The Thing About Rules And Writing

   I've heard lots of rules about writing. Don't use too many adverbs. Show, don't tell. 

   And if you've been writing for awhile, I been you've heard a lot too - the same ones and others. 

   I wrote a story a couple years ago. I got it through the first draft. I was writing it for a contest, and I tried to follow the guidelines that would make it win. I looked it over a few times. I was a newbie writer. And then I edited that story.  

   I ripped that story to scraps - taking out every weasel word, trying to remove every adverb, trying to follow every single rule that I knew, and following them to the very letter. 

   I sent it to some friends and let my family read it. They said it was good. I thought it was good. But something felt ... off. Wrong. I didn't really love this story.

   And then, after the contest had ended (I hadn't won, obviously XD) and I began writing a story that I really loved, I realized what I had done wrong last time. 

   I was trying to win a contest. I was writing only to win that contest. I was writing a story that I enjoyed writing, yes - but I wasn't writing the story that I really loved and wanted to tell. 

   Of course, that was only part - I mean, it's still possible that I could still write a good story, even if it wasn't a story that I was feeling as connected too it as I could have been, no? 

   WELL ... I also made another mistake. 

   I followed every rule to the letter and took the pieces of me out of my story. I wasn't writing the way I wanted to write any more.               

   And turns out that this learning experience was vital for me. 

   

   I learned that (GUESS WHAT) you don't need to follow the rules. 

   Well, okay, let me rephrase that: you don't need to follow the rules all the time. 

   You don't need to take out every single weasel word. You don't need to remove all the adverbs. You can tell instead of show - sometimes you need to.

   Learn the rules and break 'em like a pro.

   Your writing is your art. Don't let anyone steal the unique things that make your writing yours. Especially yourself. Because you know what?

   Letting yourself steal from yourself ... well, that's pretty much cheating.

   And cheating just isn't fair.

~ Savannah Grace

   Have you ever written a story you've really loved, a story you just knew was different from the rest?