This is number 117 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
“YOU ARE REMEMBERED for the rules you break,” supposedly said General Douglas MacArthur, according to a quote in a 1996 issue of Press of Atlantic City newspaper. Unfortunately, there’s no concrete evidence that he said that, but with his nature and character, it certainly seems reasonable that he might have. The same is true of the more recently popularized quote, “Rules are made to be broken.”
My editors often point out things that are incorrect in my books. Of course, readers are always happy to point them out, as well, but I generally listen to my editors. Generally. I often get comments from them that are along the lines of “This isn’t technically correct, but it’s in dialog, so if that’s consistent with the way the person would talk, it would be okay.” We hedge around on it a lot.
Of course, many rule infractions are of the sort that do drive people crazy. Words that sound similar, are spelled similarly, or are simply easily confused. We all have pet-peeves, I’m sure. Mine is the confusion of ‘then’ and ‘than’ in other’s writing. It drives me crazy. I wish they’d just learn to follow the rules!
And that’s the big problem. When people break the rules because it’s a play on words or a character trait or a significant plot point, I have no problem with it. But I find most infractions are simply because people don’t know the rules in the first place. Ignorantia juris non excusat. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
That’s why editors are so important to me. I know and understand most of the rules of grammar and spelling, but I make mistakes. Editors correct me. I try to provide a few mistakes in each chapter so they will feel useful.
There is absolutely no purpose in breaking the rules if one is ignorant of them.
Let me go back to MacArthur again. In the 1962 book MacArthur Close-Up author William Addleman Ganoe retells an anecdote regarding MacArthur having to discipline a sergeant for a rule infraction. At one point, MacArthur gets frustrated and states, “Rules are mostly made for the lazy to hide behind…. Instead of mending the situation on the spot, we make a rule.”
MacArthur is sometimes praised and sometimes vilified, but I have to agree with this point. The reason we have thousands of pages—perhaps millions of pages—of laws in this country is because we couldn’t actually deal with a situation in the first place. The same is true of hundreds of executive orders, pages of court opinions, and countless books of religious doctrine. We hide behind the rules. If the rule says I can’t go beyond the fence, I can safely close my eyes to the horrors that are on the other side.
Most English speakers know the rule against ending a sentence with a preposition.
“Where y’all from?” asked the belle.
“Where I’m from we don’t end a sentence with a preposition,” answered the snooty Yankee.
“So, where y’all from, bitch?” asked the belle.
She sure got around that one. And followed the rules while doing it! Grammatical rules are not supposed to be a barrier to communication. Winston Churchill once famously responded to an editor of his speech, “This is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put!”
It was so witty! But it had nothing to do with the rule. Yes, when on its own, ‘with’ is a preposition. But ‘put up with’ is a compound verb. In that instance, ‘with’ doesn’t stand alone as a preposition. Now, did Churchill not know the proper grammar. Or his editor?
Regardless, it was funny!
My daughter came up with a witticism when she was in high school. We’d started reading the Harry Potter stories when she was just four years old. The whole family loved them. Then a series of stories about vampires and werewolves called the Twilight Saga came out. My daughter read it.
When I asked how she liked the series, she said, “The difference between JK Rowling (HP) and Stephenie Meyer (TS) is that Rowling learned how to write before she published a book.”
Ouch! Nothing like getting criticized by an eighteen-year-old English major. Of course, in the past fifteen years, she’s found much to criticize in her idol’s politics and humanity, just as she’s found much to criticize in my writing.
In summary, it is important to know the rules if you are going to break them. Take the time to learn to write. Everyone will enjoy it more.
Ah. The first of August already. Happy Lugnasad, everyone! For me, it means I’m preparing to return home to Las Vegas, even though the temperatures there have not really started down yet. It will still be about 110 degrees when I get there, but I’ll survive. And, with luck, I’ll start making regular blog posts again. Next week, I’ll talk about establishing a rhythm to your writing: “In the Groove.”