ISBW S.19 Ep.11
Breaking the Rules
Fri, Mar 03, 2023
Original Audio
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
writing, book, rules, dog, writer, mer, rejection, garbage, starting, obsess, episode, feel, chapter, podcast, toenail, staph infection, bookstores, break, thursdays, mighty
SPEAKER
Mur Lafferty


00:02
It's time to break some rules on I should be writing season 19 Episode 11 

Hi there welcome to I should be writing. This is a podcast for wannabe fiction writers and I'm your host Mur Lafferty. 

As I mentioned in episode nine, I am a little behind my numbering may be a little awkward if you're getting this as it comes out. But if you're getting the archives everything should be numbered correctly. To introduce myself, I've been podcasting since 2004. I am in the Podcast Academy Hall of Fame. I have been writing professionally since 2011. And since then, I have done a Star Wars novelization and had a book nominated for the Hugo and Nebula and Philip K Dick awards. It really feels awkward to sell myself. But you know, every once in a while I need to put my credentials in the podcast in case you're new. 

And if you are new, welcome. What I usually talk about here is how to get over the hurdles the new writers feel. The bad news is, everyone feels it, and you're probably going to continue to feel it. The good news is you, you can get over it. You can still have those feelings, feel those feelings, and then move on. And I try to help you move on. Since I'm recording these in batches, I have nothing more to report on what I've done since episode nine. Because the odd number of episodes are recorded without a live stream. The even number episodes are live streamed Tuesdays, Thursdays at three eastern time on twitch.tv/mightymur. And it's a lot of fun. So if you can tune in, you should. 

But when I stop recording and get some editing done, I'm going to get some writing done on the novella. I'm feeling better about it. I can do this. 

Oh, a lot of people ask about the dog update. I realize this month, it's a year that we've been had having constant dog drama. My dog broke a toenail off last year, and it took a long time to heal. And she's broken toenails before, and so we knew it was taking a long time to heal. And then our other dog got lymphoma and died in June. And then in August, our remaining dog blew out one of her knees. And then in October she blew out the other one. So it's been a trial. Oh, and she also has we just found out, they finally identified her skin problems, which is antibiotic resistant staph infection. So yeah, dealing with the dog helping her upstairs, going outside, etcetera has been a major focus for me this year. But I am happy to announce that since they identified the staph infection, they gave us some medicated shampoo, which we have to use daily. She is not happy about this, and neither are we. But we're doing it and it's working. That is a very happy thing for me to announce because her skin is looking a lot better. And I'm taking her to rehab and the rehab lady said she's getting stronger, very obviously getting stronger. So the dog is doing great. 

But the topic of today is breaking rules. You guys know I don't like absolutes. The really the only absolute rule with writing is you have to write. You can't be a writer and not write. 

You can be a writer and not write right now. I know a lot of people have stuff come up: you have a baby, you have house moving, major thing in life changes. Major thing in life ends, major thing in life begins. I mean, these are all things that will take away your time and probably your mental energy, but you'll get back to it. 

I don't like absolutes, because a lot of beginners (this happened to me) hear an absolute rule that doesn't apply to them. And then they end up thinking, ÒWell, clearly I'm doing this incorrectly.Ó And that happened to me and I stopped writing for a while. Years. When I talk about rules, All of them are Ôif it applies to you,Õ but a lot of rules do apply to most writers. And I didn't realize this until it happened to me. 
But there's the phrase, Ôyou have to know what the rules are before you break themÕ because somebody says don't use adverbs. Stephen King says don't use adverbs. And then you look at his books. There are adverbs everywhere. I did an adverb rant a couple episodes back you can find them in the archives or actually in the feed. And some people say Rules are made to be broken. But rules make you just make you aware of pitfalls. 

And the rule I'm going to talk about breaking is Ôdon't obsess about the beginning of your story. And definitely, if you change your mind along the way, don't start over, just keep writing as if you'd written that thing that you just came up with.Õ 

It's messy, but it will stop you from getting stuck in the mud, which is perfecting your first chapter. And nothing else. And agents have told me that they get really gorgeous first chapters. And then when they ask for more content, the rest of the books not nearly as good because the author had obsessed over making the first chapter perfect, but not the rest of the book. So that's why you don't obsess about the first chapter. If you come up with something different, you write it down, making sure you remember what you're going to change. And then you just keep going. And so you'll have that information of what to change when you get back to edits. So that's, that's why that rule is there. So that's why I'm telling people don't get obsessive about your first chapter because it's not wise. 

And also, the concept of not starting over is because a lot of times we have the feeling you'll, if you write a long piece of fiction, you will hit this point. I don't know anybody who's never hit this point. But there's a point where you think it's all garbage? You think, Ôwhy am I wasting my time on this? No one's gonna care about the story. People have heard it a million times and told a million different ways better than me. Why am I doing this?Õ Everyone feels that--or they will come up with a great idea. Because their toddler brain is saying, Ôthis is boring and hard. I want to do easy things like come up with new ideas. So I'm going to throw an idea at you for something completely different, and distract you!Õ And so you think, ÔWell, clearly, what I'm writing is garbage. And I just came up with this great idea. I need to put this away and start on the new thing.Õ 

And I say don't do that! Because you're abandoning your work in progress. And even if you're right, even if it is garbage, you will learn more finishing, doing a start and a finish to the garbage book than continuing to begin new projects. 

I just put 7000 words aside, and that's pretty small compared to a lot of my friends who have said that they've trashed a bunch of stuff and started over. Because I realized what was broken about the book. And I need to start over. Why am I allowed to break the rule I just told you? well, I know I can finish a book. I've done it. And I know when the prose feels right, and I know when it doesn't feel right. That's experience. So I know this rule. 

And I think a lot of people, when you hear rules, you don't hear why, then people just think of the rule and not actually why. If you think you can start over and get further than you are right now in your book, then start over. I still don't think you should abandon your book for a new idea. But starting over, it has merit if you can avoid the pitfalls. So I'm starting my novella over, I might be able to salvage some of what I wrote. 

Overall, it's, I got to start it over. And hopefully by the next time we speak, I will have an update for you on how many words I have on this novella that I'm starting over, because I'm breaking the rules, because I know the rule and why it's there and feel like I can avoid why the rule is there. 

If you have any questions about any rules that are considered golden rules of writing, please email me mightymur@gmail.com or stop in and see our live shows. Tuesdays and Thursdays 3pm on twitch.tv/mightymur, and you can ask me in real time. Here at I should be writing, we celebrate rejections, because rejections mean you're a working writer. And there's so many people out there who are too afraid to submit and you've taken a step further than they have; you are braver than they are.

09:30
If you haven't submitted yet, do it. It's not going to kill you to get a rejection. Learning how to fail, learning what it feels like to fail, Learning that failing won't kill you, is an important part ofÑwell, living, but specifically for writers. Yeah, it's important to know. But if you have any rejections, and you want to let me know, don't send me the rejection. Just send me your numbers and we will add them to our running 2023 rejection count which I believe is up to 26 by now, but I have to check. 

I mention it in the next show. But thank you for listening. And thank you for supporting if you are a Patreon or substack supporter, I am mightymur on both of those platforms and you can get exclusive content that I don't give to anybody else, which is what exclusive means. So that was really redundant. 

But yes, murverse.com, mightymur.substack.com and patreon.com/mightymur are three places where I post most of my content. So you can't go wrong by checking any of those. If you're interested in my fiction, My latest book is Station Eternity and it is out in bookstores, at ebookstores and audio bookstores. And I encourage you to shop local. And if you want a signed one, check my local store, which is Flyleaf Books, and that link is in the show notes. But I will see you next week. Subscribe. Leave a review if you feel like it. Tell a friend about it. And don't forget: you should be writing.



Remember you can support the show at patreon.com/mightymur
or mightymur.substack.com
ISBW S19 Ep11 © 2023 by Mur Lafferty
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

ISBW S19 Ep11





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