Rules for Breaking Rules

This guy breaks all the rules. He did it in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and he's still doing it, one hotel room at a time.

Breaking the rules works for him. Do you even know how much money the man makes? His TV show gained viewers after all his antics.

Crazy, this entertainment business.

Do you even remember this scene? I do. And look at them now...Baby and Sheen, all these years later. Whooda thunk it?

Some other rule breakers weren't so lucky though....Poor Mel over there...He went all crazy like Sheen but it didn't quite work for him now did it?

There are a million reasons why. Sheen combined his sins but did it with an inebriated smile on his face. Using the same charm from Ferris Bueller in real life.

Mel kinda went psycho. Anti-Semitic Rants, boozed soaked diatribes, I don't have to re-hash. Tis sad really. Love the man's work, and as a child of the 80's his butt what the butt all other hunks' butts were compared to. Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

Rules are everywhere. We are bred to follow them and punished when we don't. Time-outs, butt whoopins, groundings, incarceration, the list goes on.

For aspiring authors the punishment is that you stay just that, aspiring. Never actually being.

Charli here is a rule breaker. Let me list them for you.

I have a prologue

My second chapter introduces an ensemble cast

It's over 100,000 words (working on that though)

I tell in places and show in others

Most passages are active but some are passive

Sometimes my characters do random things- no plan or goal, that's life

There are probably more.

Some of my most favorites books of all time have all of the above. So, all you aspiring writers out there, take heed. We read blog after blog and article after article about the rules, what agents want and hate. We revise our MSs in a state of panic and what is the result? A really bad revision.

You are the creator of your story. Sometimes you have to follow your instincts. Look at the books on the NYT Bestsellers list. Scratch that, read them. The rules are broken all the time. At the end of the day its all about a really good story that's weaved together in breathless fashion. Originality in premise, characters, or setting will make the difference.

There are basic rules to storytelling, yes. Beginning, middle end...story arc...plot...yada. But these other rules are not black and white.

My prologue is not a ten page diatribe. It's one page, a tease about the future, and I love it. My CP's prologue is action packed and a cliffhanger for sure. Some of my favorite authors have them and I really love the set-up.

I recently read a book that had a whole passage that was passive and telling. I liked it because it was insight about a specific past event. It was compelling and well written for a rule breaker. Another one had dialogue tags left and right and I didn't even care, the story was that good.

Learn the craft and to do that you must READ. READ. READ. READ. READ.

As someone who participates in Critique groups I can tell  you this... I  have read some really well written prose. No telling, no passives, they follow all the rules. And they were....okay. Nothing new or spectacular for the genre but not bad either.  I have read some work that was so rough it hurt to read. But guess what...the story was so awesome and the characters so crisp I loved it and wanted to read more.

So, for all you newbies out there or frustrated old timers don't read blogs, even this one, and take it as the end all be all. Do your research. Read, write, read and then write some more.

I thought I knew it all when I started in 2009. I didn't no shite. There is still a ton of shite out there I have yet to conquer.

Go out my young Padawans and Obie Ones and fertilize your minds with what you've yet to explore. Break a rule now and then, just be sure it's worth it and works for you...

Now, some clips to pay tribute.

Every girl loves the bad boy...




Danny Glover should have had an intervention with Mel this time around.

You've Come A Long Way Blogfest

Chris over at the Writer's Hole is hosting a blogfest today. It's to celebrate the four year anniversary of working on her novel and how far she's come.

How far we've come indeed. Need a history lesson on my journey...read some old posts. Learning the craft, honing it, and applying it to a story I love has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life.

The You've Come A Long Way Blog Fest is a great idea. I love reading about how writers have evolved and keep evolving.

I am new to all this Festing of the Blogging. I hope I don't feck it up....here we go...

Think of a piece of your writing from when you started out. I mean the early days. I've read some of my first attempts at my novel and snorted out loud. 'Twas that bad.

I will post a piece from the MS I've been writing since July of 2009. It was called By Grace Alone then. I wanted some vague opening about death and loss. Very Omni, very artsy-fartsy. Very Very Bad. I was trying too hard.

I held onto the concept of it but since then it's morphed into a less than one page prologue that gives a tease into the future.

The original piece of doo-doo:

People die. Heartless when put that way but it doesn’t make it any less true. Parents die, husbands die, even babies die. We pay homage to a decaying body with vibrant colorful flowers. The aromatic tokens will eventually rot too. Give the dead something that wilts and perishes along with them. Kind of idiotic when you think about it, cruel if you truly pondered it. But still, it’s what we all do. It’s our way of proving to the rest of the world that this person mattered to us. They were loved, cherished, and even missed. But if the dead could speak, would they tell us to move on? Stop standing over them blubbering with stupid sentiments? Probably. But there is something morbid, even narcissistic in the human condition, the inability to let the dead be dead. We just can’t seem to let go.

I know you rolled your eyes. I sure as hell did.

My MS is now titled Meet Me In Jersey. Here is the latest version of the opening:

 Philadelphia, a few months from now…

People die, every day. Heartless, perhaps, but it doesn’t make it any less true. They die in car accidents, lying in hospital beds, waiting to be born, and if they are lucky enough, in the arms of someone they love.

Right now, Grace didn’t feel so lucky. As Miguel held her close to his chest she heard him pray to a God she’d forsaken long ago. Whispers of love and hope left his lips, urging her to stay with him, with them. His pleas sounded over the boom of howling sirens, forcing her tired eyes open. Tears streaked his face and they reflected in shades of blue and red. Their salty bitterness mixed with the taste of his sweet kiss pressing against her mouth.

She fought with what little life remained in her weary body and yet her hand continued to slip from his, the light from this world faded into the next.

People die, yes, life taught her as much. But love never does. Her love for him never did, never would. Love was all she had left to give and prayed it was enough to live.

What are your thoughts? Don't be blowin' smoke up me arse either. This opening has been through the ringer. I have about ten versions, for reals.

What I learned over time is that you cannot betray your voice. You can't try and be all literary in your prologue than change the tone of your voice in chapter 1. It became really clear that people thought my original diatribe about death was a wee bit of a Debbie Downer.

Have fun all and I can't wait to read yours!

Head over to the blog fest to sign up, read, and learn. Holla back people.