5. The Rules

Of course, rules are meant to be broken, but I generally found all of these to be helpful in some way. At this point, it’s worth me repeating a few of the writing rules I defined in my book ‘Paperboy’ (to read the rest, see the book!) Fiction means you can make things up. Don’t be ashamed of embarrassing yourself. Ask yourself what your hero really wants. When you imagine your story can’t go further, go further. You don’t always need to explain why people do things. Everyone has the same feelings; they just think differently. You have to love something about your hero. Always keep the story moving forward. Characters who contradict themselves are more human. Dialogue is not conversation. It’s better to do than to describe. Life is a mess to which fiction brings a shape. There’s a difference between being realistic and being believable. Make sure that something always remains hidden. Nobody knows why people fall in love. And the story of Miss Bracegirdle mentioned earlier? Mortified, she hides under the bed, not knowing that the man beneath the sheets is dead. Her escape from the room involves a trick with matches, a candle and a hairpin. After her adventure she writes home, but her letter is only filled with mundane news. Its in her character to be reticent, and that means avoiding sensationalism. So, this is a story that achieves all of our opening aims; to entertain, to surprise, to reveal a truth and to touch the reader. There are many more subjects we should touch upon; style and language, adding emotional colour, trick endings, censorship, first person versus third person stories - if anyone's interested, I'll come back to them at a later date. Meanwhile, as always, I'm happy to answer your questions.