There Is No Right Or Wrong Way

I always love making this statement in workshops because it seems to totally confuse people. "There are no right or wrong ways of doing things in publishing, but there are wrong ways." As always, when I make that statement, I get a lot of people with their brains spinning, but for a couple of reasons.

• Some just don't get the second half of there are wrong ways when I said there are no wrong ways.
• The others think that there is a "right way" to do things.

Here is the thing. With every story and every novel, there are a lot of different approaches to take. If I were to give a group of authors in a workshop the same characters and same setting, we will have a lot of different stories. The approaches the authors took, the directions they took their plots all could work equally as well. Some may have used first person and others third person. Some may have used flashbacks. Some may have turned it into a paranormal. All good!

Now, the question is, did every approach work? And it is here that the second half of my comment comes into play. If the story does not call for that approach, if the plot does not call for that type of action, it is a wrong approach.

Too often, writers attend workshops on any aspect of writing and think that approach they were just taught is the end-all-be-all approach. They were told by that presenter that this will fix their problems. And you know what? It might...IF that writer has a story where that approach would work.

It is your job, as an author to always assess the situation. Does that approach or that style work with your story and your situation? If not, find one that does work.