Sunday, September 13, 2009

Blog Chain: Breaking the Law! Breaking the Law!

Hey, so it's time for the blog chain. Michelle posted an awesome blog before me and Cole's up tomorrow so head over to their blogs to check the whole thing out!

Kate started this party by asking: What writing rules/advice - whether it was a matter of cannot or will not - have you broken?

Answer: All of them? Seriously though. All of them. Really. Except for the Oxford Comma. I'm a vicious task master with that one.

As my previous blog chainners have mentioned, you should really know the rules before you can break them. For instance, someone who doesn't know any better might use adverbs because they believe that more is better. But as writers we need to know that sometimes adverbs are a crutch used because we couldn't find the right word. Why would you say, "She talked loudly and quickly" when you can say, "She screamed at me in run-ons." Both essentially say the same thing but the first is weak. It doesn't draw the image.

The same goes for prologues. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with a prologue. However too many people use them as dumping grounds for information that should be scattered through the rest of the book. And look at ALL CAPS and exclamation points!!!! If you flavor every sentence with them, they become common, but if you have a book that has just one single word in all caps, then you're breaking the all caps rule and really making that one word special. That can be a powerful tool.

Okay, now what rule do I break often and with great glee? Fragments. I use them frequently. Because most of my work is done in first person for a YA audience, I tend to use fragmented thought. Unfortunately I lean on it too much but the advantage is that when I do use fuller, more complete thoughts, they stand out. Like, "wow, he really thought that through." Plus, I happen to believe that most people don't think in perfectly formed complex sentences. I think we stutter and start and bounce around in our heads.

Okay, like I said, head on over and visit Cole's blog for her answer, which is sure to rock, because that's how she rolls.

12 comments:

  1. Great post! I like breaking the prologue rule, bwahaha! But sometimes I'm sneaky and just title it Chapter 1.

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  2. Great post! I love fragments, especially when writing first person. I think that fragments carry a lot of weight.

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  3. Who would have thought the Oxford comma would become a motif in this blog chain?

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  4. Great post...and man, we BOTH love the sentence fragment. Must be a YA thing!

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  5. ooo I love fragments :D Really. I do. See? Fragment it up!!!

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  6. Great post, Shaun. I don't think it can be stated enough how important it is to know the rules so that you CAN break them. I'm sorry to hear that you lost the battle with "sneaked", though. I think you put up a mighty fine argument.

    - and LOL! That IS how I roll. :D

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  7. Awesome post. Nice to meet a fellow Oxford comma-man. Your examples are dead-on, and I agree with your thoughts about how we often think in short, choppy sentences. Nice job.

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  8. And now I know my rigid comma rule has a name other than serial. Thank you!

    Annie Proulx's THE SHIPPING NEWS used fragments in a way I hadn't read before, or been exposed to. They read like stage direction or scene description in a script. It took some getting used to, but made for an interesting experience.

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  9. I have to admit - I'd never even heard of the Oxford comma before this chain started. Then again commas and I have never been on very friendly terms - I tend to prefer the more easy-going dash.

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  10. I didn't think not having fragments was a rule except in, like, academic papers. I feel that in fiction there's a lot more room to experiment.

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  11. I am very guilty of overusing fragmented thoughts, too. Definitely a YA tendency.

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  12. I have a deep, deep dislike for all caps and exclamation points in stories. I think it comes from working at a paper.

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Keep it clean, keep it classy, and jokes are always appreciated.