30 May 2022

Crime Fiction Rules: Rules, Schmules


At the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Watercooler, the group's monthly Zoom gathering, as well as on its lively e-list, members frequently comment about the absurdity of trying to hold short fiction to rigid rules. It's been said that a short story should have only three characters and that it should always have four scenes (I think that one was a joke, a well-known writer's answer to a newbie's earnest question). More seriously, we tend to think a story should have a twist at the end.

The same is true for crime and mystery novels, though those rules have changed drastically between when I started reading them in the 1960s and today. The classic structure of a mystery was crime, investigation, and solution. Its template was a coat hanger on which you could hang anything you wanted—bell ringing, making cupcakes, or hunting the whale. (Isn't Moby Dick a suspense novel? And doesn't it end in death?) The beginning of a mystery novel was devoted to a leisurely setup foreshadowing murders and motives and introducing the characters who would become victims, suspects, and witnesses.

When I started writing mysteries in the early 2000s, things had changed. A modern traditional mystery had to start with a body on the first page or at least the first chapter. If not, we were told, neither agents, editors, nor readers would read on. In other subgenres, the story had to start with "a pie in the face." (I heard this term from Chris Grabenstein, who attributed it to James Patterson.) Suspense had to build constantly. One body was not enough. And even an amateur sleuth had to face personal danger at the climax.

For those who wanted rules, those who make rules are happy to supply them. There must be subplots. There must be an antagonist to give the protagonist a hard time. Third person is better than first. Prologues, alternating points of view, and present tense narratives are to be avoided.

In both short stories and novels, all these rules are constantly broken. We've all read and written successful fiction that ignores them. In particular, alternating or multiple POVs and present tense narrative are ships that have not only sailed, but vanished beyond the horizon. I would say almost half the crime fiction I read these days is written in present tense.

Sure, writers, editors, and readers all have their preferences. One mystery lover on DorothyL has mentioned more than once that when she reads a mystery novel that alternates a narrative set in the present with a narrative set in the past, she skips the chapters set in the past. If I'd carefully constructed a book that way and knew a reader was doing that with it, I'd be tearing my hair.

I've written short stories with alternating POV for a variety of reasons. In one case, I have an ongoing series with a familiar character. In one story, I introduced a new character with a different voice in an entirely different setting and then told a story involving her with my ongoing character. This livened things up for me as a writer and enriched the series as a whole.

In another case, I had a particular story I wanted to tell and couldn't decide how to tell it. I ended up with several beginnings in different voices and decided to use them all. It worked— the characters and stories came together, and the rest almost wrote itself.

The next challenge was placing a 3,500-word story with five different POVs. All my usual markets turned it down over a two-year period. I did blinch a little, as Piglet says. (Do you know Winnie-the-Pooh is now in the public domain?) But I sent it off again and got an immediate acceptance from an editor who said, "I love how you alternated the third-person POVs, finally ending with the first-person POV." You can read "Suds in the Bucket" on the webzine Yellow Mama.

So rules, schmules— if you believe in your story, there's an editor for it out there somewhere.



14 comments:

  1. Good post, Liz. I think the only rule for short stories is that whatever you do works. I can only think of one story that used multiple POV, and that never sold, but it gave me the idea for a couple of other stories that did.

    For me, the bottom line is "Will it engage the reader?" Each individual story sets its own rules for how to do that. I try to limit flashbacks and exposition as much as possible, but even those aren't absolutes.

    One of the things I love about short stories is that EVERYTHING is permissible until you make that first choice. From that moment on, all your other choices are limited until you find the perfect solution(s).

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  2. Thanks, Liz. I agree, the only rule is, if it works. And I've broken a lot of rules - including multiple POVs, no murders, slow build exposition, whatever. Tell the story the voices in your head give you, that's my motto.

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  3. Right, Steve—until you finish the first draft, when you can scrap it and start all over again, or turn on Track Changes and go through it changing all your decisions.

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  4. I agree with you, Eve. Those voices in the head are the best in the world—unlike those of the lady on the bus with me yesterday.

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  5. Great post, Liz. I'm in favor of learning the "rules," but I also believe in breaking them any time you need to, or want to. Some of them aren't even rules anymore. I've written lots of stories with multiple POVs, non-linear timelines, no dialogue, too many characters, flashbacks, unhappy endings, whatever. The only thing I've never done is write a story in present tense, and that's only because I prefer the once-upon-a-time feeling I get with traditional past-tense. Whatever works, works.

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    1. And never say never, John. I swore I'd never put a male serial killer's POV in a story, and now I've done it twice.

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  6. As a writer, I find multiple viewpoints difficult to handle. Alternating viewpoints between two characters is doable, but I'm still mainly a single viewpoint writer. As a reader I enjoy alternating viewpoints, especially in suspense. I am in awe of an author who handles multiple viewpoints successfully, but that seems rare. Often, as a reader, I am left confused by multiple viewpoints.
    As a writer, I never write in the present tense. As a reader, I rarely finish a piece written in the present tense, often abandoning it as soon as I realize it's present tense. I know. A little weird and close-minded. But as a reader, I find it distracting.

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    1. RJ, I also have difficulty reading present tense. It often feels awkward or stilted. Although I'll continue reading, I find it uncomfortable. That said, when I switch to a flashback or something in the past, I'll often write that part in present tense. It seems to work.

      For me, the main problem of multiple PoVs or present/past settings occurs with the absence of a clear demarcation. I notice this most often in movies or television mini-series, that two minutes into a scene, I suddenly realize they jumped somewhere I wasn't expecting and they didn't notify me. At least with a book, I can flip back a couple of pages as I reframe the new setting.

      I recall one sci-fi piece where scenes out of present time were bordered in black. A written story can't border flashbacks in black (unless they self-publish it). An asterism/dinkus/flourish is useful for most breaks, but a leap of 2000 years in space/time might require settling the reader into a new location.

      So there!

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    2. Maybe you've finished pieces in present tense and never noticed, because you were so engaged in the story. ;) Or maybe your desire to experiment as a writer will jump that wall in a decade or two... Or not, and that's okay.

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  7. What is that fan in DorothyL thinking? How can s/he enjoy a story by missing critical parts? I don't get it.

    Liz, I liked Suds, especially the emotion you wove early on. Sneaky, using memes and stereotypes while you blindside us with the plot. Nicely done!

    Also, the section breaks make it very clear what's happening.

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    1. Thanks, Leigh. I had a lot of fun with the different voices, and at the same time I was dead serious about the point I was making.

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  8. Elizabeth Dearborn30 May, 2022 16:18

    I like alternating points of view! I never knew they were something to be avoided (ha). I'm working on a story now with several narrators, moving backwards in time. Whether an editor will like it remains to be seen.

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    1. Elizabeth, it's a challenge, and I think it hones our writing skills, so the benefits begin long before you start sending it out.

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  9. I love this post so much. As a new-ish fiction writer, I want to learn the rules, but I see a lot of people pontificating about "rules" that really seem to be just their opinion. If I tried to follow all of them, I'd never write anything.

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