Point of views on point of view

"But here’s the rub: you must know and internalize the rules in order to break them effectively. It is not enough to just break rules. You have to do so effectively, and you cannot do that without study and practice. Long practice–there is no shortcut–will eventually teach you how to be effective when breaking the rules."  Lilith Saintcrow, from her blog.

Check out Ms. Saintcrow's blog with tons of interesting tidbits and writing advice interspersed.  I particularly like what she has to say about headhopping in the cited post.

(NOTE:  This got the wrong date on it due to fat finger syndrome on my part.  Fixed now!)

Comments

[Angie]

Yep. I've don't know how many times I've tried to explain that to someone, usually a baby writer who wants to be up and running nownownow!! and takes any hint that rules can occasionally be broken to mean that they don't have to bother learning any of the rules in the first place. [headdesk] To break a rule properly, you have to first know it, understand it, understand why it's a rule and what it's trying to accomplish and how it accomplishes it, and then you can mess with it without looking like an illiterate idiot.

They don't hear that part, though. :/

Angie

[Charles Gramlich]

that's one truism that is most definitely true.

[chris eldin]

I'll go take a look. But do want to say I just finished reading "The Hunger Games," told in first person present. OMG, it was exquisite. So masterful and inttimate. THE example on how to make this tense work.

[bets]

I don't prefer headhopping. It just popped up in this book I'm reading and it's annoying me. Especially early on, I don't know the characters very well and it took me awhile to sort out that it was even happening. I consider myself a little bit of a critical reader, so I took it as a cheap trick.

[laughingwolf]

good advice, thx d :)