Thanks everyone for your comments! Using the Random Number Generator, I came up with #6, which is Amber! Amber, you can send your 5 pages to me at Lynn AT LynnRayeHarris DOT com.
Okay, maybe there's one: Thou shalt not bore thy reader.
Aside from that, all rules are rather like Captain Barbosa's view of the pirate code: they're guidelines. Guidelines exist for good reason. They are meant to keep you from making the kind of mistakes that others have made before you. They are a set of guide posts to help you along the way.
But they aren't set in stone. They can be flouted if you feel the need. (But make sure you know why you need to flout them.)
Why did this post come about? Because yesterday, under the hashtag #pubtips, someone on Twitter said that you must not ever change point of view during a scene because you wouldn't *ever* sell your book if you did. That's a pretty intense statement.
And it's simply not true. Many authors jumped in to say how they'd sold 10, 20, 30 books to their publishers without following that particular “rule.” Now, on the other hand, I think I know what the person who said it meant. She was judging contest entries and POV was all over the place. It was jarring for her.
That is a problem. If you are jarring the reader with your guideline flouting, then maybe you need to take another look at the guideline and try to see why it is one. People don't make these things up just to give you a hard time. They do exist for a reason.
And maybe you should learn how to control POV with one per scene until you've got that down so pat that you can then make deliberate choices on when to exercise the option of switching to another character's head. Merely a suggestion.
Me, I'm pretty much a purist. I believe, for me, that POV is best done one character and one scene at a time. It's just the way I roll. I think it makes for a more cohesive story, and for a better bonding experience with the viewpoint character. It's hard for me to care about someone whose head I leave after a paragraph.
However, even I, the purist, have been known to make a mid-scene switch. I can't remember which book I first did it in, but it might be my 3rd or 4th. The scene started in one POV. It needed to continue in the other. Usually, I have no problem with a scene break in the middle and then continuing right on. But this time, the scene break was jarring. This time, the scene was so highly charged that the only way to keep the tension up and make the switch was to simply make the switch.
I have, to this day, not gotten ONE piece of mail or one review that claims I did it all wrong, or tells me I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to write. Not one. Remember that. (And if I get one after this, I'll know one of you is messing with me.) 😉
Unfortunately, when we are still unpublished, we are searching, searching, searching for what might be holding us back from obtaining the brass ring. It's really, really hard to take a good look at your work and realize that maybe the problem is your story. So we search for reasons why we were rejected without realizing the story isn't quite right. Having a story rejected doesn't make you a bad writer. Not at all!
When I go back and look at some of the things I did before I was published, I see it now. I see what was wrong that I couldn't see then. Yes, I was a POV purist and yes, my book was written in Courier New 12 point font with exactly 25 lines per page, and yes I kept the backstory to a minimum and didn't dump it into the first chapter.
But that isn't always enough! I wrote some technically perfect things. But they are lacking in life and spark. They lack what I've learned since, which is that good story is far more than technical perfection. You must know who your characters are and what they want. You must know why not getting what they want is a very bad thing. And you must know why you won't give them what they want but will make it all work out anyway.
Do not write with rules in mind. Write with the story in mind. Write with the goal of creating something compelling and uniquely yours. Yes, in my line there are a zillion marriages of convenience. Yours won't be like any of the others because yours will be in your voice. Right? You won't imitate, and you won't slavishly follow a set of rules someone gave you.
There is no secret handshake, friends. There is only hard work and growing your craft. You can write your story in Arial or Times New Roman. (It should really still be double spaced when you submit it, but it doesn't have to be when you're writing if that's what you prefer.) You can let Word figure out where to break the page (I do turn off Widows and Orphans, however). You should still put a header up there with your title, name, and the page numbers. Just in case someone prints it out and gets things out of order somehow.
You can change POV in a scene, even multiple times (though I'd be careful — do not jar). You can make your heroine a CEO and your hero a construction worker (though probably not in Presents, I gotta tell you). You can do just about anything so long as you do NOT bore the reader. You don't have to start your story with dialogue. You don't even have to have both characters on the first page together. But there are certain conventions in a category romance, and you really should know what they are if that's what you want to write.
A hero and heroine who don't meet for 3 chapters just isn't going to work in a category romance. Though I'll bet there's a published author out there who did it so well that she sold the book and never looked back. It's entirely possible. I still don't recommend you do it, however. 🙂
Now go forth and write compelling stories with characters readers will care about. If you need to switch POV, switch it. If you need to drop some backstory in, do it. But know WHY you do these things and make sure you couldn't do them better by doing them another way. Just don't ever say that you absolutely must do something a certain way or you won't publish. I can promise you no editor is going to read your story, be super excited by your characters and premise, and then get to a POV change and drop the book in disgust. “Too bad, we would have loved to publish this if only she hadn't made that switch.” Not gonna happen.
In my March book, Strangers in the Desert, the hero and heroine aren't in the same room together until page six. There might even be POV changes somewhere in the book, though I can't remember. And talk about taking the usual theme and twisting it? There's a secret baby — but it's the heroine who doesn't know the baby is hers. You can do anything so long as you motivate it well and tell it compellingly. (This book is an RT Book Reviews Top Pick for March, so something worked!)
Now tell me, what rules have you been told are absolute? I'm going to award a prize to one lucky aspiring author. I will read and critique your first scene, no more than five pages. Simply leave a comment on this post. I don't ordinarily read uncontracted work, for various reasons, but I really believe in helping people so I'm going to break that rule today. I'll choose a winner sometime this weekend, and you'll have 24 hours to submit your pages. Must be a romance, though can be any subgenre. My expertise is category and contemporary, so remember that. 🙂
Let's talk!
The one I hear the most is to avoid prologues like an insurance salesperson. Yet, when I pull out of some of my favorite books, what is the first thing I see? A prologue.
I really love this post. As an unpublished writer, I try to make notes of what I really like in the books I am reading. However, I always get so lost in the story, that I forget to keep my attention on the mechanics of the story (i.e. the application of the immutable writing rules). As a reader, the rules don’t mean much to me. If the story is great, I am a happy girl.
@Heather: Oh, good one! No prologues. I can see I need to do another post. 😉 I like prologues, and I do believe they can definitely be necessary. I also think it’s something you have to be careful of. Sometimes, it’s a cheat way to get the backstory in. And sometimes it’s absolutely required! My book, The Devil’s Heart, has a prologue. But it’s a two paragraph newspaper article. Short, sweet, to the point.
It can definitely be done, and like you, I often read prologues I really enjoy!
One of the reasons I like using third person is that sometimes when I have a group of people, I like to skim the thoughts. And no, there hasn’t been anyone yet who has complained.
I am writing a novel now that is in first person and so far no POV changes. I am writing that way because I want to see if I can do it.
Anyway, interesting info Lynn. And yes, spark is so important —
The characters need to be doing something and need to have problems otherwise – why read it?
Yours, Cyn
@Cyn Bagley: Characters definitely need to have problems! We don’t want to read about happy people doing happy things. 🙂
Enjoyed your post. Thought provoking. The only absolute I follow is you have to give the reader a reason to care. 😉
Hmm…absolute rules I’ve heard: never use the word “was” / never use a prologue, editors hate them / H/h must meet on the first page / absolutely no backstory in first chapter / you must use all 5 senses in first chapter (try squeezing taste in there, it can really be a challenge *g*) / never use a flashback / never start in the hero’s POV
I know there are more, but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
@Jennifer Faye: Oh Jennifer, that ‘was’ thing drives me crazy! It often gets marked, incorrectly, as passive voice in contests. Was is a perfectly acceptable word! And necessary if you don’t want pages of stilted, convoluted writing.
You named some good ones. I definitely need to write another post. Or a series of them, LOL!
I’m all for POV switches in scenes as long as we spend a good chunk of time in one character’s head (maybe 5-8 pages) before we switch. Certain scenes really benefit from the dual POV (love scenes, for example). I love knowing what both characters are thinking as long as there’s no paragraph-to-paragraph head-hopping.
A couple of absolutes I hear bandied about are the use of dialogue tags other than “said” and “asked.” I think there’s a place for minimal dialogue tag replacement as long as we don’t veer into “he hissed” and “she snarled” territory every other sentence. And of course, there’s the no adverbs absolute. I love me an appropriate adverb.
@Kate: Another good one! The use of ‘said’, ‘asked’, and sparse adverbs! I think, once more, these are good guidelines — and yet they are guidelines! Sometimes a character should speak angrily. Not bark or bite or spit the words out, but speak angrily. Not everything needs to be an exercise in linguistic gymnastics.
I care about reading a great story. Adverbs are simply another tool for telling a great story. Used sparingly, deliberately, and precisely, they are quite powerful. (And how would I have written THAT sentence without them?) 😉
I always heard that your hero and/or heroine couldn’t be involved with anyone else during the course of the book. I’ve read some really great ones that broke that rule though. Kudos to those authors for taking the chance.
@Emily Cale: That’s a tough one, Emily. But like anything else, it CAN be done! Everything for a reason. 🙂
Oh yes, I recognize these. One that bugs me is “don’t use to-be verbs”. Of course there is such a thing as too many, but sometimes when I read something where every one has been cut out it feels overwritten. I spend all my time trying to keep track of what the anger boiling, the nerves quaking, the love coiling, the fear encroaching, the relief seeping, that I can’t pay attention to the story.
@Amber: I couldn’t agree with you more! To-be verbs are very important, otherwise they wouldn’t be so common! Sometimes you just need to say what you need to say without the gymnastics. You are so right that trying to replace them all makes a story seem overwritten and stilted. ‘He was cold,’ might work better than ‘Shivers wracked his body.’ It all depends on how important the fact he’s cold is. 🙂
Kudos to you for the twist in your book, Lynn. The rule I’m struggling with atm is that H/h should meet in a cataclysmic or developing situation. Could you have them meet in any ordinary way and the situation could develop later. I mean what’s wrong with seeing a guy/girl at the party and the story taking off from there without someone spilling the wine or holding a threat over the heroine?
@Summer: Your story should always start at a point of change (oops, there I went with an always — but that one is kinda really true). Something about this day should be different than any other day for the character. And maybe it *is* meeting someone at a party.
Something needs to be going on, though it doesn’t have to be so obvious as spilled wine or a threat. It just needs to be a moment of change where life can’t go on the same as it has been before. Think of movies – they all begin with something changing for the main character. There may be a few minutes of a completely normal life on the screen, but something always happens. Could be as innocuous as getting a letter, but there’s always a catalyst for change.
That’s all you need. The catalyst and the knowledge that everything is about to change forever. Remember, happy people doing happy things isn’t a story. We need something to happen. 🙂
Great post Lynn, it is so true what you say about the unpublished looking for the answer. (I am!) I think we can end up trying so hard to do things by the rules that the emotion and the writers voice are lost. At the end of the day if the first page grabs the editor and they can’t wait to read the rest then I’m sure they will help sort out the broken rules. I think the POV rule is the one I see most, and yet as a reader as long as I can tell whose POV it is I’m quite happy – maybe its changing to the wrong POV, or not really having a good reason to swap that’s the bad bit?!
@Susie Medwell: Everything you said is correct! It’s the emotion that matters and slavish attention to the ‘rules’ only serves to dampen the emotions. And yes, I do think swapping when there’s no good reason is a big part of the POV issue. Plus swapping every sentence or paragraph. Ack!
The rules that drive me crazy generally have to do with verb forms. I’ve heard, “Don’t say, ‘He was leaning’–say, ‘He leaned.'” There’s a difference.
I’m all for tightening up prose, but one of the most fun things (and most frustrating things) about being a writer is searching for just the right word or phrase. Sometimes it’s “he leaned,” and sometimes it’s “he was leaning.”
@Amanda: I agree completely!! You’ll find plenty of ‘was’ in my books. 🙂
When I first started writing, I was told to keep it to one POV per scene. So whenever I wanted to change POV, I thought I had to change scenes. Although I do tend to have one POV in most scene, it is definitely not the case in all scenes. So glad I dared to branch out from this false rule.
I would love to have you read my first five pages, Lynn!
@Marcy: That’s good, Marcy! You have to learn control, I believe, and then play with it. 🙂
Rules – Maybe I’m not looking for a rule so much as a guideline… 🙂
But the one I think I agree with is to look at your ‘he said/she said’ tags.
I’m listening to a book on cd (tape just sounds better) and I started counting the tags. It drove me crazy and all I could hear was Jessie said. Alexis said.
On and on, she said.
@Lynn: That’s a good one, Lynn! He said/she said can also get old. I think mixing it up a bit isn’t a bad thing.
“Show don’t tell”. OK, I confess, I DO need to work on my “show” skills – but I reckon that “tell” gets far too much bad rap.
@Shannon McEwan: Sometimes, telling it perfectly fine!
I can’t wait for this to come out! <3
@Mary E: Thanks Mary! It should be out on the 21st of February, though it might take a couple of days to hit the stores.
Hi Lynn
I’m too late for the competition. Oh well, there goes my whole writing career for one lost opportunity ;-].
Anyway just wanted to say thanks for the interesting POV on POVs. Have nearly finished one manuscript with no POV changes. HOpefully this is the expection that proves the rule .
Fi
@Fiona Marsden: Glad if the post helped you at all! A whole manuscript in one POV? Well, first person never changes POV, so why not? You never know. 🙂
@Lynn Raye Harris: Funny thing, I just opened up an ebook that had three POVs in the first page. And yes it was distracting and yes it was a well known author. A third party point of view along with the H and h. Story is interesting enough to keep going but I’ll be interested to see if the muliple POVs settle down.
@Fiona Marsden: Uh oh. I hope it improves for you! I don’t care for all that bouncing around either, truthfully.
Just finished The Devils Heart and realised I didn’t even notice the POV changes. I’m sure we did get some nice hero pov but it just shows how smoothly it can be done by a pro.
Fi
@Fiona Marsden: Thank you so much, Fiona! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
@Lynn Raye Harris: It’s so nice pretending to be a wannabe author so reading romance novels becomes homework. Just finished Behind Palace Walls/Voronov’s Virgin. Loved it. Carefully studied the smooth POV changes as part of my technical education .