breaking the rules

Sorry I haven't been posting much. Twice next week, I promise.

Recently, I've been listening to podiobooks, and I'm really enjoying J. C. Hutchins's 7th Son trilogy. If you haven't heard it, check it out. The first book is scheduled for print release, so if you prefer the printed word, you won't have too long to wait. One of the really cool things about this trilogy is that he starts with eight men all named John Michael Smith. That's right -- he totally shatters the rule about not having characters with similar names by giving them all the same name. They all go by different versions of the name -- John, Jack, Jonathan, Mike, Michael, and so forth -- but the similarity is there, along with the potential for confusion. Hutchins does a very good job of delineating the differences between the men, though, and it makes for a terrific listen.

Another pair of books with similar character names is Marie Brennan's Doppelganger duology. I've only gotten partway through the first book so far, but I have to say that she does an excellent job of distinguishing Mirage from Miryo.

Some readers might have more trouble with these names. Losing such readers is a risk. But these books show that the rule can be broken.

On being a hack

Just a short post today because I was listening to a podcast and heard something that raised my hackles. Or would have, if that weren't a cliche.

The comment in question was that including eye color in fiction makes one a hack.

One of the first things I learned about Scarlett O'Hara in middle school is that she has green eyes. Am I going to call Margaret Mitchell a hack? Not on your life (another cliché! kill it!).

As with anything, eye color can be over-used. If you find that it's the first thing you turn to when you're writing a character description, maybe you need to think about your technique a little more. But some people do notice eye color, and some people do have noticeable eye color. And that should be reflected in your writing.

I don't think a single thing can make you a hack, not even using -ly adverbs. Elmore Leonard had a character in one of his books where every single dialogue tag had an adverb attached. Perhaps he was being ironic; perhaps it was a joke; perhaps he wanted to see whether anyone would notice. Two things to note: it was ONE character, and it worked.

Making guidelines for yourself is fine. Knowing when to break guidelines others have created is better. However, don't make a guideline for an arbitrary reason and expect everyone else to follow it. They're not hacks just because they don't follow a rule you just made up.

In the comments, list any signs you can think of that point to being a hack. Or tell me what rules you think are applied too broadly and need to be checked.