Breaking Rules

Being a lawyer, I generally like to follow rules. Doing so makes my life easier, and keeps me out of trouble. The legal term “precedence” means to follow what has come before, and when a court uses precedence in deciding a case, it makes the outcome relatively predictable.

In my non-legal world, I love to break rules if there are no dire consequences. There is something about defying authority that has allure. Remember breaking your curfew? Remember driving over the speed limit and not getting caught? Remember cheating on a diet?

Who is making the rules anyway—parents, government, yourself? If you break a rule and don’t hurt yourself or anyone else, is that a bad thing? Rules have a purpose in every aspect of our life. They keep our society functioning, they guide us in the right direction, and they tell us what is acceptable.

What about the rules of writing? At one time, it was taboo to start a word with “and” or “but”—your high school teacher put big red marks on your paper if you did. But the rules have changed. And you even see best-selling authors doing the previously unthinkable.

Some writing rules should never be broken, but there are several that can be. Robert Masello has his own set of rules (see my review of Robert ’s Rules of Writing here) that will make you think about what you’ve learned or heard along your writing journey. When you read his book, sometimes you’ll feel validation because you’ve already experienced his rule, and other times you’ll feel like you’ve got to try playing his way because it sounds like more fun than you’ve been having.

I always thought my writing rules were basic: 1) get something onto paper, 2) edit, 3) submit. After reading Mr. Masello’s book, I realized my rules go deeper than that, but just never put much consideration into what they are.

Maybe you have your personal set of writing rules that work for you. If so, please share them!