There Is No Formula For Writing

I was working this weekend with my 7th grade son on a writing project for his school. I have to say, as an English instructor, I get very frustrated at the approach the schools are taking with their writing today. Don't even get me started on the whole 5 paragraph essay garbage. (Breathe Scott, Breathe).

In any case, as I was working on the assignment with him, it got me thinking about the approaches that many authors seem to take when it comes to writing in their given genres. There seems to be a belief that there is a strict formula that has to be followed for everything we do in publishing. Query letters are written one way and only one way. A synopsis must be formatted this way and there are no exceptions. When writing a romance, the characters have to have different hair colors... you get the idea.

In reality, there are not fixed rules. I am reminded here of the line from Pirates of the Caribbean. Barbossa says, "...the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner ." Arrrrggggghhhhh (oooh, feeling might piraty now). Still, Mr. Barbossa really is on the right track. Your job as a writer is to work within the broad guidelines that editors and agents give you you. Your job, is to look at your story and determine what the best approach would be to convey that message. It may be 1st person, it may be 3rd person. You may use a prologue, you may skip it. The point is, use your brain. Think. Don't try to force everything into a single model. It just won't work.

Scott