing’. set-in-stone rules from some- that the conventions of good writ-
can improvise, otherwise you end Kathleen McGurl doesn’t think where, and taken them as their ing are the same for any type of
up with a mess,’ he says. However, lists of rules are necessarily a bad holy writ, so when the different written communication, but too
Gerald accepts that the rules can thing. ‘They open up discussions systems don’t agree, fur flies.’ strict an adherence to the rules
be a minefield for new writers, on writers’ sites, and this gets peo- I’ve seen some of these debates. may make a writer focus on the
citing one rule seen online that ple thinking about what they’ve In fact, when I asked my questions wrong things.
about rules online, my first instinct ‘For example,’ she says, ‘if some-
was to duck. one believes adverbs are bad,
For a new writer, the rules are they’ll focus on not using adverbs
Ask sally
not only a minefield, but can also rather than focusing on the story
be debilitating. they are trying to tell and the best
Jane Salt told me: ‘The more structure for telling it.’
when a competition asks for unpublished I found out about “rules” the Novelist Kate Long makes the
poems only, would this exclude a writing more difficult I found it to write. point that the rules are gener-
class magazine of 12 copies? If you change My advice is to forget them and ally commonsense anyway, ‘for
the odd word or format, does it make any difference? just write, then address them example “Choose a strong and
afterwards.’ appropriate title for your story.”
I
n answer to your first question, personally I wouldn’t even mention it Leigh Forbes agrees. ‘I strug- But even then, a tip like that only
as it was so small a print run – it’s no different to people sharing their gled a lot with rules to begin with. leads to the question, what consti-
work in a closed online forum. If in doubt, ask the organisers. I found I’d broken them all, of tutes “strong” and “appropriate”
As to your second question, changing the odd word or format does course, and spent years trying to as they’re both subjective terms?’
not make for a different poem if the majority of words remain more clean up my act. I went too far the Whilst many rules may be com-
or less the same. You could perhaps write the poem from a different other way, and ended up with a monsense, others are based on
point of view. For example if it’s the POV of a woman in love, perhaps completely sterile novel! I am now personal preference, and, to put
you could write it from the POV of her lover. Or change it from first floating happily in the confused it bluntly, ignorance. A question to
person to third person. That would make it a different poem. I do know middle ground, not caring one jot ask is whether the rule-giver has
someone who won two different comps with the same story altered about any of it.’ been published in your chosen
from first to third person but I doubt it would always be allowed. . The rules tend to assume we medium recently. One writer told
62 Writers
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Forum #99
WF99JAN62.indd 1 26/11/2009 09:49:49
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