Breaking the Rules
Carolyn Oravitz
Rules rule. Writers know rules should be followed when writing for publication, but are there ever any exceptions to the rules? Let’s look at some rules that were “successfully” broken. Rule: Avoid starting a book with the words, “It was.” Rule Breaker: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times,” from the classic A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Rule: Word count for young adult novels should be no more than 80,000 words. Rule Breaker: The first Harry Potter book was 175,000 words. Rule: Don’t write about something that could never happen. Rule Breaker: The book, The Wreck of the Titan , written 15 years before the sinking of the Titanic, was considered too unbelievable since no ship built like that could ever get a hole in it from an iceberg and sink. Rule: Don’t bother writing forewords because no one ever reads them. Rule Breaker: Stephen King wrote three forewords in his best-selling book, On Writing , and I read them all. Rule: When writing for children, write real words they can read. Rule Breaker: Dr. Seuss’s words zigger, zong, zlock, zillow, and zizzer-zazzer-zuzz. Rule: Self-published novels do not sell well. Rule Breaker: The Shack by William Paul Young went from a few hundred self-published copies to 15 million copies sold.
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