Breaking the Rules

It’s not often you’ll find me conforming to a set of rules that everyone follows. I don’t follow specific patterns. I normally don’t allow someone to lead me (though I will admit to the occasional moment where I’m passive). There is a South Park episode, “I’m so much of a non-conformist that I’ll non-conform to you non-conforming.”

That would be me.

So typically when I write, I disregard any rules that I find ridiculous. You can tell sometimes, but I don’t care. I write for fun. I write for enjoyment. I write to edit later. And since Hellion blogged about rules yesterday (which I found funny because I was already set to write this one about not obeying the rules) I figured it would be fun to get a take on rules you can live without when writing a novel.

But that will come later.

So a few weeks ago our lovely Capt’n Hellion and I had our monthly writing meeting. Just to give you an idea of how our meetings normally start off:

“Hi. My name is Sin.”
*Hi, Sin*
“I have a problem.”
*What kind of problem?*
“A procrastination/daydreaming problem.”
*hush comes over the crowd* “You need the room on the left just down the hall.”

Confused look. “Well what meeting is this?”
*murmur* “This is the Sexaholics Anonymous.”
Pulling up a chair. “Well in that case I’m staying.”

See what I mean?

Or maybe you don’t.

Anyway, Hellion says to me, “You need this character interview.” And she says it in that voice that shouts to me, “And you damn well better use it!” But she would never say this to me.

At least I don’t think.

And I say to that. “Alright.” Which in Sin-Speak is, “But I’m not going to use it.”
(Sorry Hellion but you already knew that. LOL)

Okay, so I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say *sigh* that I pulled this little character interviewer thingy out after a good brainstorming session with our Powder Monkey Lisa and felt like I needed to make sure I knew who my heroine was. What I got was ten pages of her rambling on about computers. I liked it better when we didn’t know each other. She never rambled to me. She’s a quiet woman, reserved, knows how to hide her feelings. But there’s something about her coming home to face her past that has her rattling off like a nervous ninny.

So you might wonder what this has to do with rules.

First off, most people follow the writing rules (I don’t know if they are writing rules per se) and make an outline of their story. Write out detailed character sketches. Work hours on story boards, plot details, character arcs. I don’t do any of this so doing the character interview was like breaking my own rule.

Numero Uno in Sin’s House of Writing: Thou shall not outline.
Numero Dos in Sin’s House of Writing: Thou shall not conform to any particular writing style but do your own thing.
Numero Tres in Sin’s House of Writing: Thou shall always write the ending first.
Numero Cuatro in Sin’s House of Writing: Thou shall not question the character of your characters.
Numero Cinco in Sin’s House of Writing: Thou shall procrastinate all hours of the day when you could be writing.

And see, I’m breaking my own rules.

Hellion has rubbed off on me. Bah.

So getting back to what I said earlier. I want to hear from you my wonderful, faithful little reader of the ship. When you’re writing, what rule do you love to break? And if you don’t write (Bless your heart, you’re still sane) what rules do you like to break when you’re reading. (And if you say you flip to the ending to read…*Shaking head*)