IWSG 2017 Kickoff

It's the first Wednesday of 2017 and that means the first IWSG post for our group. You can still join this wonderful group started by Alex J. Cavanaugh and enjoy all the support and fellowship that goes along with being a member. Share your woes, ask your questions and celebrate you accomplishments with us. If you have none of those things to share, you can just answer or also answer the monthly suggested question (totally optional question):
What writing rule do you wish you'd never heard?

I would call this advice more than a rule, but when I first started out, I heard numerous times to 'write what you know.' Well, I write fantasy and science fiction. Who knows that stuff? I know lots of science but the future is endless possibilities. Even if you're writing contemporary or historical, you can research anything you don't know about. It's bad advice for fiction writers.

And what members have been waiting for, it's time to announce the latest winners of the IWSG anthology contest. First the official title: Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life.

The book will include short stories by these amazing members:
Jen Stanton Chandler  The Mysteries of Death and Life
Renee Cheung  Memoirs of a Forgotten Knight
Sarah Foster The Last Dragon
Sean McLachlan The Witch Bottle
Yvonne Venstresca The Art of Remaining Bitter
Ericka Beebe The Wheat Witch
Ellen Jacobson The Silvering
Olga Godim Captain Bulat
Elizabeth Seckman Mind. Body, Soul
Roland Yeomans Sometimes They Come Back
L Nahay Breath Between Seconds
Tyrean Martinson Of Words and Swords

Congratulations to them and all who entered. The stories were great this year and a real tribute to the quality of writers who belong to our group. I hope you have a chance to congratulate those who were selected.

Probably all of us are hoping for great writing things in 2017. I found this first in a series article from Chuck Sambuchino of Writer's Digest. He's put together a list of tips from agents to help with your queries this year. Check it out.

Watched Sense8 on Netflix this past weekend. Very confused for the first episode but it really intrigued me after that. Lots of nudity and bad language, perhaps worse than GoT, but the idea is pretty cool. Tried the first episode of The OA but haven't been caught up in it yet.

I've been doing some cleanup after the holidays. I took a bunch of books to the second hand store where hopefully they find someone new to love them. And now I'm getting rid of lots of other stuff to the trash or Goodwill. I'm not a saver of things but when you raise four children, things tend to accumulate. It's a start.

Any writing rules you want to throw out? Find anything of interest in the query tips? Any series on Netflix or Amazon Prime that you recommend? Or some that really stink and I shouldn't bother?

Rules or Guidelines

Most writers somewhere at the beginnings of their career took writing classes or attended workshops of some kind. Maybe those classes reached all the way back to high school or college courses, but at some point an instructor lectured us on all those things we needed to know to be a writer.

Some of you might not have used that knowledge immediately but when the time came you remembered those rules of grammar and punctuation and applied it to your writing projects. I admit to picking up a style book early in my writing endeavors because there were lots of things I didn't remember.

And I learned my English teachers had LIED to me. Some of those things they taught me are not rules. They're guidelines. But which ones? How about the rule about never starting a sentence with a conjunction? We do that all the time when we speak or think. Why not when we write?

I'm also going to boldly attack that rule about splitting infinitives. Even Star Trek does it so can it be wrong? We all know the sin of using adverbs in our writing but splitting infinitives with an adverb isn't committing a writing sin. It's a guideline that if followed may improve your writing by making it stronger. But if I can ever write a line as famous as 'to boldly go where no man had gone before,' I'll split that infinitive until the cows come home. (For you non-farmers out there, the cows usually head for home at dusk.)

Were you taught any 'rules' that you later found out were mere guidelines? Do you keep a style book on hand? Do you know when the cows come home?

Don't forget to visit the IWSG site today for some great writing advice. And take the time to visit Anne R. Allen's blog where she has Nathan Bransford guest posting this week. It's a very interesting post.

Rules of Writing

I'm going to guess most writers have some brand of style book hovering around near their writing desk.  You can even find style books online.  In them and in any other number of reference sites, books and classrooms, you can learn the 'rules' for writing.

This quote was in the monthly newsletter for Pennwriters:

"There are three rules for writing the novel.  Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." - W. Somerset Maugham

The longer I'm in the business of writing the more I believe in that quote.  I'm not sure when I realized ending a sentence with a preposition isn't really a sin though lots of editors don't like it.  Let's face it though, when we speak we end sentences in prepositions all the time.  Some sentences sound better with the preposition at the end.  How many of you have had editors who insist you don't have a single of, from, or whatever before the period.

I had an editor who insisted I remove every 'being' from my manuscript even the ones like, 'human being.'  She frustrated me a little.  Another editor insisted throughout an entire 450 page book that I should refer to the horse in my book as 'he.'  She wanted the stallion to always be called 'it.'  I threw a few things when I worked with her. 

How about not starting a sentence with a conjunction?  But I do this all the time.  And so do lots of authors, many of them very successful.  Because sometimes starting with a conjunction conveys the meaning the author wants.

So what 'rules' of writing do you break on a regular basis?  Which rules don't you like to see broken? Have you ever had an editor or critique partners who insisted you break no rules?