2017 - April - Break the rules?

     Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are a kind of magic; their purpose is to be invisible. If the sleight of hand works, we will not notice a comma or a quotation mark but will translate each instantly into a pause or an awareness of voice . . .  Janet Burroway (Writing Fiction)

 
Do You Really Need to Know What's 
Behind 'The Rule' Before You Break or Tweak It?





 
This is the cardinal rule:  When writing fiction, nothing must stop the reader and take them out of the enjoyment of the story. 

That's also what creates the magic in reading something written by a storyteller.

Interestingly enough, the fastest way to break the magic spell and jerk a reader out of a story is to use semicolons, colons, brackets, and adhere to the use of proper and formal grammar and punctuation.

Most of the newly self-published or independently-published writers don't realize the rules for grammar and punctuation, the rules for sentence structures, and all the other "rules" for writing they were taught do not necessarily apply to writing fiction.

Why is that?

It's because of the narrative voice coming off the page. Be that voice one of the omniscient storyteller or an actual character, that voice will have a distinct vocabulary, diction, and syntax. More importantly, that narrative voice will be highly opinionated. To impose strict rules of grammar and punctuation stilts that voice so it sound unnatural. In other words, the narrative voice has to sound true for not only spoken dialogue but also for internalizations and telepathic conversations.

This tweaking and breaking of the rules particularly applies to the deep third person POV-Viewpoint and the I-persona of the first person POV-Viewpoint. These two are where one specific voice narrates everything for the duration of the story or a scene.

I'm all for creating the magic that keeps a reader engrossed in the story, are you?

*********Next month's topic will be Nightmares for Authors— Freudian Slips, Miscommunications, or Worse

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