5 Writing Rules We Break!

Rules schmules! Call us rebellious, but when it comes to writing, we think some rules were made to be broken.

Never start a sentence with a conjunction. So I have impeccable grammar, if I do say so myself. The basics, I like to proudly declare, I’ve pretty much got down. It’s versus its. There, their and there. Whose and who’s. And I can really rock a comma.

I know all of that like the back of my hand. But that doesn’t mean I’m stiff about rules. I do love to start a sentence with a conjunction,that’s for sure. And I’m awfully fond of the emdash — a little too fond, maybe! But (and there I go again!) those are all purposeful decisions. Here’s what I know now: once you’ve learned the rules, it’s quite fun to break them.

— Sona Charaipotra, co-author of Tiny Pretty Things (HarperTeen, May 2015)

Write what you know. People tell you this all the time when you’re starting out as a writer, and we tend to take it literally as in ‘I worked on a yak farm, so my novel must take place on a yak farm.’

The rule should be “Write the truths you know.” I write what I know about my characters longings and dreams. For the action of the story, it’s all research and imagination.

— Shelly King, author of The Moment of Everything (Grand Central, September 2014)

Write 2,000 words a day. I’m a rule follower, always have been, always will be, even in writing. I try to avoid passive prose and adverb abuse, I slaughter darlings with abandon, and I try to limit distractions but my kids keep finding me. I rewrite clichés when I find them, and edit to make sure every scene, sentence, and word has earned its place. But there’s one I break all the time, it’s more about practice than craft.While a lot of writerly advice suggests you should write a set amount of words everyday or for a set amount of time, I don’t.

When I’m drafting or editing a novel that’s my focus – that’s all I work on, I find my groove and work till it’s done. I don’t have a set time I write, a set word count I have to meet, or a number of pages I need to edit. In between, like now, I try to read more, blog more, research more. This system works well for me, and that’s the real rule to follow – use a system that works.

— Amy Reichert, author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake (Gallery/Simon & Schuster, Summer 2015)

Eliminate distractions. While I’ve considered tattooing much of what Stephen King has to say about being a great writer on my arms, the one rule of his I can’t abide by is to eliminate distraction. I typically write to music, in a crowded coffee shop, with my cellphone inches away. It seems the more chaotic my environment, the more able I am to get the words down.

— Karma Brown, author of Come Away With Me (Mira Books/Harlequin, July 2015)

Don’t edit as you go. A common refrain in writing is: first drafts are supposed to be crappy— that’s what the editing process is for. But I can’t move on until every paragraph in every scene is close to, if not exactly, how I want it to be. Maybe it’s because I was a magazine editor for years, but I write, edit, write, edit— and then edit, edit, edit some more. It takes me a painstakingly long time to finish a first draft, but I couldn’t do it any other way.

— Colleen Oakley, author of Before I Go (Simon & Schuster/Gallery, January 2015)

 

These five authors make up this year’s 2015 class of The Debutante Ball, a blog where debut novelists have been chronicling their journey to publication since 2007. Come join the party! Each week we give away free books, writing tips and book publishing insider information.

Tags: colleen oakley, debutante ball, featured, writing tips

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips