Defying All the Writing Rules

I haven't tried very hard.

I may have submitted a few of my works, here and there, over the years, to publishers. I have the rejection letters to prove it.  But I have not done it with great consistency or quantity.

With agents, I've made even fewer contacts.  That's gone even worse than the publishers.

I'm terrible at query letters. There are tons of articles and books about how to write query letters, and I can't read any of them.  I get close to trying, and my heart races and my brain freezes, and I distract myself with something else.

I do need a professional editor for my works.  I understand that.  But here's a surprise - they cost money.  A really good one requires a lot of money, considerably more than what the book, particularly a self-published one, would make.

And I have been warned by some fellow writers that if you do get interest, they may require a lot of rewrites.  I don't know if I'm up to that.  Can I correct some grammar?  Probably.  Can I fix some inconsistencies, or sharpen some characters?  Sure.  Can I throw out whole characters and change the basic plot?  I shudder with fear, just thinking about it.

And then there all the modern rules I don't follow -

YOU'RE ONLY SUPPOSED TO SKIP ONE SPACE BETWEEN SENTENCES AND NOT TWO.

Great.  Take fifty plus years of two-spacing and flush it down the writing commode.  Do you realize how much writing I have that would have to be corrected if I did this?  I can't even remember to only skip one space my blog.  I've been told skipping two spaces tells an agent or editor that you are antiquated, out of touch and a rank amateur.

Sigh.  I'll have to fix that someday.  Today is not the day.

DO NOT USE A PROLOGUE OR EPILOGUE

Screwed the pooch on that one, didn't I?  History of the Trap's got 'em, big time.  I wanted to bookend it with stuff that was not in the protagonist's first-person voice.

So now, in my new stuff, I still have them, sort of, but I'm calling them chapters rather than prologue and epilogue.

I have no idea why the powers that be have turned on them.

DO NOT USE TITLES FOR CHAPTERS.

Huh?  What?  Why not?  I got titles all over the place.  The Extra Credit Club even titles chapter parts as well as chapters.

I have no excuse or justification for this, other than - I like it, and it feels right to me.

SHOW DON'T TELL

I'll be honest with you.  I'm not even really sure what this even means.  I've had it explained to me, and although I try to comprehend, it comes across like Charlie Brown's parents.

ADVERBS ARE EVIL

Ok. Well.  I have not absolutely, completely, comprehesviely eliminated adverbs from my works, but I have tried to minimize.  Or maybe not.  It's not something I think about a whole lot.

DO NOT USE INITIALS FOR A PEN NAME.  IT CONFUSES HOW YOU'RE LISTED BY LIBRARIES AND ONLINE BOOKSELLERS.

Man, I fumbled this one a LONG time ago!  I decided to use T. M. Strait as my pen name when I was in 7th grade, emulating my favorite author, H. G. Wells.

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Okay.  Well, that's just a few of the ways I defy the writing rules - some by intention, some by incompetence.

So, I guess I'll stumble on with my writing journey, doing it my way, for better or worse.

I do wish I was better at publicity, though.  If I were a good salesman, not just in writing but with anything, I would be on easy street.  But I'm not.  I couldn't sell water in the desert.

Living on the edge of writing convention.  That's me!

Enjoy if you can.