Into the Fire

Okay, over and over again on the professional—and otherwise—writing sites you will hear, read, notice, whatever, the “rules” of writing. You know the drill: show don’t tell, active not passive verbs, forget the adverbs and even the adjectives, eliminate POV shifts known as head hopping—a sure sign of a beginner writer. Uh huh.

So guess how the pros get around “head hopping”? They simply allow writers to begin a separate chapter and label it with a different character’s name, often using first person POV for each new character. A simple solution. Oh yes, they still use the space break within chapters to switch POVs, but it looks as though the chapter breaks and first person POV is quite popular right now. Can you say “trendy”?

So an “amateur” writer juggles POVs within a chapter, maybe includes a few italics for the inner thoughts of individuals in the scene, but he’s “head hopping”. Yeah. Okay.

Now I know an inexperienced writer is capable of doing the POV shifts without much skill, and it is possible to confuse the story and the reader in doing so. It’s just that each of the so-called rules is repeated so convincingly that whenever the publisher breaks these rules in their novels—people, mostly writers, get really confused.

Can we just be honest here? There are ways to make a story read better. There are words to make a story more interesting and enticing. There are methods which amp up a story or give it a meandering pace to produce a mood. And pretty much all are acceptable to readers who like the gist of the story.

The whole publishing industry is built on the notion that without great writing readers won’t buy books. Guess what? That’s not true. In fact, the notion doesn’t really have any basis in fact if your measuring gauge is sales, and I don’t think the head honchos really believe it does either, but they have to issue the platitudes to bolster their credibility. Now if you’re a writer and you like the words of a novel to sing to you or zing you back and forth like a laser weapon, you’ll recognize what you require to satisfy your tastes and create your opinions based on certain requirements, whether or not the author writes well enough to prompt you to comment on his work or purchase more of his books. The standards for readers who are not writers or teachers or professionals in the biz are much simpler. Dare I say less sophisticated? Granted, there are some pretty heady readers, but I’d be willing to bet the numbers aren’t particularly high without background of some kind in literature.

Anyway, the important thing is to write a good story with meaningful, lifelike characters even if they’re quirky, murky, or jerky. Draw people into your story. Tell it with flavor and flair. Use the voice God has given you. Write your passion. Do it well. Have fun. And let God direct your steps.

Father, you are in charge. Help me to yield to you always. You are the One who knows the plan. You have my best interests in your heart. You care for me. Thank you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

**CFBA features Wounded (a love story) by Claudia Mair Burney to open this week. The book arrived late, but I will do my best to have my review posted on Wednesday.**