There are rules these days about everything. It almost makes me wish I had been born there were any rules; then again maybe I was alive back before rules ever existed. It’s not that I don’t respect rules, because I do abide by quite a few rules. But they can be a bit stifling at times. Some rules are down right annoying. So why am I thinking about rules? Well because of a theme that has been going through my mind.
I can’t help but think about what life was like a long time ago. And if there were people back then that made up rules in regards to what made a good story or not. Or was it more about Ug having more charisma than Ak, so the rest of the tribe wanted to listen to his story over Ak’s tale. Now I’m sure Ak still had a great tale, but no one would give him a chance so he just gave up and went back to fishing.
I can’t help but think about what life was like a long time ago. And if there were people back then that made up rules in regards to what made a good story or not. Or was it more about Ug having more charisma than Ak, so the rest of the tribe wanted to listen to his story over Ak’s tale. Now I’m sure Ak still had a great tale, but no one would give him a chance so he just gave up and went back to fishing.
We’ve evolved a lot since those early caveman days, but in a way we’re even more critical of what makes a good story and we created rules for story tellers to follow. That makes me wonder what Shakespeare, Chaucer and Homer would have thought, just to name a few beloved writers. All three of these guys seem like rule breakers to me. Yet we dissect their stories and poems and say this is how you construct a sonnet, a play or a tale in general. If they were alive would they agree? Or would they tell a fledgling writer to throw the rules out the window and allow yourself freedom to write and create. Obviously we’ll never know. But part of me believes they smile at us hopeful writers and poets and are encouraging us from beyond the grave to be ourselves in whatever we write, since that’s where true beauty is crafted.
That’s why the rules of writing can be shot full of holes. Because one minute you get taught the rules then the next they tell you to just write and lock your internal editor out. You see it is this editor in all writers that keeps track of the rules. But it’s not the only thing that keeps track of writing rules. There’s also the trusty word processor. However, there have been times I wonder who programmed the one on my computer, since I question it’s grammar edits. It also doesn’t understand that in creative writing it’s okay to have sentence fragments. Maybe they should create a word processor for the creative writer. One that learns the writers rules, so it can follow along and not get in the way of the creative process by splashing pretty colors all over the page, just because it doesn’t understand what you’re doing.
Okay back to a few more rules. Did you know there are even rules about creating a title? I was a bit floored when I read a blog post about it today. Not that I didn’t understand where the blog writer was coming from, but it did seem a bit funny to me, since it was things I always try to do anyways, when I title something. Even though when it comes to blog posts I look at my titles as a jumping off point and go from there.
So go out and learn those writing rules so you know which rules you’re breaking when you write your next novel.
That’s why the rules of writing can be shot full of holes. Because one minute you get taught the rules then the next they tell you to just write and lock your internal editor out. You see it is this editor in all writers that keeps track of the rules. But it’s not the only thing that keeps track of writing rules. There’s also the trusty word processor. However, there have been times I wonder who programmed the one on my computer, since I question it’s grammar edits. It also doesn’t understand that in creative writing it’s okay to have sentence fragments. Maybe they should create a word processor for the creative writer. One that learns the writers rules, so it can follow along and not get in the way of the creative process by splashing pretty colors all over the page, just because it doesn’t understand what you’re doing.
Okay back to a few more rules. Did you know there are even rules about creating a title? I was a bit floored when I read a blog post about it today. Not that I didn’t understand where the blog writer was coming from, but it did seem a bit funny to me, since it was things I always try to do anyways, when I title something. Even though when it comes to blog posts I look at my titles as a jumping off point and go from there.
So go out and learn those writing rules so you know which rules you’re breaking when you write your next novel.