"Rule" Is Not a Four-letter Word

“There are only three rules for writing. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

 

“The only rule for writing is to write well.”

Just mention the word “rules” in the company of writers, and those are the first declarations they’re likely to toss back at you.

I don’t know about authors in other genres, but mystery writers tend to get worked up over the very notion that they should write according to rules or, to use a less inflammatory term, the time-honored conventions of the genre. They’re different! They write the way they want to write! They reject all restrictions on their creativity! They hate the idea of “writing to a formula” and believe that rules equal formula.

But when I look at their work, I see that all of them stick to the time-honored conventions. They follow the rules. At least the ones who are published and have an audience do. 

I’m not talking about the brilliant literary writers who blend genres and dazzle us with their unique vision and word play. I’m talking about authors who label themselves mystery/suspense/thriller writers and are aiming their work at that audience. 

Genre readers have certain expectations. We can stretch the limits, get creative and tinker with the genre conventions, but if we ignore them entirely, we have left the crime fiction genre and started writing something else. 

All crime fiction, from cozies to psychological suspense to gory thrillers, is driven by the same questions:

What terrible thing has or is going to happen?

Why?

Who is responsible?

Who will stop the villain, and how?

Most crime fiction has a classic three-act structure: beginning, middle, end. Some crime novels begin slowly, some shoot out of the gate on the first page, but most have building action and suspense toward the end, preparing the reader for a resolution and revelation. Crime fiction writers all realize that without conflict they have no story. 

Beyond those basics, each subgenre has its own conventions — rules, whether you want to call them that or not. A cozy, for example, can’t contain explicit sex scenes with X-rated language or detailed descriptions of brutal violence. Every writer who has been through the agent/editor mill knows how much weight traditional publishers place on easy categorization of novels. If they don’t know what category it fits into — if it’s a little of this, a little of that, not a lot of anything — they won’t know how to market it, review publications won’t know where to place their reviews, and booksellers won’t know which shelf to put it on. But the likelihood is that none of those problems will arise, because it will never be published.

Self-published authors are free to write what they please and ignore all the conventions. They still have to reach an audience, though, and that means categorizing their novels. They may think they’re writing mystery, but if they ignore the readers’ expectations, they won’t reach their target audience and might provoke a lot of negative reviews from people who do buy their work. 

Bestselling authors sometimes wander off track in their twentieth or thirtieth books, letting the suspense go slack and writing rushed endings that outrage readers. Yet their readers will continue buying their books. All that proves is that when you have a solid record of great sales behind you, you can disappoint fans without driving them away forever, because they hope you’ll be back in good form the next time out. It doesn’t prove that ignoring readers’ expectations — aka “the rules” — will bring success to every author. 

I believe that the basic structure, the basic conventions, of crime fiction offer tremendous freedom to the writer. Within that structure, we can go deeply into character, create vivid worlds, explore social issues, raise questions about life and the way we treat each other. The need to solve or prevent a crime provides automatic conflict and tension. With that as a starting point, we can go almost anywhere. As long as we meet or exceed the reader’s expectations, no one is going to think about rules or formulas. All they’ll be thinking is, “What a terrific story!”