My Opinion on Writing Rules

  Rules don't just exist in school or in the laws that govern us. No, now they are being thrust upon us by fellow writers. Certain conceited big shots think their ten rules are so clever. Well here's a news flash, I can find bestsellers to oppose every one of those silly rules. Some of the things they point out as don'ts are what readers love best about their favorite books. For example I recently read one of these ten rules and this person said that writing speech patterns like dialect wasn't a good idea. I believe there was also a remark about apostrophes. I know all of us LOVED HAGRID who spoke in a clipped sort of way. J.K.Rowling is quite possibly the best writer of our age. Before the next conceited writer who thinks he knows something and comes up with ten rules he needs to think about all the writers who use his DON'TS in their books and who he or she might offend! Oh look I just used an exclamation point someone call the literary police! Exclamation points are used to show emotion like when a character is yelling or upset. The length of the dialogue says how many you can have not the number of pages. Here are my ten rules:

1) Read if you want to write to get a feel for how a novel flows.
2) Watch and observe people who annoy you and the ones you couldn't live without to find qualities for villains and heroes.
3) Think about what would have made your least favorite novels better. This gives you an idea on how to come up with your own.
4) Think about your target audience and what is appropriate for that age level.
5) Write everyday. Keep a journal, write poems to broaden your sentence structure, or just jot things down about your surroundings.
6) Live, no good writer can write if they haven't experienced things that would come up in a novel.
7) Write your own style, do what sounds good to you.
8) Read your stuff aloud because how it falls on the ear is important to get the flow of your book.
9)  Don't be worried about criticism. It will come along with baskets of rejection letters. It only takes one yes in a sea of no's.
10) Don't listen to anyone about rules. Somewhere out there is a person who will love your work the way you wrote it. Just keep your spelling and grammar decent and pray your writing gels.