You're Not the Boss of Me

I have been trying to surround myself, as much as possible, with writers and writing and writers writing about writing. I want to steep in it. It’s one of the chief differences in my approach this time, as get my work in progress onto the page. Why do we still say page? Onto the screen. Far more accurate. I realize some of you still compose with pen and paper. My wrists are far too delicate for that.

On the whole, I’ve found joining the writers’ community (to the extent I can on Twitter and in my local area) to be helpful. A lot of kind souls are out here telling stories. Almost as importantly, they offer support and encouragement. This has been valuable. Reading the tips and suggestions of writers both less and more experienced than me has also been great.

However.

Easy with the hard and fast rules, guys. Some of you are swinging musts and mustn’ts around like your lives depend on it. Please do not mistake me for someone who doesn’t value the hard won wisdom of people who are really good at this stuff. I’m not advocating style and content anarchy here. Not in the least. I suspect that both lawless writing and a neurotic adherence to The Rules will result in equally unreadable content.

Be thoughtful about tips and tricks and “rules.” Ask around. Reread the writers you love and see what they stick to and what they jettison. Try to figure out why. Check out new stuff. When was convention observed and when did they scrape that crayon across the line and right outside of the coloring book.

“Kill your adverb darlings inside chapters that are no more than 80 words in length but no less than six and holy Christ your inciting incident is three pages too late and wow make sure this is exactly like all the other books in your genre and can you fucking tell me what’s unique about your story” is no way to make a happy reader or a fulfilled writer.

“I was just following orders.” It doesn’t work for authorship any better than it works for citizenship.

PHOTO: I used to have similar Dr. Martens. I loved them. Anyhow, thank you to Lockie at Pixabay.

PROGRESS REPORT: So much dialogue. Damn chatty characters. 24,101 words of this first draft done.