When I started writing mystery novels, a number of
rules for beginning writers were beat into my thick skull. Here are a few:
- Do not insert yourself as an author in your work, e.g., editorial comments or things that would take the reader out of the story
- Show don’t tell
- Maintain a consistent point of view
- Keep a consistent tense
- Choose a person first or third and stick with it and don’t even consider second person
- Wrap up all the story threads and don’t leave them hanging
These are excellent guidelines for a starting
writer, but an experienced writer can violate them knowingly. I just finished
reading an intriguing book: If on a
Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. I highly recommend it as a
commentary on the publishing and writing world and an entertaining romp through
rule violations. The whole story is based on author intrusion and interrupting
the story to remind you that you’re a reader and to pull you out of the story.
It’s full of telling and lecturing. It jumps from a narrator, to a reader to
ten other points of view. It mixes both present and past tense. It shifts from
first person to third person and even to the dreaded second person. It presents
ten stories that are never completed.
This said it’s a wonderful read. It comments on the
vagaries of the publishing industry that we can all relate to. It demonstrates
that an experienced writer can violate numerous rules and turn a book into a
masterpiece.
Mike Befeler
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