Being a Better Writer: Breaking Rules in Narration · 9:47pm February 3rd
Welcome back, writers! Being a Better Writer is here, and we’ve got a pretty interesting—and sometimes contentious—topic on our docket today. So sit back, grab your fictional beverage of choice, and let’s talk about writing.
Right after the news. Which is short, trust me. First up, LTUE is coming, and if you don’t know what that is, check out last week’s news update. But if you’re a writer, there’s no where else you should want to be February 13th-15th this year.
Second, Axtara 3, AKA Armies and Accounting, has entered the home stretch. Again, more on that at the news link. So I’ll leave that to be expanded there.
Now let’s talk writing.
Today’s topic is a contentious one, which may surprise some of you. Sands, it certainly surprised me back when I first ran afoul of it over a decade ago online. Coming out of a college degree in English, I was at times quite shocked by some of the stances held by self-ascribed “experts” that were at odds with everything I’d learned (and experienced) from the broader writing world.
Let me set the stage for you a little more, reader. Today’s topic is Breaking the Rules in Narration, and it’s one of those things that surprisingly shocks and upsets some. Years ago, as alluded above, I interacted with several writing communities online that were held in the sway of some self-proclaimed “experts.” Except … those experts were pretty, shall we say, questionable in their knowledge and their execution. In fact, I’d refer quite honestly to a number of them as “detractors.” I recall one instance which I’ve alluded to before in which one of them, determined to prove me wrong about a rule of grammar, demanded that I find evidence that it was something that could be done in a specific style guide, that being the one they held as sacrosanct above all others. When I delivered the very page and paragraph which said that yes, it was something one could do in a book, they refused to acknowledge the page existed.
Now, that was specifically with regards to rules around the term “said” and closing dialogue tags, which isn’t our topic today. But the same mentality and approach reared its head several times with what we’re talking about today. Some of you might be wondering why I’m going with such a long lead-in, but it’s for a purpose: I wish to illustrate the tenacity with which some cling to a set opinion about our topic today, and the lengths of desperation they’ll go through in order to make it sacrosanct.
See, several times in the past I butted heads with “experts” who claimed that there was NEVER any excuse for narration breaking grammar rules. Ever. At all. Period. Dialogue, they argued as well, should also forgo accuracy and voice in exchange for being correct, with only the barest slip here or there regardless of the character, but narration? It was holy. Never to be defiled by something like voice. Even if it was first person.
Naturally, I pulled out examples to the contrary, including the works of Mark Twain, whose narrative voice across many of his works is certainly not “grammatically correct” but instead used to amplify the voice and personality of the characters within. If you’ve read Twain (and if you have not, I highly recommend it, as he is regarded as one of the Great American Writers with good reason), you know exactly what I’m talking about.
The reaction that came about because of this, however, was quite frankly astonishing. One of the foremost of these “experts” revealed his hand to many of the others present when they posted what could really only be called a rant about Twain, lambasting both him and anyone who read him with insults and derogatory terms. They declared, in no uncertain terms, that Twain was a hack, who no one should ever read, and no one should consider a great writer, much less a Great American Writer, and that Twain should never be used as an example of anything as his work was awful to read, boorish to the extreme, and—as you can probably guess—showed no grasp at all of grammar or the rules of writing, as the example I had just offered proved.
Yeah … not exactly a great showing from the self-proclaimed “expert.” But it did illustrate, and to this day, still does, a divide I’ve seen in writing groups across the web. Because despite evidence to the contrary being abundant in, oh, most books, there are those who hold, be it in reviews, or espoused as an “expert,” that narration should never be grammatically incorrect. And from time to time, I see this idea rear its ugly head, infecting another group of young writers and encouraging them to press out all voice, character, and individuality from their narration.
Hit the jump, and let’s dive into things.
