Ursula K. Le Guin’s shorter insights to story craft are now available on her website.
They come from what her site calls an “informal workshop” answering questions posed by readers in 2015.
The first one addresses an article she read about breaking rules in writing – Show, don’t tell. Write about what you know. Sympathetic characters.
These points are thrown around for beginner writers. Le Guin does a wonderful job briefly pulling them apart, expanding on the other article’s concepts. There are places for all of these things, but they are guidelines. Her examples of the character Iago and of the Bronte sisters, among others, give a brief rebuttal to the idea.
Bend your knees.
It’s a common piece of advice to give to beginner golfers. But bending your knees by itself won’t make the putt go in. Bending your knees won’t get the ball off the tee.
Of course, the experts know that this action is part of what makes the putt go in. Or the swing have the right power. It is a piece of advice that is foundational to understanding what you’re trying to do. Just like these pieces of writing advice.
Focusing on keeping your knees bent above all other things will take your mind away from the whole swing, the fairway, the green, the weather. These pieces of advice are fine when starting but it’s not the key to making a piece of writing work. Trying to make a piece of writing that adheres to one of these pieces of advice can take you away from making a piece of writing that connects emotionally with the reader.
When I bring concepts of storytelling like the three act structure, character arc, the way subplots can be used, and so on to my coaching clients, I tell them that these are principles and guidelines. They’re not rules. These are concepts to help us when we’re looking at the outline or the chapter and wondering what is missing.
These principles and ideas are useful to go back to when a piece of writing isn’t connecting how you intend. What’s wrong in the foundation? What structure could pull it back into place? But not something to fill in as a sudoko or formula to make the writing work. That is still very much down to each individual story.