I need Substack to give me a few dozen more like buttons to smash here. Hamish McKenzie, please get on that.
What you're discussing here in terms of the pitfalls of the postmodern "I don't need no rules" style of writing versus those that come with pure and rigid adherence to a rubric hit on the lessons I learned when I studied fiction in college. From what I've seen among our contemporaries who play around with our theme days and try to make our marks as independents, I'm the only one who's done this, and I can tell you now the approach that my professors took was a world apart from the instructor you encountered. Writing absolutely has rules and fundamentals, both on the technical and creative sides. No matter what process is taken to do so, I consider learning them to be a necessity, and by that same vein I consider learning how to properly break them necessary as well.
The rules and fundamentals of fiction will give you the solid foundation needed to build your story. Learning how to bend and break them based on the needs of your writing is how you develop your style.
I'm glad you put your hat in for this since I didn't know you have this kind of knowledge/experience. I definitely didn't expect that, lol. From what I know, most "indie authors" are of the autodidact kind. I even remember one author who bragged about his lack of formal education on the matter and thinks that it's a hindrance for writing a good story (not gonna name him because I'm saying this based on memory and I don't want to call him out like that). And honestly, that seems to be the general consensus in that circle.
Depending on the kind of formal education he's referring to, I can understand why he'd have that sentiment. The instructor you ran into is a good example of that, and I know that there were and are college courses out there which don't take the same workshop approach mine did. The reason that particular approach is so successful, and why it's the one I stump for when it comes to any sort of formal education in writing, is because it gets everyone in the class directly involved with the process. This helped us think not only about how to write, revise, and edit effectively, but also on how best to give and take critique. There's plenty of classes that don't take this approach, though, and they can sometimes suffer for it.
In fact, a young friend of mine who's in college currently is experiencing this for himself with his editing professor. The man's supposed to be teaching his class how to correctly edit scripts for television, shows, and stage plays, but instead spends much of his time acting like the big name director he never got to be and teaching the students his personal method instead of the industry standard. If it wasn't for the fact his dad used to be a producer and playwright himself, thus exposing my friend to the correct methods and fundamentals from a very young age, he might not have recognized just how damaging his editing professor's approach is.
I feel like some people say “there are no rules in writing” or “there should be no rules in writing” because they fear that these rules would make writing formulaic. I also think that one’s attitude about whether or not there are rules for writing depends on whether they see it as just a hobby or something they take more seriously.
LOVED this response article, dude you really got more in depth and in more detail than I did and I fully support that! Mine was meant to be a generalist and response type article, and here you are delving into the Journey then going from there into some of the nitty-gritty. This is the perfect complimentary essay to my own.
I love that you reference the deeper parts of researching 'counterpoint' as I like to call it, the refinement of prose, technique and other such parts of what I call as said 'Counterpoint'. That's the really big hard part, and the part I prefer to pour attention into when writing after dealing with the world-building. World-Building is fun and easy, Archetypes are fun, Prose is tough and requires hard work, and a thousand 'swings' so to speak until you get it right (it does get fun after awhile).
Love this essay, mind if I link to it, in my upcoming analysis of Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces first chapter essay and podcast? I'd love to bring more attention to this essay.
I think this was a great and helpful article. I am not sure if you are aware of my indie Tropes & Archetypes series, but I always emphasized that authors should build upon a stable foundation, yet be adaptable for growth's and innovation's sake. Here is one of my articles:
Very cool, and I love that you use your stories as an example. That takes confidence.
Also like that you linked something about villains. Personally, I think villains is something that I should work on as a writer. There are some villains in my stories that I think are pretty good, but otherwise I tend to focus on the heroes because those guys are my favorites.
I need Substack to give me a few dozen more like buttons to smash here. Hamish McKenzie, please get on that.
What you're discussing here in terms of the pitfalls of the postmodern "I don't need no rules" style of writing versus those that come with pure and rigid adherence to a rubric hit on the lessons I learned when I studied fiction in college. From what I've seen among our contemporaries who play around with our theme days and try to make our marks as independents, I'm the only one who's done this, and I can tell you now the approach that my professors took was a world apart from the instructor you encountered. Writing absolutely has rules and fundamentals, both on the technical and creative sides. No matter what process is taken to do so, I consider learning them to be a necessity, and by that same vein I consider learning how to properly break them necessary as well.
The rules and fundamentals of fiction will give you the solid foundation needed to build your story. Learning how to bend and break them based on the needs of your writing is how you develop your style.
I'm glad you put your hat in for this since I didn't know you have this kind of knowledge/experience. I definitely didn't expect that, lol. From what I know, most "indie authors" are of the autodidact kind. I even remember one author who bragged about his lack of formal education on the matter and thinks that it's a hindrance for writing a good story (not gonna name him because I'm saying this based on memory and I don't want to call him out like that). And honestly, that seems to be the general consensus in that circle.
Depending on the kind of formal education he's referring to, I can understand why he'd have that sentiment. The instructor you ran into is a good example of that, and I know that there were and are college courses out there which don't take the same workshop approach mine did. The reason that particular approach is so successful, and why it's the one I stump for when it comes to any sort of formal education in writing, is because it gets everyone in the class directly involved with the process. This helped us think not only about how to write, revise, and edit effectively, but also on how best to give and take critique. There's plenty of classes that don't take this approach, though, and they can sometimes suffer for it.
In fact, a young friend of mine who's in college currently is experiencing this for himself with his editing professor. The man's supposed to be teaching his class how to correctly edit scripts for television, shows, and stage plays, but instead spends much of his time acting like the big name director he never got to be and teaching the students his personal method instead of the industry standard. If it wasn't for the fact his dad used to be a producer and playwright himself, thus exposing my friend to the correct methods and fundamentals from a very young age, he might not have recognized just how damaging his editing professor's approach is.
Great insights here, man!
Reminds me of that Tumblr post that says how Tolkien would get destroyed by modern writing workshops.
I feel like some people say “there are no rules in writing” or “there should be no rules in writing” because they fear that these rules would make writing formulaic. I also think that one’s attitude about whether or not there are rules for writing depends on whether they see it as just a hobby or something they take more seriously.
LOVED this response article, dude you really got more in depth and in more detail than I did and I fully support that! Mine was meant to be a generalist and response type article, and here you are delving into the Journey then going from there into some of the nitty-gritty. This is the perfect complimentary essay to my own.
I love that you reference the deeper parts of researching 'counterpoint' as I like to call it, the refinement of prose, technique and other such parts of what I call as said 'Counterpoint'. That's the really big hard part, and the part I prefer to pour attention into when writing after dealing with the world-building. World-Building is fun and easy, Archetypes are fun, Prose is tough and requires hard work, and a thousand 'swings' so to speak until you get it right (it does get fun after awhile).
Love this essay, mind if I link to it, in my upcoming analysis of Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces first chapter essay and podcast? I'd love to bring more attention to this essay.
Go right ahead 👍. Glad you enjoyed this.
Thanks and yay!
I think this was a great and helpful article. I am not sure if you are aware of my indie Tropes & Archetypes series, but I always emphasized that authors should build upon a stable foundation, yet be adaptable for growth's and innovation's sake. Here is one of my articles:
https://theblackknight.substack.com/p/the-quest-for-thy-hate?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Very cool, and I love that you use your stories as an example. That takes confidence.
Also like that you linked something about villains. Personally, I think villains is something that I should work on as a writer. There are some villains in my stories that I think are pretty good, but otherwise I tend to focus on the heroes because those guys are my favorites.
Thank you fro your kind words. I embrace everything of my own, including the numerous mistakes, because this is how I grew as an author.
If you like, read the first few articles of my Tropes & Archetypes are all about the villain basics, with a couple of mods to boot :D
I think nietzsche was right about postmodernism. It's not right or left, but people more intent on deconstucting, destroying, than creating