M. B. Weston's Official Website

I have a few questions for those who work in the publishing industry:

• Would you turn down a manuscript in which the first 4 pages featured nothing but exposition, i.e. no dialogue whatsoever?
• Would you turn down a manuscript geared toward 9-11 year olds that was over 60 thousand words long?
• Would you turn down a manuscript with at least 6 to 8 passive voice sentences in just the first chapter?
• What about a manuscript riddled with adverbs–especially dialogue attribution adverbs?

Congratulations. You just turned down Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And you missed out on all that luscious cash.

I've seen headlines, blogs, and tweets about the impending death of the publishing industry, many of them linking it to the rise of e-books and e-book readers. I suspect, however, that the publishing industry's problems run deeper than just technological advances.

My past few posts have focused on a few writing rules J. K. Rowling broke–writing rules publisher, agents, and editors often insist authors follow. Rowling submitted Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to several publishing houses before finally getting a book deal. No one knows the reasons those publishers turned down Potter, but I have a few suspicions.

Could it be that publishers spend more time focusing on what they think sells books instead of what actually sells books? Harry Potter didn't fit in the publishing industry's box of what they thought could sell. It exploded out of it.

What can we learn from J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter?

• A captivating story trumps all writing rules. Write captivating stories. Buy captivating manuscripts.
• The publishing industry should concentrate less on finding manuscripts that fit in their rules and their "boxes" and more on finding captivating stories. Lose the fear and allow yourself a little creativity.
• Writers should focus on writing captivating stories and worry about the rules later.
• That being said, writers should still be aware of industry standard rules. Learn the craft. Play the game. Sometimes in order to get your captivating story out there, you've got to march to someone else's drum.

What do you think? Has the publishing industry stopped concentrating on what makes a story sell?

This post is part of a mini-series of posts. Click below to read previous posts in the series.

• On Writing: How to Break the Rules & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Kill the Narrator Rule" & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Eliminate Passive Voice Rule" & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Eliminate Bland Adjectives Rule" & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Eliminate Adverbs Rule" & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Never Shift POVs Rule" & Get Away With It!

Fantasy novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason, which is being adapted into a graphic novel series by Wandering Sage Publications, Inc. Weston speaks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

The first writer's conference I attended was the Naples Press Club Writer's Conference in Naples, Florida,  2005 (I think). Anne Hawkins of John Hawkins Literary Agency spoke to us about what agents want. Her class and organization amazed me, and I remember my excitement at getting to listen to a real literary agent speak. That day, I learned about this little thing called POV, or point of view. No, I'm not talking about an opinion. I'm talking about the point of view from which you decide to tell your story.

Think of POV as the character who holds your story's camera. In an earlier post about killing your narrator, I mentioned the mental movie that plays in your reader's head. One of your characters is holding that mental camera, meaning you are showing your readers only what that particular character see and thinks. Some books, like the Nancy Drew series, use only one character's POV. Others, like my Elysian Chronicles series, use more than one POV. Most of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series is written from Harry's POV, but Rowling changes it up on occasion.

Anne Hawkins explained one of the publishing industry's rules regarding POV: You can switch POVs, but never switch in the middle of a scene, meaning don't let your characters pass the "camera" around. In the middle of a scene, keep inside the head of only one person. If you must switch POVs, use something physical, like a space between paragraphs or a chapter break to help your readers follow your story.

I knew immediately that my A Prophecy Forgotten manuscript had a problem. I rushed home after that conference and combed through my scenes, changing them so I kept the same POV throughout a scene. Looking back, those changes improved my manuscript–especially because I had not only been switching POVs within a scene, but also dimensions.

Why publishers, agents, and editors have this rule:

• Switching POVs between characters within a scene can often confuse readers. You want your readers sweating it out alongside your characters, not figuring out what's going on because you switched from John's POV to Fred's POV without warning.
• Too much POV changing disassociates your reader from your story. The "Fly on the Wall" POV where the narrator gets into everyone's head at random is called 3rd Person Omniscient–a technically correct POV, but one that is hard for readers to relate to. You want your reader to be involved in your story and to root for your protagonists. Readers will root more easily when you stick to a few POVs. Case in point: imagine if Rowling had given us more of Ron's POV–especially when Ron and Harry were fighting. We would feel confusion over who to root for, and possibly disassociate ourselves.

Rowling actually breaks this rule in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

• In the first chapter, she switches from Mr. Dursley's POV to Professor McGonagall's mid-paragraph: “Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness.”
• She switches numerous times during the 1st quidditch match, taking us from Harry to Hagrid to Harry to Hermione and so on.

Why breaking this rule worked: Rowling preserves the spirit of the "No POV Switching" rule. The purpose of the rule is to keep authors from confusing readers. In neither case does the reader become confused. I only even noticed it during my 7th time reading the book through because I've taught the rule so much. In fact, Rowling needed to switch POVs because Harry was on his broom and important action was taking place in the stands–action that affected the end of the story.

What this tells us about the craft of writing: The reader does not care whose POV you use as long as he or she does not get confused. That being said, however, try to stick to one POV in a scene except in unique circumstances. You will find sticking with one POV increases tension within your reader, and tension turns pages.

This post is part of a mini-series of posts. Click below to read previous posts in the series.

• On Writing: How to Break the Rules & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Kill the Narrator Rule" & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Eliminate Passive Voice Rule" & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Eliminate Bland Adjectives Rule" & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Eliminate Adverbs Rule" & Get Away With It!

Fantasy novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason, which is being adapted into a graphic novel series by Wandering Sage Publications, Inc. Weston speaks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

One of my favorite quotes from Stephen King is on page 125 of his book, On Writing: “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.” (King, Stephen. On Writing by Stephen King. A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Shribner, 2000.) I teach this same principle of eliminating adverbs in my workshops. My reasoning: the verb should be the strongest word in your sentence. If you have to modify it with an adverb, you need to choose a stronger verb. Granted, I litter my blogs with adverbs, but that’s because 1) I’m lazy and 2) days only have 24 hours. When God gives me 36 hours in a day, I’ll adjust my blogs. (My books are another matter.)

Why publishers, agents, and editors have this rule:

• As stated above, you can usually find a better verb.
• Overuse of adverbs leads to weak writing. (Anything we lean on as a crutch leads to weak writing.)

J. K. Rowling breaks this rule often, as many people point out to me during my workshops. Here are a few examples from just the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

• “…Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily…”
• “He eyed them angrily.”
• The nation’s owls have been behaving very unusually today.”
• “…his heart sinking horribly.”
• “Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.”
• “…she said impatiently.”

Why breaking this rule worked:

• Because story trumps adverb usage. If you can write a story as good as Harry Potter, by all means dump in as many adverbs as you want.
• Remember the Axiom to All Writing Rules discussed in my post about eliminating passive voice: Readers don’t know the rules. Readers don’t know that agents stand in front of us at writing conferences and complain about adverbs. Readers don’t know that all of our “how to write” literature tells us not to use adverbs. Readers want a good story. Period. End of statement. Give them what they want.

What this tells us about the craft of writing: Concentrate on writing a captivating story first. (More on how to do that in later blogs.) Eliminate your adverbs later.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post about shifting POV (point of view).

This post is part of a mini-series of posts. Click below to read previous posts in the series.

• On Writing: How to Break the Rules & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Kill the Narrator Rule" & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Eliminate Passive Voice Rule" & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Eliminate Bland Adjectives Rule" & Get Away With It!

Fantasy novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason, which is being adapted into a graphic novel series by Wandering Sage Publications, Inc. Weston speaks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

Stephen King, in his book On Writing, gives almost the best definition of passive voice I’ve read.

• “Verbs come in two types, active and passive. With an active verb, the subject of the sentence is doing something. With a passive verb, something is being done to the subject of the sentence. The subject is just letting it happen. You should avoid the passive tense. I’m not the only one who says so; you can find the same advice in The Elements of Style.” (King, Stephen. On Writing by Stephen King. A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Shribner, 2000. Page 122.)

King was referring to another good writing resource, Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, which discusses passive voice in Rule 14, entitled “Use active voice.” I highly recommend both books for anyone who wants to make writing a career, and I agree 100 percent with these fellows regarding passive voice. I actually include the rule: Eliminate Passive Voice in my writing workshop called “The Three Rules of Great Writing.”

Why publishers, agents, and editors have this rule: Passive voice slows down a story, and it uses useless words. My accounting textbook in college was written almost entirely in passive voice, and I fell asleep every time I read it. This is not an exaggeration. You'll find quite a few makeup stains and drool marks throughout its pages.

J. K. Rowling breaks this rule with a few passive voice sentences just in the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:

• “…there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that…”
• “There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privit Drive, but there wasn’t a map in site.”
• “But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of this mind by something else.”
• “…there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about.”
• “In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.”

She’s not the only one author who has dared to use passive voice in a story. John Grisham fills The Client with passive voice sentences. (Granted, he started out as a lawyer, and I suspect “Passive Voice As a Second Language 101” is a requirement for all law students before taking “Legal-ese and Loopholes 201.”)

Why breaking this rule worked:As we writers often slave away at making our prose perfect, our dialog dynamic, and our clichés chic, we sometimes forget 3 important axioms to the Writing Rules:

• The reader does not know the Writing Rules.
• The reader does not care about said Writing Rules.
• The reader just wants to read a good story.

J. K. Rowling delivers a not only a good story, but also a phenomenal epic. She might use a few there’s and by’s, but who cares? No one notices because her story captivates immediately. (That, and she’s witty. Her entire first chapter makes you giggle with delight.)

What this tells us about the craft of writing: Story trumps your Language Arts teacher’s grammar and style rules. (Actually, story trumps everything.) Writers succeed or fail with readers on the basis of their stories—not on their knowledge of Elements of Style. (That being said, publishers, editors, and agents do care about grammar and style, so don’t get lazy.) Style and grammar are the icing on your cake, and icing without a cake is just a big, gooey mess.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog on how to break the “Eliminate useless Adjectives” rule.

This post is part of a mini-series of posts. Click below to read previous posts in the series.

• On Writing: How to Break the Rules & Get Away With It!
• On Writing: How to Break the "Kill the Narrator Rule" & Get Away With It!

Fantasy novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason, which is being adapted into a graphic novel series by Wandering Sage Publications, Inc. Weston speaks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

One of the writing rules I learned from my first publisher during a seminar was: Kill the Narrator. He wanted smooth prose that disappeared into the story instead of prose that sounded like Aesop’s Fables. I dutifully scanned through my manuscript and sucked the life out of my narrator. Honestly, it was one of the best things I could have done. Taking the focus off my narrator forced me to focus on my characters.

Why publishers, agents, and editors have this rule: When someone reads a story, a mental movie of sorts begins playing in his or her head. Our job as writers, is to keep that movie flowing and feed it yummy bits of details, conflict, and characters. When we let our prose become a narrator who tells the story instead of letting our characters actions show the story, we rob our readers of the optimum “mental movie” experience. (More on “show, don’t tell” in future blogs.) And let’s be honest, most novels geared toward adults rarely use a showcased narrator.

Rowling breaks this rule with panache, and I love her for it. Her narrator is alive and well. Simply her first paragraph is an example:

• “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.”

These fabulous opening lines captivated the entire world—including me. They are also perfect examples of not killing your narrator. The “thank you very much” and “you’d” are considered writing no-no’s. Rowling also uses pure narration for 4 full pages of text before introducing a bit of dialogue. Most agents and editors I've heard speak would tell you that manuscript would be in the trash immediately.

Why breaking this rule worked: Rowling gets away with using a narrator with more personality than many publishers and agents usually allow for three reasons:

• Her audience was once just 11. Hard to believe, gauging the size and age level of her audience now, but Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stoneis a children’s book. Children love listening to people read to them, and they love fairy tales. Rowling breaks the Kill the Narrator rule based on the age of her audience.
• Rowling’s writing has voice. All good writers have voice. Voice is impossible to describe, but easy to illustrate. You can pick up a book and know the author is Stephen King verses John Grisham just by reading the first paragraph because they both have voice. Rowling’s writing has voice, too, and that voice makes her story deliciously yummy for those of us who crave a good fantasy about good and evil.
• Despite giving life to her narrator, Rowling still shows the story instead of tells it.The Kill the Narrator rule exists because writers often make their poor narrator do all the telling. Rowling keeps focus on the characters. Her narrator doesn’t tell us, “Something very strange happened in London.” Rowling shows us by having Mr. Dursley see odd people walking around. Her narrator doesn’t tell us, “Harry Potter is special.” Rowling lets the conversation between Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall show us.

What this tells us about the craft of writing:

• Always keep your audience in mind. Children (and those of us who are still children at heart) like living narrators. Rowling makes us feel as though she is telling us a super-secret, special, snuggle-under-the-covers story, and the world loved it so much we bought a bunch of her books!
• Always remember to show instead of tell. If you want to make your narrator alive, fine. Just make sure your narrator stays out of the way of your story.

Stay tuned to tomorrow’s blog about passive voice!

This post is part of a little mini-series of posts. Click below to read previous posts in the series.

• On Writing: How to Break the Rules & Get Away With It!

Fantasy novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason, which is being adapted into a graphic novel series by Wandering Sage Publications, Inc. Weston speaks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.