Only Opinions

After reading an exhaustive list of famous writers' Rules for Writing, I've discovered that these people have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Am I allowed to say that? Sure, they've written best-selling novels, but I'm not convinced their know-it-all advice is sound.

Writing has rules, indeed. That's an indisputable fact. However, after figuring out that verbs follow nouns, and learning where to place commas and quotations marks, it becomes all about a writer's personal style. And style does not have rules.

If style had rules, every single book at Barnes & Noble would be identical, and readers would have grown weary of reading way back in the 1700's. It's Jane Austen's style that separates Pride & Prejudice from Huckleberry Finn. And it's Mark Twain's style that distances Huckleberry Finn from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

In this particular list, one writer insisted I must: "Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said"...he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way or any other way is a mortal sin." One question, sir: If you're going to use the verb "said" for every single sentence of your entire novel (which some authors believe is the ONLY way) wouldn't you want to spice it up with an adverb every now and then?

Another declared vehemently (ha!) to: "Never use the word "then" as a conjuction - we have "and" for this purpose. Substituting "then" is the lazy or tone deaf writer's non-solution to the problem of too many "ands" on the page." I beg to differ.

While still a third said: "Write in third person unless a really distinctive first person voice offers itself irrestistibly."

These are not rules at all. They are merely suggestions from authors who discovered using adverbs, "then", and first person voice did not work for them. But they may work for me.

I'll conclude, admitting that there were some solid pieces of advice amidst these do's and don'ts, such as "Finish the day writing when you still want to continue" and "Read aloud what you've written" and "The way to write a book is to actually write a book".


Novel update: 7 chapters completed (I combined 7 and 8) with 252 days to go.