Jul 16 2008
The Angels and Demons of the Rules of Writing
Did you ever watch the old cartoons where the character would be trying to make a decision and suddenly there were two miniature images of himself above and to the side of his head and one was dressed as an angel telling him to do the right thing and the other was dressed as a devil telling him to do the wrong thing?
That’s what happens to me every time I sit down to write about a rule of grammar, punctuation or usage. Suddenly an angel who looks like me pops up and says, “Tell them to do the right thing and obey this rule,” and at the same time a devil who also looks like me materializes and whispers, “Don’t listen to him. Rules are for sissies. Hemingway broke them. Cormack McCarthy breaks them all the time. Jack Kerouac didn’t even know there were any rules. Let ’em write. Screw the rules!”
That’s what I have to contend with all the time – not only when I write articles about writing rules, but whenever I write anything. For example, the opening paragraph of this article is one long, run-on sentence. The angel-me and the devil-me almost came to blows over that one. If I were writing for a magazine editor or a client, I could never turn that in. But I’m not, and I’ll tell you, that sentence felt good! In my life as a professional writer, the devil-me rarely gets to win.
There’s a reason for that. It has to do with the fact that most rules exist to make written messages clear and understandable. Case in point:
These are the exact same sentences except for the two tiny little commas in the second sentence. Those commas are of life and death importance to Sally, however. The first sentence says she committed suicide with a gun in elementary school. The second says that she, herself, shot guns while still a young girl. Two very different messages.
The rules are important. But then again, it’s easy to get so carried away with them that they tighten you up and pinch off your flow of creativity. It’s a dynamic conflict and in order to write well, it probably has to be that way. That’s why the angels and demons within us will never stop prodding us as long as we write.
Good post — this is an issue all writers struggle with (or should). My ‘rule’ on this is pretty simple: Never let a rule get in the way of clarity, power or poetry in your writing.
The other thing to keep in mind is that some rules, such as not splitting an infinitive, are just kind of silly, imported into English from Latin but not really required for English.
Keep these good posts coming!
The second Sally sentence took me ages to figure out although I imagine it wouldn’t be so bad if it were in context.