After I inadvertently sent a writer’s group into a tizzy over the made-up adverb “boredly,” I got to thinking about the rules of writing. There is some great literature available about how to write well, and honestly, I haven’t had time yet to check it all out yet. But we’ve all heard at least a few of the rules:

  • Don’t start chapters with dialogue.
  • Don’t overuse adverbs.
  • Sentence length should vary.
  • Avoid passive voice.
  • Show, don’t tell.

Writers really—and I mean really—care about these rules. And rightfully so: they’re important rules. But sometimes I think we get a little carried away with our advice on the rules of writing. The made-up adverb post was evidence of this. I was flooded with a stream of responses from “Adverbs are the devil!” to “You’re a lazy writer!” and not a single person was interested in the reasoning behind the word choice. The point is that, all too often, we jump to the conclusion that the rule is X, so we must do Y. And I don’t think that’s entirely true.

The rules are there for a reason, and every good writer knows that. I’m not saying rules are meant to be broken, because they aren’t. But if we all followed every rule all the time, what would our literature look like? Our characters would be flat and disingenuous. Our stories wouldn’t read the way they were meant to be told. And we wouldn’t have awesome phrases like, “What the frak?”

So, momentarily setting aside the fact that “boredly” is not a real word, where do we land on using it with regard to the other rules? Does it violate the adverb rule? Yep. Does it tell rather than show? Sure. But “bored” is a strong word, and it happens to describe my character’s disposition very, very well when he responds to other characters. If it was a real word, the fact that it’s an adverb wouldn’t stop me from using it, because adverbs are okay to use sometimes. Nor would I be deterred by the mere fact that I could describe boredom with a plethora of descriptive passages, because sometimes that isn’t the most effective way to tell a story.

I haven’t taken masters courses in literature. I’m not as brilliant as Grammar Girl when it comes to identifying how present perfect tense should work with a dependent clause (Mignon Fogarty, you’re my hero!). I’m still learning. I have a lot of learning left to do. I respect the rules of writing, but I don’t think they’re meant to be etched in stone as a be-all, end-all technical manual for producing a creative manuscript. I think we writers have a duty to learn the rules, to be aware of the rules, and to have good reasons when we break them.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about that Grammar Girl question, you can learn all about mixing verb tenses in her article here: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/mixing-verb-tenses.

Now let’s go break some writing rules!