Showing posts with label Debate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Debate. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The One Hard-and-Fast Rule of Writing and How NOT to Break It

Okay, this subject has been percolating in my mind for a little over a week now. I started thinking about it mostly because I was angry about something that happened on one of my favorite TV shows. It was one of those things where they killed off a character (and hence a story line) that I really didn't want them to kill off. I was so angry! And of course, that was mostly personal preference. I simply didn't appreciate where they went with it. And that's just how it goes sometimes.

But, the more I thought about it, the more angry I became. Not just because of where they went with the plot, but because of everything that came before. They broke the one cardinal rule of writing that, as far as I'm concerned, ALWAYS applies.
“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”--W. Somerset Maughham
So what are the "rules" of writing. As the quote above says, there really aren't any. There are plenty of established and well-respected "rules" in writing, but as our Disney pirate friends are known to say, "They're really more like guidelines anyway." With pretty much any "rule", you'll find a story--be it a book, short story, film, or TV show--that has broken that rule and been better for it. Let's face it: it's art. You always make it your own. Some things work, other things don't. We all know all of this.

But.

There is one rule I feel always applies. Never betray your readers' (audience's) trust. Now, that may sound like a no-brainer, but writers do it way more often than you might think. How, you might ask? By setting up certain expectations, and then failing to deliver on them.
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