The Grace of Rules
by Bethany Maines
influenced me and then I opened the internet and poked around. I shouldn’t do
that; twenty minutes of internet time and suddenly I know too much about what
people I don’t know are wearing to events I don’t care about. But I also read two things that altered
the topic of today’s blog. One was the facebook post of an alcoholic
celebrating another year sober, and the other was a blog post about the rules of
mystery writing. The most immediate response to the alcoholic was along the
lines of “Thank you for sharing your struggle; it helps me.” The first comment
on the writer’s post was “I don’t really like rules and my novels turn out
fine.”
don’t like rules. I don’t like being told what to do. I don’t like having
solutions dictated to me. Nobody is the boss of me, but me. So there. Nyah!
(Sticks tongue out.)
although I tried for years to just wing it, that doesn’t lead to novels with
consistent internal logic, or, as is otherwise known, a plot. It’s also
extremely inefficient. And with a dog, a kid, a husband, friends and an
extended family who all prefer to see me occasionally, I do not have time to be
wandering through the morass of plot lines. So eventually I gave up and laid
down a few ground rules for myself.
And since I am the boss of me, I
figure that’s ok.
But while I’m sympathetic to the rules are
for sissies commenter, I must admit
that it seemed like she could have used some of the grace that the alcoholic
referred to in her post. She spoke of not understanding how there could
possibly be a solution for her, but sometimes just showing up and following
instructions is enough to get you through to the next day. She spoke of the
great support of knowing that other people had similar struggles to her own.
Writing a novel and alcoholism are not at all the same. But the idea that
sometimes a set of instructions, a little community spirit, and grace can get
you through to tomorrow is pretty universal. Thank you all for sharing my
writing struggles and for your gracious comments!
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.
