Writing Craft: Balancing Rules and Voice

Many aspects of writing are subjective, so we often need to discuss how to find the right balance. One reader’s too little can be another reader’s too much.

To that end, I’ve written and guest-hosted several posts about balancing different elements of our writing, such as balancing backstory, description, emotions, and plot obstacles, as well as how to balance our writing elements overall.

A recent comment on one of my older posts brought up another element that we also need to balance: the rules of writing versus our writing voice.

Specifically, Anne Kaelber asked:

“How do I balance between Margie’s anaphora and Jefferson’s echoing words?”

Anaphora is a rhetorical device, one of several taught by writing instructor Margie Lawson. Like many rhetorical devices, anaphora uses repetition to create an impact:

• Anaphora: Repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of two or more phrases or sentences in a row:
  “He’d never believe her. He’d never trust her. He’d never love her again.”
• Alliteration: Using words with similar beginning sounds close together:
  “Her heart hammered.”
• Epistrophe: The opposite of anaphora, repeating the end of phrase:
  “She would die. He would die. They’d all die.”
• Anadiplosis: Repeating the end of one sentence at the beginning of the next, as exemplified by Yoda:
  “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
• Amplification: Repeating a word or phrase within a sentence while adding more detail:
  “Love—true love—is what brings us together today.”
• Epizeuxis: Repeating one word to make it more important:
  “Our day at the beach was fun, fun, fun.”
• Commoratio: Repeating an idea with different words:
  “She was doomed. Finished. Dead.”

Echoes are when we repeat the same word, sentence structure, or imagery/idea too many times, which was one of the top five problems Jefferson Smith found in his Immerse or Die challenge.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve had feedback point out when your characters grin or nod too many times on a page, so we understand some aspect of the rule about avoiding word echoes. Yet rhetorical devices are a great way to differentiate our voice.

How can we balance the rules of writing and the uniqueness of our voice? Let’s take a look…

Step #1: Understand the Reason for the Writing “Rule”

I put “rule” in quotes, because the rules we’re familiar with are usually more of guidelines than break-this-and-you’ll-fail rules. However, even as guidelines, they still exist for a reason.

Often, what creates the sense of lazy writing is when authors either don’t know a writing rule (such as littering commas about willy-nilly) or they break rules without thought of the cost. For example, one common writing rule is: avoid adverbs.

First of all, that’s a silly “rule” because a list of adverbs goes beyond the “-ly” ending words we tend to think of first. Adverbs also encompass words that describe when (after, before, tomorrow, etc.) and where (inside, outside, downstairs, there, etc.). In other words, we couldn’t write a story without adverbs. *smile*

That said, the “rule” is useful for reminding us to be cautious with how adverbs—those that end with an “-ly” such as: quickly, carefully, quietly, etc.

In many cases, those verb-adverb combinations could be replaced with a stronger verb that encompasses both ideas:

• walked quickly vs. rushed
• sneaked carefully vs. tiptoed
• said quietly vs. whispered

As long as we understand the reason for the rule, we could make a conscious decision to keep an -ly adverb. Maybe we can’t think of a stronger verb that fits, or maybe we like the rhythm better with the adverb.

Writing “Rule”: Avoid Echoes

In the case of echoes, Jefferson Smith pointed out why the “rule” exists. Repeating words, sentence structures, or ideas/imagery too many times (especially too close together) tends to call attention to itself.

Several sentences too close together all starting with “But” will be noticeable. Ditto for repeating gesture crutches, such as nodding, grinning, frowning, sighing, smiling, etc. Unintended alliteration is similarly bad, as it can be distracting.

“Calling attention to itself” can take other forms as well. Several sentences in a row all following the same structure can “sound” repetitive, rhythm-wise. For example:

• Compound sentences (such as “x, but y.”):
  She punched, but he ducked. Then she threw a right hook, but he weaved.
• Introductory phrases/clauses:
  After she was done, she… As her fate unraveled, she… In case she lost, she…

Using the same description or imagery every time an idea is mentioned in the story also screams lazy writing. If we’re describing our heroine’s hair in multiple scenes, the descriptions should be different each time and not use the same words, such as “her cornsilk tresses.”

(True story: One author I’ve read uses the same phrases to describe every one of their heroines in every book, right down to the words describing their slim waists. That’s lazy writing.)

Step #2: Decide Whether the “Rule” Applies

Only we know the story we want to write. We have to find the right approach for our voice, genre, characters, tone, and style—for our story.

Most “rules” aren’t an always/never statement. As I mentioned above, in the right situation, we could come up with reasons to include adverbs. In other words, it’s okay to know the reason for a rule and consciously decide that our reason to ignore the rule supersedes the original reasoning.

For example, we might know that clichés weaken writing. However, we might choose to have a character speak in clichés anyway because we want the reader’s impression to be that the character is a bit cliché themselves.

On the other hand, we wouldn’t want to break a writing rule about avoiding information dumps if our goal was to create a faster pace. Similarly, we wouldn’t want to break a writing rule about using a deep point of view if our goal was to make our readers feel like the story was happening to them. The point is to match our choices with our goals.

If we’re more successful at creating the reader impression we want by breaking a rule than by following it, we’d be smart to break that rule. If we followed every rule—from avoiding sentence fragments to never including extraneous words—we’d strangle our voice.

Writing Voice: Use Rhetorical Devices

That brings us to some of the reasons why we’d ignore the “rule” against creating echoes. We might want to call attention to a section of our writing.

We might decide the repetition is good for:

• our voice
• our character’s voice
• emotional impact
• rhythm, etc.

Sometimes we want alliteration or one of the other rhetorical devices. Or maybe we want to make an element of our story seem more important. Writing a certain way on purpose isn’t a problem.

There’s nothing wrong with repeating an element of our writing if we decide it creates the emphasis we want. The key is to consciously make that decision. Writing with purpose is how we avoid the mistakes of lazy writing.

Step #3: Decide for Each Instance Separately

Just because we decide to break a rule in one section of our story doesn’t mean we should break it every time. Including an adverb in a specific sentence for rhythm doesn’t change the fact that adverbs often are a sign of lazy writing, so we shouldn’t start keeping every adverb from our draft.

Just because sentence fragments can be used in well-crafted writing doesn’t mean every sentence should be a fragment. We need to analyze each occurrence to decide if it’s meeting our goals for reader impression.

Balancing Writing Rules and Writing Voice

In the case of repetitive words or phrases, such as what Anne asked about, we need to decide whether the repetition helps or hurts our writing. Repetition calls attention to itself, so if we’re trying to emphasize something, repetition might be the perfect technique—sometimes.

Even when we have a great reason, we still don’t want to overdo it. I’ve mentioned before that I have to cut several anaphora examples from every story because it’s my favorite technique. *smile*

Anaphora works well for emphasizing emotional impact. So if we’re saving that technique for when we really need extra emotional oomph (no more than a few times per novel), we’re probably in the clear.

On the other hand, if you’re like me and tend to include anaphora every chapter? Well… Some of those will have to go. *grin*

Finding the Right Balance between Writing Rules and Voice

The trick is to think about our goals for reader impression and ensure our voice techniques accomplish what we want. As with so many aspects of writing, we likely won’t get the balance right during drafting, and that’s okay.

For some writing rules that we struggle with in edits, we might be better off drilling into ourselves to try to follow the rule right from our first draft. Or we might need extra help from our editor to get it right.

For other rules, we might find it easier to fix the issues later. As an example, it’s often easier for me to cut repetition than to add voice, so my best bet is to encourage my voice as much as possible during drafting and worry about the right balance with writing rules later.

Either way, we can question our reasons, decide for each instance, and use feedback from our beta readers and editors to find the right balance for the story we want to tell. The best story will flow naturally, without our voice feeling like we’re trying to hard or like we’re suffocating our unique style. *smile*

Have you ever felt like the writing “rules” restrained your voice? What did you decide to do—follow the rule or your voice? What rules do you think shouldn’t be broken? What rules do you tend to break? How have you found the right balance between rules and voice?