Too Much Of A Good Thing

I spend a lot of time of diverse Yahoo Group loops listening to people debate "the rules" of writing romance, and writing, in general.

Now I have always been a good girl (no smart remarks from the peanut gallery, OK?) and tried to follow the rules in whatever venue I was participating. BUT, I have to say that in this case, that is not always a good thing.

The hue and the cry over dialogue tags, contracts, POV shifts, use of first person and third person in the same book, when the hero & heroine meet (and how, and when they have sex, or don't have sex, what kind of sex, using safe sex or not) and any number of other points, generally leaves me with the impression that most authors think strict adherence is the only way to write.

IMHO, Wrong.

If these people focused more on reading other writers .... and not just romance, but other genres, such as mysteries or fantasy ... they would see that very often these published authors do NOT always follow the rules. Some break them judiciously, some hack at them with creative machetes, all while cackling with glee.

The trick to breaking a rule is making it work for you. Do it for a reason. Doing it with the full knowledge of how it ought to be done, and then doing it your way to enhance your story, enhance your authorial voice, and, simply put, to be different.

If every author followed every rule absolutely, we would all sound the same and there would be little choice among books.

No two people speak exactly the same. No one you are likely to meet (in the USA, at least - I can't speak for the farther flung folk because I've never been farther flung) never uses contractions when they speak. So why would it be debated ad nauseum whether it is alright to write with contractions?

The hotly debated issue of dialogue tags, "he said; she said" being considered the ONLY acceptable ones (heaven forbid you use such tags as "growled", "whined", "pouted", etc. because, well, heavens, people don't growl!!! And pouting is not a vocal affect ... and so on and so forth.

Sure. There are ways to finess a lot of writing within the confines of the rules. Want to convey the speaker's emotional intent? Write it better. Add something that describes it without having to resort to a dialogue tag. Sure, I've got nothing but time!

Oh, hell, come on! Lighten up your grammar police types! You rigid rule adherents!

Have a little fun! And remember - if you are a good writer, with a unique voice and style - you CAN BREAK THE RULES and make them work for you rather than stifling you.

If you write in the box, that's how it will read. Learn how the box works, then tear it down. Or better yet, get yourself a lovely rectangular box, with a nice little parabola at the top ......

Get Smart. Write well. Let your voice ring out - be YOU. Then no one will notice if you break a rule here and there.

They'll be too busy flipping the pages, sighing with satisfaction, and Googling your name to find out when your next book comes out!