Chick Chat

Chick Chat: Rules of the (Writing) Road

Today we Chicks are talking about writing rules. Which are our personal faves–and which might we prefer to…ignore?

Lisa Q. Mathews

As a former in-house editor, I am firmly in the camp of “The Rules” for writing. Okay, I lie. I especially love sentence fragments. Like, starting lots of sentences with “And” and “But” and “Or.” I also adore em dashes–and exclams!!!!!! Structure-wise, mystery writers probably require a whole extra layer or two of discipline. But to be honest, when I’m actually butt-in-chair, working on my own manuscripts, I hate ALL rules. I am extremely fond, though, of this quote from Nora Roberts, posted on a sticky note attached to my desk lamp: “Shut the (insert very uncozy word) up and WRITE!

 Ellen Byron

The very word “rules” pushes all the buttons for me. Honestly, the hair on my arms stands up even typing the word. And do not get me started on Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules ofWriting. (Which of course means I’m about to launch into a diatribe about them.) Whenever I read those rules, I want to instantly break every one of them. Yes, we want to avoid adverbs whenever possible, limit the use of exclamation marks, and avoid the word “suddenly.” But you know what? Sometimes in a mystery, things “suddenly” happen! (Although I only ever use exclams in characters’ dialogue, never in the prose of my writing.) And occasionally a verb besides “said” helps convey an important moment or event.

If every single writer religiously followed every one of Mr. Leonard’s rules, everything we write would sound exactly the same. Which is why I can always tell when a writer has followed every single one of his rules.

Cynthia Kuhn

The idea that you have to know the rules in order to break them is useful, so we can do the opposite with wild abandon and know that we’re being quote-unquote rebels. (Yay!) My most consistent rule breaks are sentence fragments. It’s probably just how my brain works, but let’s say it’s stylistic.  

One publisher had me take out the comma at the end of every sentence before “too” and “though”–I went from always having them there to never even thinking about them anymore. So you can teach an old dog new [punctuation] tricks!  

(“Is one of us supposed to be a dog in this scenario?” #InvoluntaryRomComFlashback) 🙂

Leslie Karst

I’m a firm believer that with regard to the arts, it’s best to know the rules first, and then once you do, then go ahead and break them as you want. Case in point: Check out Picasso’s early drawings. They’re astounding, in a traditional but mind-boggingly beautiful way. It was only after he mastered the classical rendering of the human body did he later break out and create his own original and fantastically creative style.

Now, I’m certainly no Picasso, but I did learn all the rules of grammar and style as a youngster. And when I break those rules–which I often do–I know how and why I’m doing so. Like Lisa, I love sentence fragments. When used sparingly. And I use slang, and adverbs, and even occasionally open with the weather.

Be you, but be aware of what it is you are doing.

Jennifer Chow

I like rules. But I break them. (Note the previous example.) I used to write more formally, but now I mix up my grammar. I’ve even started adding back passive voice when needed. Although I adhere to certain storytelling rules, such as Chekhov’s gun (i.e. use the gun that you introduce early in the story). Plus, I do kill my darlings in order to streamline the plot.

Patricia Sargeant

Rules? Are we talking about rules? I laugh in the face of rules. Ha! Ha!

Having stated that, I believe there’s a time and place for rules, but that’s not in the draft phase of writing. The Blank Page is scary enough without worrying about where to put the commas. I prefer to dive in and write my story. Once I enter the revision phase, I can consider active versus passive voice. Or ask myself whether I need that adverb, or if I could switch point-of-views in the middle of a scene.

Readers, where do you stand on writing (or mystery) rules? Which do you love (or…strongly dislike)?

37 thoughts on “Chick Chat: Rules of the (Writing) Road”

  1. You rebel Chicks, you! I’m with you. Know them, and break them when you want. I follow Merriam-Webster on Instagram, and once they posted a meme giving permission to end a sentence with a preposition. I think that’s what it was. I meant to print it out and post it on the bulletin board above my desk.

    Have fun writing today!

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  2. I agree with Patricia that the ‘Blank Page is scary enough’ and will just write and then return. Right now I am reading Sue Grafton series and I love how long her paragraphs are, full of details. As a former English teacher, I would probably think about placement of commas but she just keeps going and I find I do not care if it is correct or not as she is such an excellent writer!

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  3. Interesting discussion! Part of me is with Ellen – tell me it’s a rule and I’m going to break it! But the other part of me feels like these rules arose for a reason, so maybe I need to understand them and then break them consciously for good cause. I love Benjamin Stevenson’s treatment of Knox’s rules of detective fiction in “Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.”

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    2. Robin, excellent point about understanding the rules before breaking them. The goal is clarity in communication. We may understand what we’re trying to convey, but does anyone else? If the rule’s meant for clarity, awesome. I’ll check on that during revisions. One of my favorite examples: “Let’s eat, grandpa.” Versus, “Let’s eat grandpa.” We know what we mean, but does anyone else?

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  4. Know the rules, so you know why you are breaking them. I’ve read some books where the authors needed to follow the rules more because it made their book unreadable. I’ve also read books where authors broke the rules and I didn’t even notice because I was caught up in the story.

    And I’m someone who breaks rules all the time. (Note the beginning of that sentence.) There is style in breaking rules. But they were originally created for a reason, and until you know what that is, you are going to create confusing stories. And not in a good way.

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  6. Huh. I’d never really thought about writers needing to know the rules first before breaking them. That’s a really good point! It’s funny (well, not really) that AI allegedly follows all the grammar rules, but few readers seem to enjoy its distinctly formal, careful, distant style.

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  7. I’m in the know the rules then break them camp. When I took an essay writing class in college, one student complained about the corrections on his paper saying that Faulkner doesn’t write like this – professor told him that when he’s Faulkner he can write as he chooses. Later I met a friend of my late uncle, a well known painter, & we discussed the importance in both writing and art of first learning the rules, then deciding when & how to break them.

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