Bending Some of the Rules by KM Rockwood

We’re all familiar with various “rules of writing,” from various sources.

The concept of “show, don’t tell” is often attributed to Russian writer Anton Chekov, who said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

Painting a picture with words encourages readers to picture the scene in their minds, creates a bond with between reader and author, and serves to carry the story along vividly.

At the same time, I realize that some of my favorite authors do a lot of telling in their work, and it works well for me. I love Margaret Yorke’s psychological suspense, and when I started looking at her writing, as opposed to just reading it, I was surprised at how much telling she did. She has a real knack of swooping up volumes of information succinctly and spreading out an entire character or visual scene with just a few sentences or paragraphs. Action scenes and dialogue is interspersed seamlessly, and the tale proceeds merrily on its way.

Which brings us to the tenth of Elmore Leonard’s “Ten Rules of Writing.” He tells us to skip writing the boring parts.

One quick tell, “The next morning..,” can cut through an entire boring show of getting up, attending to daily hygiene, fixing coffee, etc. I know that when I get started trying to establish a scene like this with shows, I end up with a tedious recital of morning routine. And I should just skip the boring parts.

Even there, I’ve seen exceptions. Don Westlake’s Dortmunder series, the genial, uncomplicated getaway driver Stan Murch is given to mind-numbing descriptions of what routes he’s taking and why. It is pretty boring (and I do skim over it) but it’s such an appropriate way to show his character that it’s essential to the story.

Kurt Vonnegut has “8 Basics of Creative Writing.” He starts with “Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted,” and proceeds to seven more. However, he concludes with an addendum: “The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.”

Henry Miller has one rule I know I should embrace, but haven’t. I always have myriad ideas and ventures floating around in my mind, often several active projects at various stages and a few on the back burner. One bit of advice he offers is “Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.” I’m sure adhering to that would greatly improve both project completion and my satisfaction in my writing.