Blog Post: Dems the rulez

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New blog post by Jake E

Dems the rulez

Once again, I find myself writing about an argument I stumbled upon on X (Can’t they agree on anything over there?) and I just had to offer my thoughts on it in case anyone was interested.

The argument in question? Writing rules, do they have a point?

Before I get into my personal take on that question, I’ll just lay out the main arguments from either side.

In the red corner, we have Cheryl (not her real name) advocating that no, the rules should be ignored and that strict adherence to the aforementioned stifles creativity and turns everyone’s writing into a homogenous collection of uninspired slop. Salient points to be sure.

And in the blue corner, we have David (also not his real name) firing back that the rules are a necessity to keep you from being identified as an amateur and unskilled writer. It indicates to a reader that you know what you are doing and as such earn their trust. Also, a good point.

But they are both wrong.

I can almost hear the torches and pitchforks coming down the road, so I’ll make this quick.

The rules for writing are not for you, the author, they are for the reader. If your story is difficult, confusing, or annoying to read, guess what? No one will read it. No one owes you their time or their money just because you spent hours creating something.

Sorry.

You could write the next Lord of the Rings, but if you have an adverb every other sentence, people will put your book down and move on.

Which is why the rules exist.

Now, the average reader has no idea what these rules are. They’re not going to write a review which reads:

I was enjoying it, but I had to put it down on page 142 because the writer started three sentences in a row with ‘he’ and that’s not the done thing. – Agnes Nitpick.

But they are going to feel that something is wrong. For readers, it’s all about flow. Does this writing flow nicely? Can I get lost in the current of words and forget, for just a moment, that Gareth at work was a nob today? Can I become so utterly enthralled by this narrative that I forget that I’m supposed to pick up my child in an hour?

The rules help facilitate this state of reading zen and each time they are broken, it reminds the reader that they are reading a book and gives them a chance to look at the clock.

Now, having said that, I’m a great believer in the idiom: Rules are made to be broken.

I believe it is sometimes acceptable to disregard or even break rules. They are not always meant to be strictly followed, especially when circumstances warrant it, but in order to break them effectively you need to actually know what they are and have a very good reason for doing so.

It should be the exception and not the rule.

Some of the best writers in the world break the rules, but they do so to elicit a reaction, an emotion, from their readers. It is done with skill and deliberate forethought. Not because they don’t care for the rules or feel that they are somehow above them.

So, while David (not his real name) is correct that it does mark you as an amateur, and Cheryl (Not her real name) is also correct that strict adherence to the rules can stifle creativity, they have both missed the point.

Writing for publication – whether traditional or indie – is not about you. It’s about your readers, and how they experience the text. A head hopping, she said, he exclaimed, she muttered, mess of a book will not get very far. It does not flow.

So, learn the rules. Write with them at the forefront of your mind and once in a while, there will come an opportunity to break them.

And it will be a hundred-fold more effective.

J
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[Rich.]

Great post, Jake.

"You must know the rules before you can break them," says Wrighty.​

​

"You should be aware of standard procedure (practice may vary)," says Semantica.​

 

[JoanUP]

Agree. It's for the reader.
Everytime I come across a "sentence" without a subject or without a verb... ok, that's a style decision, but for me, I stop to re-read it, thinking I missed something.

 

[Jake E]

Agree. It's for the reader.
Everytime I come across a "sentence" without a subject or without a verb... ok, that's a style decision, but for me, I stop to re-read it, thinking I missed something.

This is the whole thing that needs to be avoided. Readers shouldn't have to re-read bits to get the gist or feel like they've missed something.
It should flow. Every writer writes with a different flow. Some use more long sentences, others more short. Some use fronted adverbials a lot, others don't. This is what gives voice.
breaking the rules, or ignoring them altogether, doesn't give your work voice. It makes it hard to read.

 

[LJ Beck]

Great post. I feel the same. Learning to write is like learning a culture. The reader's culture. It's like learning about any culture. It's only when you know the culture well that you can play within it without offending someone. Or you can offend or surprise or make someone laugh, deliberately, for effect. Writing rules lay out the reader's culture so that you can understand how they think, what works within that culture of reading, and what doesn't. Once you're familiar with it, then you can move around more freely, with an understanding of how things will land. I think it's rude to ignore the rules of culture. You may not agree with them, but you should understand them. I mean it might work, but chances are, a beginning writer will step in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons and not know why if they don't bother to learn the culture.

 

[Jake E]

Great post. I feel the same. Learning to write is like learning a culture. The reader's culture. It's like learning about any culture. It's only when you know the culture well that you can play within it without offending someone. Or you can offend or surprise or make someone laugh, deliberately, for effect. Writing rules lay out the reader's culture so that you can understand how they think, what works within that culture of reading, and what doesn't. Once you're familiar with it, then you can move around more freely, with an understanding of how things will land. I think it's rude to ignore the rules of culture. You may not agree with them, but you should understand them. I mean it might work, but chances are, a beginning writer will step in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons and not know why if they don't bother to learn the culture.

I like the culture analogy. It fits rather nicely.