Saturday, August 6, 2011

Rules, who follows them anyway?

So like Amy, I'm also not a writer...technically. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE writing, but only when it comes to writing about my everyday life. I'm just not creative enough to come up with an actual story - so I take my reality and liven it up a tad (honestly, just a little). But the point is: by denying myself the title of "writer" I am no longer constrained by punctuation or other literary rules. And I truly believe life is more fun when you can write how you want. I like to make sentences that aren't sentences. I like to use lots of "dot dot dots." Plenty of sentences end with words that shouldn't be hanging around anywhere near a period. I also start sentences with "and" all the time and I LOVE to lengthen a sentence with a beautiful little "-". And the use of run-on sentences gets me excited...because what could be more fun then a never ending sentence? Almost nothing.

My only rule when it come to writing is that the reader has to be able to read it...AND that they have to read it in the tone and manner in which I was thinking it in my crazy mind. So when I do write, I may....or may not call my mom up and ask her to read my words aloud back to me to test it out. And sometimes that's not good enough...because honestly, she's my mom. That lady raised me (and therefore, knows exactly how I talk and think and write). So in certain circumstances, I ask my poor husband to read my writing....and then we don't talk for the rest of the day cause we're so mad at each other. I mean really, how could he get my intended tone so wrong? We've been married for EVER! You think he'd know that I really didn't mean to share in detail the story about his nose hairs. Really....it could have been a metaphor. And besides who would read it anyway? It's not like EVERYONE reads my blog.

Anyway, I hope you get what I'm saying. I like to write about life. I don't dream up stories...I just re-create them. I like to write in my own style and form - i.e. I follow no rules. And most importantly, I like to have someone else proofread what I've written (preferably not the person who I've just written about though because that can get a bit hairy).

So, what are your rules when it comes to writing? Are you part of the grammar police or do you make your own rules? What do you write about? And do you share with others?


3 comments:

  1. I like to make my own rules...especially with em dashes.

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  2. Haha. Meagan, I think a lot of writers would agree with you. Especially YA writers who have to make it sound like a teenager (and teenagers never follow the rules). Like Jessie I love using "-", practically every other line (but sadly have to hold back in my books). As you can see brackets are my all time favourite tool to overuse.

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  3. I'm also a fan of the "..." :)

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