On Traditions

What makes something a tradition? Technically, it's just something that's done repeatedly. So why does one thing become traditional and others don't?

Historically, things become traditions because they work. If sticking an earthworm on my fishing hook attracts fish to bite it, I'm going to keep doing it. If putting tree branches on my hook doesn't work, I won't do it again.

The problem with traditions is they aren't perfect. Putting a worm on a hook may be better than nothing, but it might be worse than other baits. If you stick with what works, you may never find what works better. Or even just what works differently.

I write this post not because of fishing, but because of writing. (It totally does apply to fishing, though, as well as any other endeavor, too.) Why do we write novels the way we do - with chapters of certain lengths and paragraphs of certain lengths, and sentences of certain structures? These are not essential to the communicative ability the way spelling and punctuation are. These are stylistic. They certainly do work well; many novels have used this structure. But when we start assuming that novels have to be written in the traditional style, we miss out on so many possibilities, some of which may communicate far more effectively than the traditional style ever could.

Try different styles. Be experimental. See what works best for the story you want to tell. It may be the traditional style, and that's ok. It may be a non traditional style, and that's ok, too.