One Question Writers Should Never Ask

I frequent a lot of writing groups on the web, on Facebook, even on Reddit. I’m a writer, so that’s pretty normal. Some people in these groups are wildly successful, others are just working on their first attempt at a novel. Many of them have questions. Lots of these questions are really good, and the answers will often help more people than just the original poster.

But then there’s this question: The question of death.

“I’m writing a novel and I want to do X. Can I do X in this kind of novel?”

It’s a terrible question, it’s asking for permission from people who cannot give it, and more importantly, the answer is always the same: Yes; but with a caveat.

A writer can do anything in a novel. Sure, there are a couple of apparent limits. Many people will tell you you can’t write a category romance without a Happily Ever After (known in the trade as HEA) ending. The thing is, they aren’t actually saying you can’t write it that way; they are really saying that if you write it that way you can’t sell it as a category romance.

The truth is, you can do anything you want so long as you can make it work. That’s the catch: you have to do it well enough that it works. That’s what matters, the execution.

Don’t ask whether you can do it. Ask whether you should do it, and whether you can do it justice.