The Rules I Broke

I’m a rule follower. Maybe a better characterization is that I believe experts when they tell me there’s “a way” to do a thing. When I was beginning my writing career, the “way” was to get short stories published in fine literary journals. At the same time, you worked on a novel. The theory was an agent would read your story in one of those journals and came clamoring at your door to rep your novel. Sounds quaint, doesn’t it? Yet, I followed that strategy long beyond its efficacy. Then came When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women. It’s hard to count the number of rules I broke with this novel.

First, I didn’t write toward publication. I wrote the novel for my own puredee entertainment. Oh, I’d think, then how about this? If I was having fun, I was succeeding.

Second, I had no audience in mind, unless you count me as an audience, which I’m not sure I can be writer and audience unless I move really fast from one side of the desk to the other.

Third, I didn’t follow the rules of my genre. I didn’t even have a genre. WWWMTTW is a literary fantasy that draws from family lore and mixes it with historical mishmash. Kind of like me.

Fourth, I wrote short chapters. Really short. As in three or four pages. When I read a book, even if I like the work, I tend to flip ahead to see how long until the chapter ends. I short-circuited that. (I ended none of the chapters on the characters going to bed for the night, though; I’m not totally unprincipled.)

Fifth, I addressed the reader directly. As in, “I am so sorry, but before I disclose who wanted the Dauphine dead, I need you to bear with one more interruption (I’ll be quick, I promise.)”

Sixth, I did not pass the manuscript around to Beta readers and get unlimited feedback. I had a trusted Beta reader. I submitted to one contest and placed. That was that was that.

Seventh, I sent it to a handful of agents and quit. I decided I wasn’t going to get into that again. Three times, I placed three different manuscripts in the hands of professionals who promised to sell them and could not. You know the definition of insanity? I wasn’t doing that again.

Eighth, I went with the first small press that showed interest. Of course, I researched the press. I even interviewed the publisher. I assured myself I would have an editor who related to my work. But I didn’t think, ooooh—if they like it, maybe a bigger press will too. I said yes to my first offer.

By saying how I broke the rules, I’m not saying I’m so smart and all those folks following the rules are dumb bunnies. I’m saying the rules weren’t working for me, and I quit following them.

I recently read a blog post by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar quoting Churchill as saying, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Abdul-Jabbar proved the truth of the quote by sharing his own experience during key basketball games. Typically, I will go down with the ship, believing in another Churchill quote: “Never, never, never, never give up.” (Which isn’t even accurate; the quote is, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.” An entirely different concept.)

I examined my strategy. I pivoted. My novel won.