3 Fiction Writing Rules You Should Follow

This post comes from the archives. I’m reviving and revamping a few of my old “for writers” pieces here on Substack my defunct Lauren Layne blog since a few of you have asked where they went!

First, I really want to clarify:

I typically don’t like hard rules when it comes to fiction writing.

Writing is an art form, and great art often comes from blowing up the norms and reimagining something that should be a hot mess, but instead is a masterpiece.

In fact, I get downright fussy when I hear someone use the term “good writing.” I do believe there is such a thing, but I also don’t buy that writing has to be objectively excellent in order to be engaging or beloved. I’ve read plenty of books where the writing was a little messy and raw, and I enjoyed them way more than many polished and esteemed bestsellers.

But.

I do think that following the three rules below can improve every story, and these are three things I learned early on in my writing adventures that dramatically improved my books.

01. Don’t Head Hop

I heard this advice very early on in my writing career, and I still adhere to it pretty firmly.

Head hopping is when you show multiple character’s point of view (POV) in the same scene.

Don’t. Do. It.

It seems so obvious to me now, but when you’re just starting out, this is one of those things you don’t know you don’t know.

If you’re not sure what head hopping looks like on the page, here’s a very exaggerated example so you can see what I mean:

Jenny couldn’t believe her eyes…Matt looked so different from the last time she saw him! Matt could only stare at Jenny, torn between the urge to pull her close and walk out the door; he’d thought he’d put the past behind him, but suddenly all he could see were memories. Jenny bit her lip when Matt didn’t say a word—did he still care about her at all?

It’s intentionally terrible, but you see the problem, right? We’re getting Jenny’s perspectives on what’s unfolding at the same time we’re getting Matt’s. Not only is it clunky, it makes your readers work twice as hard to parse who’s having which thought.

I have seen great writers get away with it; you’ll see it occasionally in classic novels, and the great Sandra Brown has done it in books I very much enjoyed.

But as a general rule? Leave head hopping to the masters and limit it to one character’s POV per scene. I promise it’ll make your book easier to read.

02. Don’t Do The “Mirror Thing”

If you’re unfamiliar, the “mirror thing” is when an author has their character look in mirror and assess their own appearance as a means of letting the reader know what the character looks like.

Here’s an extreme, terrible example.

Jenny caught glance of herself in the mirror while brushing her teeth and paused, because it was just … the same as she always looked. Her shoulder-length brown hair that always seemed a bit too frizzy, plain brown eyes that were neither dark nor golden. Her nose was slightly crooked, a reminder of the time she broke it in middle school, and nobody would exactly call her lips pouty. She was fond of her freckles, but it was hard to even notice them with the big shadows under her eyes…

I totally did the mirror thing in my first writing attempt! Not that different than the above, honestly.

But then when I was in the querying stage, I stumbled upon an interview with a literary agent who said it was her number one red flag that a manuscript wasn’t ready for publication.

And you know what? I think she’s generally right.

I get why writers do it—I’ve done it!—but it almost always reads as a cheesy, amateur shortcut, because real humans do not do this—we do not look in the mirror and observe what color our own eyes are.

We look at ourself in mirror to see if we have kale in our teeth. If our eyeliner is smudged. To bear witness to how badly the misty weather frizzed our hair. Or to assess how fugly or fabulous we’re looking.

But we do not gaze at ourself in the mirror and muse over the same features we’ve had our entire life. “Gosh, eyes are still blue today… yup, hair’s still curly and brown … ah! those high cheekbones I got from grandma are still there!”

Unless your character’s just recovered from lifelong blindness, the mirror thing will almost always read as a cheesy shortcut simply because it’s not how real humans behave—we already know what we look like.

PS: I’ve slipped up and done this in one of my published books as well, and I’m not telling which one!

03. Show, Don’t Tell

A classic writing rule, perhaps the classic writing rule, and with good reason. Showing is more effective than telling. Full stop.

But what does that actually mean?

It’s easier to show you than tell you. (← you see what I did there 😏)

Some examples, exaggerated.

Telling—

Maria was feeling supper bummed after the argument with Ellie.

That same thing, but shown—

Maria slumped onto the couch, her eyes welling up with tears. She stared blankly at the floor, her shoulders shaking as she hugged a pillow to her chest, replaying Ellie’s harsh words over and over in her mind.

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Here’s another example….

Telling—

Sarah was excited about her new job—finally, her dreams were coming true!

That same thing, but shown—

It was only when Sarah noticed people giving her second glances that she realized she was grinning like a fool as she walked down the sidewalk, unable to stop thinking about the job offer as she pulled out her phone to tell her mom that ten years of hard work had finally paid off.

In summary …

You see the difference, right?

Telling is when you explain to the reader what’s happening or what the character is feeling. Showing is when you let the reader experience it along with your character.

Showing is generally superior because it more readily creates an image in your reader’s mind, and that’s what we want—for your scene to unfold like a movie in their imagination, which as little extra work required from them as possible.

I promise this is one of those things that gets easier the more you practice!

Or, be a rebel.

All this said, I really meant what I said: I dislike absolute rules.

So if you feel really called to break the above rules as part of your unique style, you should not let some random other author on the internet tell you otherwise.