There Are No Rules!

I read two books in the past week that successfully pulled off things that are traditionally very difficult, which made me consider how the authors accomplished it.

From www.goodreads.com

First up is Beautiful Malice, by Rebecca James. The story is told in three different time periods, and, unless I'm mistaken, two are in the present tense. What is surprising is that I was never confused as to what place in time I was in each time it switched. I think this is partially because each time period had a distinct set of characters that didn't overlap, and the subject matter of each was very focused. The middle time period covered the most ground in terms of length, while the past and present portions were very focused.

Also, despite all of the changing in time I never felt overwhelmed by backstory. The past was told when it was necessary to inform the rest of the story, and always just enough to move it forward but little enough that the persisting questions kept me hooked.

From www.elizabethnoblebooks.com

Then I read Things I Want My Daughters to Know, by Elizabeth Noble. This novel was told from five different close-third person point of views, and in any given paragraph the point of view changed a few times. Each section was titled with the name of the character that would be focused on the most, which was helpful, but the narration certainly didn't stick with that character.

I think that this easily could have made what was a great concept and good writing unapproachable, but it worked. In my opinion, namely because the novel didn't belong to any one character. I wasn't more attached to one sister over the other, and each of their independent stories strengthened the common, unifying plot line - life after the death of a mom/wife.

Now I don't know that I'm going to be trying to do either of these any time soon, but as I read these books back-to-back I was reminded of something that is both an incredible and frightening aspect of writing - there are no rules!


This fits in well with a quote I just re-read:

Imagine Milton enrolling in a graduate program for help with Paradise Lost, or Kafka enduring the seminar in which his classmates inform him that, frankly, they just don't believe the part about the guy waking up one morning to find he's a giant bug. - From Reading Like a Writer, by Francine Prose

Just because something is difficult, rarely done, and advised against doesn't mean it is impossible to do well, which is why I think it's helpful to consider how it has worked in other writing. Now I don't think we should all go crazy and have ten narrators in a single story, but I think we should follow our instincts.  Get creative. Take a risk every once in awhile.

What's the biggest risk you've ever taken in your writing? What books have you read that successfully did something risky?