When faced with the task of writing this first column, my muse said, “Well, transcriptionist of mine, what are the guidelines?”
Like any aspiring author, I know what to do with guidelines. Read. Study. Analyze them right into a box. Only then can I be sure that I’m in that box. After scouring the site, I reread Charlie’s mission statement:
Together, with your comments, they will map the landscape of today’s romance genre from every possible angle. From story conception to the moment a reader finishes the book, they’ll cover it all.
That’s a big box. The muse fled in search of Doritos, leaving me to ponder when, exactly, I stopped being able to write anything without parameters. Other writers break the so-called taboos and don’t have their keyboards taken away.
No athletes? Tell that to Susan Elizabeth Phillips (football), Rachel Gibson (hockey), Kristin Hardy (baseball–in category), and Pat White (wrestling!). No actors? Somebody forgot to send Suzanne Brockmann that memo. No mentally-handicapped heroes? Read Simple Jess by Pamela Morsi. No scary stuff? Judith Arnold tackled breast cancer in Barefoot In The Grass.
Why were those stories allowed to break the rules? For the same reason most of them live on my keeper shelves–passion. Not for the sport–does Susan Elizabeth Phillips paint her face and scream at her television every autumn Sunday? I have no idea. But as a reader, I feel the passion she had for Dan and Phoebe’s story. Whether funny or tearjerking, every one of those books meant enough to the author for her to step outside of the box.
Of course SEP and Suz can break the rules–they’re SEP and Suz! It’s probably harder for a published author to step outside of the box. What does the aspiring writer risk? Time and a rejection letter? A published author risks readers, numbers, and therefore her career. And yet, they write the story they need to write.
Why, then, do aspiring authors sweat the guidelines? Why do we have notepads filled with the pet peeves of dozens of editors and agents? Why do we care on what page our first kiss falls? Before writing the book?
As uncontracted writers, we don’t want to spend months writing a book that won’t sell. And turning those guidelines into a box, then writing within that box, is as close as we get to assurance that an editor will be interested.
But there’s a price. The scale balancing the book of your heart versus book of the market starts tipping gradually toward the market. Your manuscript is perfectly crafted to suit, not only the guidelines for a publisher, but that specific editor’s likes and dislikes. And it’s going to land on her desk, along with dozens of other perfectly crafted and targeted manuscripts.
What sets your manuscript apart from those books is your passion for your story. That box is as big or as small as you make it. Make it too small, and someday you’ll be left sitting at your keyboard while the muse licks crumbs from the bottom of the bag.
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What a great piece, Shannon!
Wow. You’re so right, and it’s so well expressed!
Writing outside that safe little box can be terrifying, it can be soul destroying, too, feeling that you’re writing something that will ‘inevitably be rejected’. But I’d rather write the story I cared about, however much a hard sell, than a safe, wholly market-led story that never stirred my own heartbeat.
That said, I’m glad you talked about balance, too. Balance is important!
Thanks, Shan, a really stirring post.
I agree. When you’re unpublished, sometimes it can be so tempting to try and “follow the rules.” But ultimately it doesn’t matter what the “rules” are. If the book is strong enough, written well enough to grip the reader by the throat, a publisher will take that risk. When a book doesn’t sell because of bad marketing elements, my thought is that it wasn’t passionate enough. The characters didn’t leap off the page enough. When it does, isn’t that when they call it a “break out” book?
Wow. Just…wow. Shannon, that was AWESOME.
Some of the best books I’ve ever read follow no formula or rules. You’re right on track when you say to tap into your own passion for your story. That’ll come through more to an editor than a checklist of invisible ‘rules’. Well done article, Shan!
That’s just brilliant stuff, Shannon! I’m always trying to second guess those eds, and conform to the guidelines, the tone, the worldview of my chosen target imprint… but I know that if I don’t allow myself to be *me* at the same time, I’ll never get anywhere…
A timely reminder!
Love, Wendy
Fantastic column Shannon. Thanks!
Hey Shannon – I thought that was you!
Great column – well said!
Excellent column, TSP…! And so, so true!
I’m overjoyed that I signed with a publishing company who allows me to color outside the lines. In fact they encourage it. My background is in entertainment. My friends and co-workers are… colorful. They are also passionate and complex. I have a lifetime of inspiration. I loved that you brought up SEP and Suz, Shannon. I adore their out-of-the box stories. Then again, I’m an out-of-the-box kind of gal.
Great article! I, like Beth Ciotta, have been given a lot of freedom with my books. But before I found my wonderful editor who lets me have free reign, I found SEP and Suz.
I read their stories. And not only did I see a different story, I saw personality and passion. I realized they had what I wanted, passion. Always tell the passionate story. The story that you believe in. And don’t let the “rules” box you in.
Again, great article!
Great advice.
Truly superb! It does well for all of us to remember your sage words.:grin:
Well said, Shannon! Next time someone tells me that I can’t break rules until I’m published, I’m going to quote you and continue to write the book of my voice.:grin:
Thank you all for the kind words.
Beth, we’re all glad you found that publisher, too! Even your website’s entertaining, and your books even more-so. It’s funny that as a reader, the coloring-outside-the-lines books all end up as keepers.
And Steph, I thought we’d agreed we were blaming Larissa for everything.
This is a subject that I struggle with constantly. I’m trying to tilt the scale back toward book of the heart/voice, after spending way too much time obsessed with the market.
Although…the first book I ever submitted–before I was online and caught a clue–was a 200,000 word
time-travel 
to the US Civil War 
, so a little bit of market targetting didn’t hurt. If the time-traveling heroine had been an actress who played field hockey in her spare time, I could have hit all the no-nos in one book. 
Thank you again!
Shannon–I’ve been leaning toward the “book of my heart” side of the scale lately. I figure, heck, if the darn things aren’t going to sell anyway, at least I’ll have fun writing them.:twisted:
The stories I wrote to the rules have been flat as pancakes, and may never be published. In fact they are worse than what I was writing before I learned the rules. So learn the rules, yes, and keep and eye on the market but concentrate on writing a novel that’s outstanding and different and what YOU can write, because I think that is more likely to sell as a first novel than an average copy-cat style effort.
I’m now desperately trying to break every rule in the book with a wip that began conceptually as a British regional saga and is… well, I have absolutely no idea. Women’s fiction of some sort at least, I hope.
Could still all go horribly, horribly wrong…
Love this post, Shannon. As an unpubbed who can’t help but write musicians, I could completely relate. Will it disappoint me if I never sell these books. Of course. Will it kill me? Absolutely not. I think the most important thing to remember is the rules are not really rules, but more like guidelines.