Comments on: Breaking the ‘Rules’… http://phillipa-ashley.com/blog/2008/04/22/break-the-cw-rules-hurrah/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:43:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Rosy Thornton http://phillipa-ashley.com/blog/2008/04/22/break-the-cw-rules-hurrah/comment-page-1/#comment-3301 Rosy Thornton Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:44:48 +0000 http://phillipa-ashley.com/blog/2008/04/22/break-the-cw-rules-hurrah/#comment-3301 Thanks for posting the link Phillipa - and to Emma for giving my rant blogspace! I'm not sure, in the cold light of the day after, that it makes very much sense - the feminist part in particular - but I do know that I often feel out of sympathy with a great many of the so-called 'rules'. Not everyone (perhaps especially, not all women?) wants to write like Ernest Hemingway or Raymond Carver. Why are we always urged to be lean and spare - why can't we be lush and expansive if we feel like it? Why are we always to avoid adverbs like the plague, and use adjectives only in moderation (never more than one at once, and never on a Tuesday)? I LIKE adverbs and adjectives. Things and actions often feel to me like they aren't just black-and-whitely themselves, they are qualified - so I qualify them. I'm all for discussion of the writer's craft - the dissemination and discussion of ideas and suggestions for ways we can improve. But I don't think there should be RULES! Rosy x Thanks for posting the link Phillipa – and to Emma for giving my rant blogspace! I’m not sure, in the cold light of the day after, that it makes very much sense – the feminist part in particular – but I do know that I often feel out of sympathy with a great many of the so-called ‘rules’. Not everyone (perhaps especially, not all women?) wants to write like Ernest Hemingway or Raymond Carver. Why are we always urged to be lean and spare – why can’t we be lush and expansive if we feel like it? Why are we always to avoid adverbs like the plague, and use adjectives only in moderation (never more than one at once, and never on a Tuesday)? I LIKE adverbs and adjectives. Things and actions often feel to me like they aren’t just black-and-whitely themselves, they are qualified – so I qualify them.

I’m all for discussion of the writer’s craft – the dissemination and discussion of ideas and suggestions for ways we can improve. But I don’t think there should be RULES!

Rosy x

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