More Author Insight: Breaking the Rules

What's one writing rule you like to break?

"Prologues. Lots of people hate them, and a good portion skip over them completely, but I think a well-written prologue that isn't pure info-dump can really enhance the reading experience. I don't always write them - more often than not, I don't - but I did write the prologue to The Goddess Test during the editing process. It was one of my 'ah-ha' moments that really helped me feel the story was coming together." - Aimee Carter, author of The Goddess Test. 

"That there are no rules." - Leanna Renee Hieber, author of Darker Still and  The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess.

"I'm actually pretty rule-bound in my writing (not a free-wheeler at all), but it seems like there once was a rule floating around that required one to write every single day. I break that one all the time." - Sonia Gensler, author of The Revenant. 

 

"Winking at the reader.  I do it all the time, but in very subtle ways.  I sincerely believe that a reader is responsible for making a story happen.  How they see life and what they have experienced, and what they hope for in the future, brings so much to a book, that it’s fun to give them a little poke now and then to let them know I appreciate how much they are contributing to make a story happen.  It’s a shared experience.  A story that isn’t read is a story that doesn’t exist.  And it exists a little differently each time it is read." - Randy Russell, author of Dead Rules.

"Not outlining. I have, on occasion, outlined, but there is something so free about just winging it." - Suzanne Young, author of A Need So Beautiful.

"I like using split-infinitives. Also, I’m an adverb whore at times." - Miranda Kenneally, author of Score.

"You mean like dangling participles or misplaced modifiers? No idea. I just say write the story you want the best way you know how. If you -- for instance -- like prologues (which I do), write 'em. Just write 'em well enough that nobody even thinks for a second that you're breaking some sort of 'rule.' Whatever those are." - Lesley Livingston, author of Tempestuous. 

"I don’t know any writing rules. (Note to self: figure out what writing rules are, and discover if I am following them or not.)" - Amy Plum, author of Die for Me. 

"There are writing rules? Seriously? Someone should have told me. If you gave me a list, I’d bet I’ve broken them all. Often. ;p" - Lisa Desrochers, author of Original Sin. 

"EEK! There are rules??"   - Jennifer Murgia, author of Lemniscate.

"I don’t like to break any of them. I follow them all. Just wish I knew more. No, wait, I take that back. There is one writing rule I have broken: Write YA fantasy/romance if you want to make serious bank. That said, I do have an idea for a fantasy YA novel, set in a country that once prided itself on liberty and hard work and helping others, but that has squandered what it had on a series of blundering wars in the middle East and foolish tax cuts for the wealthy, plus it has compromised many of its civil liberties out of fear of attack by evil others, all while racking up trillions in debt, the notes held secretly and then not-so-secretly by former enemies. Basic services get cut as the wealthy who are now even wealthier continue to manipulate public opinion so that working people vote against their own interests, blinded by narrow social issues, and meanwhile everybody utterly neglects the looming ecological crisis brought on by carbon-based emissions even though the weather is going berserk with monster hurricanes and tsunamis and tornado epidemics, and islands sinking, and icecaps melting precipitously, and the only ones who can save the country, the world, really, are the children. And by 'children,' of course I mean ninja zombies." - Steve Watkins, author of What Comes After.

"I’m not really big on rules. I like guidelines. One rule I heard when I first started was to never write first person.  I'm Not Her and If I Tell are first person, as is most of my work." - Janet Gurtler, author of I'm Not Her. 

Find out Tuesday if the author have ever had a fangirl/fanboy moment over an author they love!

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