A Personal Essay - Rule Breaking #otherwords

On the 3rd Thursday of the month I've decided to post something different. I belong to a writer's group. Not an online one - one with real humans, meeting in a real room - interacting with each other!  Sometimes I can make the meetings - other times - I'm in belly dance class.

Each month there is a challenge, which can be addressed either as fiction or non-fiction. Word limit - 750. I use the challenges, whether I make it to the meeting or not, as a writing exercise. So on the 3rd Thursday of the month, I'll post the literary results of my tackling the challenge.

The challenge for this essay was - Breaking the Rules.



A Personal Essay on Breaking The Rules of Writing


I'm a published author who's struggled through the quagmire of the writing business. And the biggest pain in the…uh…neckis the erroneously labelled Rules of Writing. Some writers think this means placing a period at the end of a sentence or where to put those annoying commas. Nope, those are punctuation rules and even those aren't cast in stone as e.e.cummings proved.What are the rules of writing? I don't know. I, truly, don't. I only know when I supposedly broke one of them a former editor flipped out. Or, when I read an author's post raging on about how silly a person is that they broke the simplest writing rule and now they must burn in hell.So I DuckDuckGo'd The Rules of Writing.  Clicked on the first one – 11 Rules of Writing, Grammar and Punctuation – translate that to 10 rules of grammar and punctuation and 1 supposed "rule of writing" – omit unnecessary words. Clicked on the 2nd link - Colson Whitehead's Rules for Writing. Rule 1 talked about show vs tell. Not really a rule, more like writing advice. Rule 2 – Don't go searching for a subject, let the subject find you. This isn't a rule of writing – it's writing advice.Rule Number 3 – write what you know – that's a platitude. I got bored – skimmed down then fell in love with this author - quote – Rule No. 11: There are no rules. YES!!!!!!!!!! With lots of exclamation points.On to the next link – 10 Simple Rules for Good Writing Read your story aloud.That's not a rule - it's editing advice.I gave up. Tossed my hands in surrender. Threw in the towel. Picked up my toys and went home. Gave up the ghost. Feel free to add more clichés.After an extensive search - I found - grammar, punctuation, editing, and writing advice, but no Holy Bible of Rules of Writing.Which led me to – Question?Who taught Homer the rules of writing? Who taught Shakespeare? Lucky for them the "rules" didn't exist, and yet they were able to create literary masterpieces. How weird is that?Homer's writing – in today's writing world – he'd be told to change the POV. He wrote in omniscient which is currently a big baddie. Seems today's readers can't understand omni POV. Translate that to – won't take the time to read.Shakespeare – in today's world – he'd be told he couldn't just make up words. Readers wouldn't understand.A classic Shakespeare curse – from Taming of the Shrew - you whoreson malthorse drudge!In today's lexicon – you jerk. It kinda loses something, doesn’t it?Then the light went on in my head. Calling things rules gives some people a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. What gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling? Chocolate.When have I broken the all holy rules of writing? Numerous times. In one of my books I changed POVs. I started in first person and switched to 3rd. This was a deliberate move on my part.  Did I get ripped apart by reviewers? Nope. Nobody's commented on it other than my editor who thought I'd messed up. I've written romance in first person – which some agents say is an all mighty sin.I've written in omni pov.I've used the word "as" in many books. Long story.And yes, I've even used the damned for all timeexclamation point.There are more heinous examples of my blatant rule breaking, but I'll stop there.Do I feel guilty about breaking the rules? Am I devoured by remorse? Not even for a millisecond. If everyone sticks to the rules then we become trapped by the walls they create and books become cookie cutters. Sally meets Bill. They fall in love. The end.orSally kills Bills. Detective Smith solves the murder. The end.Do I expect flak for my opinion about screw the rules of writing? Yes - and I've gotten that numerous times when I've written a blog post or commented on one. People yell - which means they write in capitals – BUT FIRST YOU MUST LEARN THE RULES OF WRITING. My response – what are the rules of writing? Show them to me. Their response is usually silence. I guess they can't believe I'm actually that dim-witted that I don't know the rules. Truth is – the rules are really guidelines to help your story NOT BORE THE READER– because that's the only real rule.
word count - 730 


What’s up and coming on Victoria’s Pages of Romance 17 – Friday Snippets  #FridaySnippets18 – blog available until September19 – blog available until September20 – author spotlight - Melanie Robertson-King – The Secret of Hillcrest House21 – author spotlight -  Sharon Sant - Storm Child 22 – Book Hooks - #MFRWhooks23 - My Thoughts  - #mythoughts24 - Friday Snippets  #FridaySnippets25 – author spotlight – Jenna Jaxon26 –blog available until September 27 – author spotlight – Melissa Foster – Bad Boys After Dark28 – author spotlight - Jacquie Biggar – Summer Lovin' 29 – Book Hooks - #MFRWhooks30 – My Thoughts  - #mythoughts

If you see a date that is available and would like to post on that day - leave a comment with your email and I'll get back to you ASAP.