Earlier this month, I had the honor of moderating my first BoucherCon panel, titled Walk the Line, Must Fiction Always Follow the Rules? In preparation, I set about determining which rules we might discuss and quickly discovered, as W. Somerset Maugham quipped, “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
Or put another way, who determines the rules? In his book, Craft in the Real World, Matthew Salesses argues “What we call craft is in fact nothing more or less than a set of expectations.” Through this lens, when we decide which rules to follow, we’re actually making a statement about whose expectations matter. What I had assumed would be a straight-forward conversation about acceptable dialogue tags and limited point-of-view now seemed potentially provocative, for as Salesses observes, “Writing that follows non-dominant cultural standards is often treated as if it is ‘breaking the rules,’ but why one set of rules and not another? What is official always has to do with power.”
Take banned books, for example. A recent study revealed bans disproportionally target women authors of color. (Consider reading one to celebrate Banned Books Week which started on September 22!) Censorship seeks to strip away the power of marginalized voices to inspire change through art. Likewise, the dominance of one tradition of craft over all others excludes different perspectives and styles in service of maintaining the status quo.
What, then, is a conscionable writer to do? I have good news. It’s easy. No need to burn every how-to craft book you’ve ever read, instead reconsider where those “rules” came from and whom they benefit. Learn the guidelines so you might combine and discard with intention, “writing toward the audience whose expectations matter to you,” as Salesses urges. For is it not the aspiration of literature, like all works of art, to both reflect and defy reality, push boundaries and reimagine the world?
There is but one exception, according to my Bouchercon panelists, one rule which a writer must never break. Kill as many women and children as you want, but never, ever, kill a dog. Otherwise, as long as you know why and how to effectively break a rule in service of a story that more consciously speaks to your audience, rebel away!
Image by geralt
Great observations, and so freeing!