Breaking The Rules – One Minute to Better Writing
Following the rules of grammar and sentence structure is half the battle.
Knowing when and how to break the rules is the other half of the battle.
Mrs. Crabapple would write sentences on the blackboard and ask “What is the subject of this sentence?” and half the class would raise their hands. Then she would draw a sharp-edged box around that portion of the sentence. We learned our grammar, or else suffer the displeasure of Mrs. Crabapple.
You don’t want to write like a 6th grader
Because grammar rules are not absolutes. Being slavishly bound to form can stifle our creative instincts. Mrs. Crabapple would be horrified with the way I started this paragraph, with a conjunction. It breaks the rules.
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Everyone should have a copy of Strunk & White’s “The Elements of Style”. Have it. Know it. Be able to use it. Because (oops there I did it again) one must be thoroughly familiar with the rules before one can break them successfully.
The most important thing
Real writing shouldn’t be sterile, or sanitized. As a writer your first duty is to capture and hold the interest of the reader.
“The pen must at length comply with the tongue” — Samuel Johnson
What that means is that language, and grammar, isn’t frozen, it’s fluid, changing, evolving, as we do. The writer who understands this and can use it effectively will be 3 steps ahead of those who don’t.
The rules work best, when they are our servants, not our masters.
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August 13th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I’ve owned a copy of “The Elements of Style” since high school. These days I break pretty much every rule. My poems, at times, have no capital letters and rarely have punctuation. When I compose and article, it’s pretty much free-form. I write things as I think them; the way I would say them in a conversation. I think we would all be better writers if we broke the traditional rules. Thanks for this, I hope people take the time to read it.
Keep sharing!
August 14th, 2009 at 10:13 am
This is an insightful article. You are right to point out that writers still should work on knowing the rules which means work. We don’t have to worry about writers breaking the rules. We writers have a natural tendency to do that anyway.
http://www.writinghood.com/writing/short-story-ideas-that-work/
September 28th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
And I also like to start sentences with conjunctions. But that doesn’t make it correct. Because it is always wrong. Except when I do it.
December 18th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Every artform is proven to require that one knows the rules before breaking them – it seems oxymoronic but its true. If breaking rules prior to knowing them and using them it shows up as weak and ineffectual. I love that kinda universal synergy.
http://www.quazen.com/Arts/Visual-Arts/My-Foundart-Series-Lost-Art-While-Travelling.179977