In writing classes, you learn lots of “rules.” Be consistent with point of view. Avoid or at least minimize the use of adjectives and especially adverbs. Keep sentences short. Watch out for plot gaps and gaffs. Mind your sentence length. Etc, etc. These things are drilled in, over and over, in every writing techniques class in every conference, book on writing craft, and writing webinar.

Breaking “the rules” is possible, or course, for a skilled writer who is already published. But a writer starting out should avoid these rules. The rules are what good writing is all about. “Get a copy of Strunk and White, learn it, embrace it, apply it.” So the experts say.

Another factor that comes into play in writing, apart from the quality of the words as they are strung together into sentences, at least for novels, is to create the fictional dream for the reader to get lost in. Or, as they would call this in science fiction and fantasy, build your fictional world carefully, expansively, and invite you reader to inhabit that world for a time. It’s called world building.

As I read books or watch movies, I’ve come to realize that world building is more important than the quality of the writing (in the case of books) or production (in the case of movies). This came home to me twice recently. We went to the theater and saw Saving Mr. Banks, the story of Walt Disney obtaining the rights to the Mary Poppins stories and making the movies. The difficulty of the author in letting go of the rights, and why, was the key element in the story.

As we were at this movie, I found myself lost in the story. The scenes switching between early 1960s Los Angeles and the author’s childhood in rural Australia was easy to follow. As you saw the girl’s relationship with her dad, the problems he had with alcohol, you immediately began to wonder how this tied in with Mr. Banks, the father in the Mary Poppins story. Was Mr. Banks the girl’s dad? If so, how did saving Mr. Banks tie in with the real life dad’s story?

As I say, I was lost in the story. For ninety minutes I forgot about books I wasn’t writing, blog posts I should be planning, specs I should be developing at work, wondering how I will be able to retire on schedule, and a host of problems that seem to consume life. The developers of the movie had created the perfect fictional dream, and I was lost in it.

The second thing to bring world building to mind as the most important element in fiction is the Harry Potter books. As I explained in my last post, the wife and I are reading these. I want to be careful here, because it’s very common for an unsuccessful writer to criticize the writing of a successful writer and have it appear as sour grapes. I assure you my criticism of Rowling isn’t in that category. But, in fact, while she does well with some of the rules, she violates many of the them that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

She uses adverbs to the point where it become sickening, especially on speaker tags. “said Ron hesitantly.” “Hermione said emphatically.” “said Snape snarkily.” “asked Harry cautiously.” More often than not, the speaker tag comes with an adverb. Three or more in a row might have the adverb with the tag. And, she way overuses speaker tags. When the speaker is clearly identified by the context, why include a speaker tag? It’s redundant and slows down the story. But she does it over and over.

And then, some of her sentences are awkward, with subordinate clauses modifying/referring to the wrong reference, based on the rules of grammar. These are typically long sentences, with the properly referred-to item and the descriptive clause so far removed from each other that it’s a mental struggle to understand what’s being said. These aren’t excessive, but there are enough of them to be noticeable.

Since the books are wildly successful, who am I to criticize the writing style? It smacks of sour grapes. Yet, I’m not making up what is taught in writing classes. I’ve heard the same things over and over. Why then is the Harry Potter series so successful? Are the experts wrong? Is there a separate set of “rules” for children’s books? Or is it possible that readers don’t care as much about the quality of the writing as the experts say? And that, what the readers want more than stellar writing is…

…an outstanding story? One that gives them the fictional dream, and puts them into a different world for a time. That’s what I think. There’s nothing wrong with stellar writing. But it shouldn’t come at the expense of world building or creating the fictional dream.

I have more to say about that, but unfortunately I’m at the end of my post, and shall have to cover it in the next post. See you all then.