Some Useful and Rather Unmild Advice

WOW.

I read the article below and I was nodding and cringing at the same time. Nevertheless, I believe this post by author Russell Blake is a must-read for writers.

http://russellblake.com/in-praise-of-bad-writing/

Personally, I'm a fan of having a character arc. Which guideline (aka rule) will you probably always follow?

Comments

Loree Huebner said…
Wow! I want to read that again...and chew on it.
October 29, 2012 at 8:31 AM
Sandra Orchard said…
What a freeing article! Although I must admit that the rules like "limit adverbs" have instilled good habits in me, like always digging deeper for a stronger verb.
October 29, 2012 at 8:36 AM
Unknown said…
You know, I totally think it comes down to knowing when and how to break the rules. And possibly that's more gut instinct than anything else, but I'm not willing to toss out every rule I ever learned...nor do I wanted to be trapped by them. There's gotta be a sweet in-between. :)
October 29, 2012 at 9:30 AM
Cindy R. Wilson said…
I limit adverbs and definitely believe showing not telling is good. But see, all those examples he gave of the exceptions are general market fiction. I DO read some Christian fiction that ignores the rules a little, but for the most part, there is a lot of rule following going on. And THOSE are the books I'm learning from, so I guess I'm a rule follower, too.
October 29, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Jessica Nelson said…
Loree, I feel like I'm chewing on it too. I was surprised and interested in what he said about wine. Never knew that!

Very true, Sandra. Knowing about rules does push us to make our writing stronger.

Agreed, Melissa! :-)

Cindy, wow, very interesting point about the difference in CBA and ABA. I think I'm going to ponder that a little too...
October 29, 2012 at 10:59 AM
Erica Vetsch said…
That was...frank...and rang with truth. I just finished a novel by a Pulitzer-prize nominated author and my first thought was "If she'd entered the first 50 pages in a contest, she'd have finished dead last."

It was all telling, a brief overview of a famous person's childhood, that set up the rest of the story.

But it worked for that novel.
October 29, 2012 at 11:02 AM
Georgiana Daniels said…
"I think one needs to know the rules, and then judiciously apply them, and chuck them if you feel the need." <--- That is GREAT advice from the article. The rules are well drilled into my head, and I often wonder if CBA is a little more rigid in requiring them in ABA, or if that's an illusion put out by the close-knit CBA community.
October 29, 2012 at 11:09 AM
Linda Kage said…
Ooh, I liked the article! It gives me hope...as a bad writer, that maybe I'll be okay. As a reader, I prefer compelling stories over well-written stories too!
October 29, 2012 at 11:09 AM
Jessica Nelson said…
Erica, true! Sometimes we need that backstory, I think, esp. for certain genres.

Georgiana, the more I think on it, the more I think it's a CBA thing.

Linda, I loved your book I read! It was SO good.
October 29, 2012 at 11:18 AM
Lindsay Harrel said…
Interesting article. I'm in the camp that says you have to know the rules before you can break them. You need to have a good reason for breaking them.
October 29, 2012 at 11:27 AM
Patti said…
What a great article and it's so true. I recently read a best selling author who uses three adverbs in the first paragraph of the book and it's considered to be a well written book. Thanks for the link.
October 29, 2012 at 12:07 PM
Jessica Nelson said…
You're welcome! I thought it was an interesting article too.
October 29, 2012 at 12:50 PM
Brandi Boddie said…
I gave a sigh of relief. It is a freeing article. For so long, there have been all of these rules upon rules of what you MUST do in order to be a published author, but we all can name at least 5 books we've read recently that didn't follow the advice of what we've been taught. I think the publishing world is changing. People are looking for stories to be entertained. I can think of few people that actually read what's deemed to be quality literature. I also think it's mostly a CBA thing.
October 29, 2012 at 12:52 PM
Susanne Dietze said…
Interesting article--I'm glad you shared, Jessica! I limit adverbs, but sometimes, nothing else will do. I agree: know the rules and know when you need to tweak them a bit.
October 29, 2012 at 1:26 PM
Jessica Nelson said…
Brandi, I also see these rules talked out a lot by writers but not so much by editors...

Susanne, I forget to look for adverbs! LOL I probably should...
October 29, 2012 at 1:31 PM
Susan J. Reinhardt said…
Hi Jess,

Ah, but try to get what he describes as a poorly written book past an agent or editor! With the number of writers out there, they want not only a compelling story, but also a well-written one.

As a reader, I may enjoy a story, but experience confusion that pulls me out of it. I don't think this is an either/or issue. We need both story and stellar writing.

Blessings,
Susan :)
October 29, 2012 at 7:36 PM
Jeanette Levellie said…
That was an excellent article! Thanks for sharing it. I've heard other experts say the same kind of things. And you can really spot a novice writer who's trying too hard to keep all the rules--their writing sounds stilted and fake.

Happy Day,
Jen
October 30, 2012 at 12:11 PM
Bethany Crandell said…
WHOA!! I suddenly feel a little better about my own writing skills. I'm the family FUBAR when it comes to rules (grammatical or otherwise). This dude is right--owning the story and creating something tasty is far more important that making sure it's written "just so."
October 30, 2012 at 6:49 PM
Stacy Henrie said…
Thanks for sharing this, Jessica! What a great article. I love how he says the most important thing is a well-told story, and what that is sort of up to us as authors.
October 31, 2012 at 8:40 PM
Karen Lange said…
I will check it out. Thanks for the tip! :)
November 1, 2012 at 10:02 AM
Sarah Forgrave said…
I've studied character arcs too much in the last two years to NOT implement them in a story, LOL. Thanks for sharing the link, Jessica!
November 1, 2012 at 11:18 AM
Jessica Nelson said…
Hahaaa, Sarah!

You're welcome, Karen. :-)

Me too, Stacy.
November 1, 2012 at 4:18 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We All Got to Learn to Do It Sometime

*grossness alert* We all have to learn to deal with doo-doo eventually. Consider me a newbie mom, but it never occurred to me that my son should be wiping himself until about a month before kindergarten. And then the flashbulb went on and I scrambled to teach him. One problem. He didn't want to. He's fastidious and doesn't like to make mistakes, so the thought of taking care of this daily chore literally reduced him to screaming and crying on the toilet. Basically, he didn't trust himself. He was afraid. Scared to get his hands dirty. Afraid he'd miss something. This is probably weird, but it made me think of us as writers. There comes a point where we have to "grow up" and trust ourselves. We can't always rely on a crit group, agent, or editor to wipe up our mess. I think this should be a part of maturation for every writer, that we can look at our work and be confident in our ability to clean it up. Not saying we'll make it perfect or that we won...
Read more

Work First, Play Later

I'm back! I had a wonderful time with my family. Thank you all for asking. :-) In 2009 my schedule evolved into a blog first/write later kind of thing. It happened that way because my husband began using the computer in the afternoons and evenings for his project, but now that I have a router, my schedule's changing. It's time to work first, play later. That means I do my chores/errands in the morning, write at naptime, and visit your wonderful blogs in the afternoons and evenings. So if I don't show up in the morning, don't be alarmed (if you even notice, lol). I'm just changing things up. I'm too exhausted in the evening to write, that's why. During the day I have way more energy to write but at night there's a fifty percent chance I won't do it because I'm so tired. When's the best time for you to write? I also need to shout out my awesome crit partner, Linda Glaz! Some of you may have met her at ACFW. She's a wonderful, faithful, ...
Read more

Melodramatic Mother

Mom, this one's for you. *wink* The other day we were on the phone and my mom was describing some of her ailments to me. She's normally a healthy person, but she does suffer from allergies and sinus issues. She's also a vivid person and this comes across in her language. In this case, she told me her pain was skewering up through her nose. Skewering. She never finished the description because I laughed. What a perfect word! Strong, to the point, I had an exact (if somewhat gross) image of what was happening. Do you have a vivid person in your life? Someone who thinks in ways you forget to? And in your WIP, are you using the strongest verb possible to convey EXACTLY what you mean?
Read more