Thayer Rules are my little way of cataloging things I hear from James Thayer's podcast Essential Guide to Writing a Novel. Thayer is a wealth of information. Its presentation is a bit long and slow but there are nuggets in there that are incredibly worthwhile. Additionally, in episode one he references positively Donald Maass. I love Donald Maass.
The rule I liked today was "Characters don't engage in small talk."
He says this I believe to tell authors not to waste their reader's time. The character-driven story is what we are after. More on that and Ripcord in a bit. But, making sure Characters don't engage in small talk is a good way to help ensure that both your readers don't get bored, and that your characters drive the story.
It's not an epiphany, surely, but it's a good rule to remember.
When was the last novel you read where the main character sat down and watched television and vegged out? Rarely happens. I mean I can think of a sentence or two where Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum comes home to curl up with her boyfriend, down a whole pizza, and fall asleep on the couch watching a show. But usually, it's one sentence and it serves to move the story from one day to the next.
Another he brings up . . . keep emotion bottled up. Don't let your character cry. If the character cries it allows the emotion out of the page and out of the reader's own emotion. Let that emotion stay in the character, building and never being released. Let the emotion be released in the reader by the reader.
If your scene contains tears . . . go back and write it so that the tears are unexpressed for the character.
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