Certiain rules are not meant to broken. Or are they? I never considered making the canine character, Shadow, the narrator in my book. Even if I hadn’t heard that novels told from the dog’s point of view were unpublishable, my novel focuses on a young girl’s unfortunate circumstances rather than the dog’s special talent. Yet, now that I know it is not only possible to get these types of books into print, I wouldn’t rule out experimenting to see if I could write in a dog’s voice in the future.
One great example of successfully capturing a dog’s mindset is demonstrated in Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain. And Stein isn’t the only author to overcome this supposed insurmountable publishing hurdle either. W. Bruce Cameron also broke the forbidden barrier in his novel, A Dog’s Purpose. Clearly, readers are not nearly as biased against watching the world through a dog’s eyes. Both Stien’s and Cameron’s books made it to the New York Times bestseller’s list.
The lesson learned? A good story trumps all. Write what you love and, with a little luck, readers will follow.