Blogging from A to Z challenge: B is for Breaking Rules

For the A to Z challenge, I had to pick a topic starting with a “B” today. I chose “Breaking Rules” (hey, breaking starts with a B!).

There are some rules when writing a book. Like, the hero has to save the day, at the end. Or how you shouldn’t write in second person POV, how you should show the reader what happens instead of telling them, how an omniscient narrator is so passé and should not be used, and about how you should structure your book, with a beginning, middle and end. Don’t kill main characters, or at least don’t kill all of them. Good things happen to good people, and in the end, good needs to be rewarded. Bad guys need to have bad stuff happen to them.

Those rules (or guidelines, if you want) are there for a reason. If your book has no logical start, middle or end, it’ll probably suck. If you write in second person POV, then you need to be one heck of an author to pull that off. If at the end of the book, good doesn’t prevail, then your readers might get dissapointed. If the bad guys come out victorious, your readers may even start a riot.

But sometimes, you just have to say: screw those rules.

Let’s take a look at George R.R Martin, and his Song of Ice and Fire series. Why are those books so darn good? Because they take a look at these rules for fiction writing, and they laugh them in the face. No one is save in those books. Good people die. Bad people end up sitting on the Iron Throne. Good doesn’t win at the end of the day. There is no Deus-Ex-Machina who appears at the end, to save the world from certain doom.

And in a way, that’s a lot more realistic than books where good always wins, and bad always loses. Because in real life, that’s certainly not the case.

So sometimes you have to break the rules. If you want to write a book without  clear beginning, middle or end, go for it. If you want to write a book in second person POV, give it a shot. If you want the bad guys to win, then by all means, go ahead.

I’m writing a novella right now, and I’m breaking most, if not all, of the rules mentioned above. And you know what? It’s fun, refreshing and exciting.