To all writers and poets everywhere — Please, for the love of God… LEARN THE RULES OF WRITING. Knock yourself out. Get yourself a University degree if you wish. Pump the neurons until they squeak and bulge with knowledge.
AFTER YOU DO THAT… just friggin’ write. DUMP THE RULES when they don’t apply to what it is you’re writing. I have come across so many highly educated writers and poets whose work is as flatlined as any instructional manual for assembling Scandinavian furniture has ever been. Inject your personality and your voice and your style into your work. Step off the I’M AN INTELLECTUAL MOUNTAIN OF KNOWLEDGE soapbox and just friggin’ write.
There are no rules in good writing and good poetry… just the ability to string words together in the right order. Know the rules… that is important. But don’t live by them. Don’t drain your creativity by trying to squeeze your writing into the rules you have learned.
WRITE OUTSIDE THE LINES!
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Yayay, excellent advice which I have also been spruiking. The only rule of writing is readability.
Learn all the rules so you know exactly how to break them… Nice :D!
Thanks, both. I was actually ranting a little yesterday when I wrote this. (Not that I take it back, I still believe it to be true… but I wrote it out of frustration.) (-;
I love this. It should be burned into the brains of new writers everywhere.