Welcome Wednesday – Breaking Rules

Welcome to this week’s edition of Welcome Wednesdays!

This morning, let’s talk about writing rules, and specifically about the times that authors break them.  In the comments, tell us about a rule, either a grammatical rule, or an unwritten rule or storytelling, or a rule of conventional publishing wisdom, that you’ve broken in your books, and tell us why you did it (include a short except to illustrate, if you want, too).  Be sure to leave a link to your book so we can see for ourselves!

I’ll begin…

 

In the Dream Series, I break several rules on the very first page of the first book, DREAM STUDENT.  I don’t “open with a bang” – the story takes a while to get going.  I open with a dream, which I’ve read is an absolutle no-no.  The first couple of pages are all in italics, which apparently is also something that isn’t (or isn’t supposed to be) done.

Why?  I didn’t know all those rules when I started the book.  But, more importantly, that’s the story that I wanted to tell, and how I personally needed to tell it.  I thought abot other ways to open the book, but none of them felt right.  And I thought and still think the italics are a good way to set off the dreams (and, in later books, Sara’s flashbacks).  I think that in spite of breaking the rules, the book works pretty well…

 

And now it’s your turn!

(when you’re done here, please stop by Exquisite Quills, where there are daily memes just like this one and plenty of fantastic authors you can discover!)

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