Breaking the ‘Rules’…
April 22, 2008
There’s a very thought provoking post on Emma Darwin’s blog today. Emma is the renownedauthor of The Mathematics of Love (shortlisted for the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year) but the post is actually taken from a Write Words forum.
It’s called Are Creative Writing Rules Gendered?
This post expresses points I’ve often thought but not dared to voice (as a new author) It basically says (I think) that while we shouldn’t ignore the ‘craft’ of writing, rules shouldn’t be followed slavishly and that the individual voice is precious above all else. But there’s more… this post links Creative Rules to Gender and makes a wonderful case that waffling is a feminist issue!
Posted by Phillipa @ 11:14 am | Leave a Comment
Rosy Thornton Says:
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