Gina: What's the worst piece of writing advice you've heard?
Terry: People who tell us we don’t need to pay attention to rules and conventions but should write it the way we want. To me ‘rules’ means grammar and formatting, the basics, and must be followed to the letter. ‘Conventions’ are different genre to genre, but basically are what a number of editors like to see done in work they publish. We can choose to break some convention, but should do it only if we know why we are doing it, and with a full knowledge of why it is an accepted convention. We also have to keep in mind that when we choose to do so, we are probably limiting our market by ruling some editors out who believe strongly in the convention. The less our publishing credits, the less likely they are to accept work that doesn't fit within established rules and conventions.
Last year in my writing workshop we were taught to follow convention, but break them sparingly and for a reason just as Burns said. I often drop nouns from sentences for rhythm purposes. My example: An excerpt from one of my WIP's, Safe in Her Arms...
Pop. Triple Pops. The distant gunfire popped through the island's calm.
Laurel jerked forward out of her sleep. She looked around. Pulled her sheets closer to her chest. Trembled.(against convention example) I'd forgotten about all this craziness. She said to herself.
War. Constant. War. Haiti's verity reminded. Something had to be done here. She thought. Haiti deserved some sort of peace. But how would she accomplish this? God only knew.
I hope those two sentences aren't the reason an editor rejects me, because I like the way they sound aloud. But if an editor tells me to change the sentence, then I would. Are there any instances when you go against grammar in your stories? Let's talk about it at the discussion board.
Dee
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