{"id":212,"date":"2011-03-17T08:28:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T15:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=212"},"modified":"2011-08-13T17:51:10","modified_gmt":"2011-08-14T00:51:10","slug":"breaking-the-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/breaking-the-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like any other professional, a writer never stops honing his craft.\u00a0 There are so many “dos” and “don’ts” in articles on how to write<\/em>, that if an author tried to follow them all, he could cripple himself in the process. Whatever passion he was trying to convey could be lost while following the rules.<\/p>\n

Stieg Larsson’s second novel, The Girl Who Played With Fire <\/em>is a case in point. Here, the author writes from so many points of view, that the reader’s head spins with trying to keep up with who’s who, and yet Larsson manages to keep the reader engrossed. It’s his story that is so powerful, that no matter what rules are broken, the reader stays engaged.\u00a0 Also, in his third book, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, <\/em>Larsson surprises with large chunks of information dumps. Lesser characters are given biographies with greater detail than recommended by rules of writing, and yet, despite the information dumps, I kept turning the page. Again, it’s story, story, story.\u00a0 He created so much suspense with beautifully executed characters and sub-plots within plots, that I can understand his need to give us everything he had in his arsenal. It’s a shame the author isn’t around to hear the applause.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like any other professional, a writer never stops honing his craft.\u00a0 There are so many “dos” and “don’ts” in articles on how to write, that if an author tried to… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,9,29,7,33],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-characters","tag-novel","tag-stieg-larsson","tag-story","tag-writer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-3q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":224,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/ramping-up-the-tension\/","url_meta":{"origin":212,"position":0},"title":"Ramping up the tension","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"28 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm just about finished reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. I find it fascinating to see how Stieg Larsson ramps up the tension as he progresses through his story. He has so many balls in the air, so many characters and sub-plots that by the last eighth of\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":218,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/exposition\/","url_meta":{"origin":212,"position":1},"title":"Exposition","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"25 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In our writing group last night, we discussed exposition and the need to weave it into the\u00a0 scenes seamlessly.\u00a0 It's every writer's challenge. How do you give background information so that it naturally flows out of what is happening to your characters? My Baba (grandmother), whose story I am now\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/P10902831-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":168,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/prologues\/","url_meta":{"origin":212,"position":2},"title":"Prologues","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"3 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In my second novel, I wrote a prologue. I've agonized over it, as it's not short. As an avid reader, I've had mixed feelings about reading prologues, sometimes enjoying them, and sometimes feeling it's taken the author too long to get going. So, I went online to see what others\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/the-novel\/","url_meta":{"origin":212,"position":3},"title":"The Novel: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"24 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I am currently engrossed in reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. At first, I wasn't sure about starting it, as I heard the film was extremely violent. But films and books are so different. I've rarely found a film work well from a book I've liked.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/film-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":198,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/point-of-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":212,"position":4},"title":"Point of View","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"6 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"As a member of Rivercity Writers group for several years now, we've had numerous discussions about point of view in writing. Too much head swapping can be confusing. And yet, it's also insulting to the reader to think he can't follow changing POVs.\u00a0 In Stieg Larsson's second book of his\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":147,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/the-ending-of-a-novel\/","url_meta":{"origin":212,"position":5},"title":"The Ending of a Novel","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"26 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I finished reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon and was more than satisfied with the ending. The fact that it ended without tying up everything was a bonus. Real life isn't neat, even though we wish it was at times. It's curious as well, that immediately upon finishing\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}