The Musts, continued...

Continuing a List of Five things you Must Do to Write a Novel

3. You must be willing to follow some rules

"But why?" you're asking. What if I want to break ALL the rules?

You not only won't, but you can't. Yes, there are rule-breaking (and ground breaking) novels. But they don't break ALL the rules. However loosely some novels conform to the genre, they are still recognizable as novels because they are 1) stories, 2) conform to a certain length and 3) reference certain aspects of human existence.

So a novel-writer, even a bad novel-writer, needs to know a few rules. That's why I'll be talking about some of them.

If you want to break all the rules, then you aren't writing a novel - you're writing something else. Go ahead with my blessings, and good luck.

4. You must be able to break some rules

On the other hand, if you're looking for a step-by-step, how-to manual, abandon hope now. Your inspiration, your working methods, your characters, your settings, your dialogue - all these things are unique to you. No one can manufacture your voice for you.

Others can help; you can (and should) seek out, and try on, techniques that work for other writers (and writers luv to write about writing, so that's easy pickings). Just don't pretend that these "try-ons" can substitute for real comfort with writing - the sort of comfort that will give you the stamina needed for a novel.

In the end, no one can tell what, or how, to write. You have to figure that out for yourself. You even have to figure out how to figure it out for yourself.

That's the fun part.

Final "must" (drum roll, please) coming tomorrow....