Thanks for your comment Steve. Make what you will of "writing rules"--award-winning YA novelist A.S. King has used a prologue in every one of her published books because someone once told her she shouldn't. You'd do better to think of such "rules" as guidelines meant to expose deeper truths about communicating through fiction, and focus on your storytelling instead. The focus of this series of posts is how to overcome the anger, frustration, and cynicism that can hold you back while pursuing your dreams. Feel free to leave a link to the other thread though, for those interested!

Using the example of the other thread, we were instructed *not* to try to emulate the literary devices/writing styles of established, best-selling authors. That was in particular reference to the modern (and it *is* only modern, as in, only existing for the last couple of decades or less) 'writing rule': 'Don't include prologues/dream-sequences in your work'. But the discussion eventually broadened to discuss many of the other modern 'writing rules' such as: "Don't use adjectives/adverbs/semi-colons/dialogue-tags other than 'said', etc."

The point of the discussion being (or at least, that was the ultimate conclusion) that aspiring/debut authors are *not* being judged fairly by the agents/editors in publishing because these modern 'writing rules' are evidently not being *applied* equally between established and aspiring authors. For example, do a survey of modern best/medium-selling novels and you'll find that the (vast) majority do not stick rigidly to the 'Don't use dialogue-tags other than said' rule, despite it apparently being enforced on the rest of us.
Which rule is not only unfairly applied, but (as discussed on the other thread) is also un-evidenced as to its literary validity, arbitrary, has only existed since very recently and (clearly) does not agree with how most modern successful authors write. Following on from the last point, this rule thus also becomes illogical, counter-productive and economically non-sensical if the most successfully modern authors, themselves, ignore it. Not only that, but this particular 'rule' contradicts several of the other 'writing-rules', making its application to new authors even more bizarre.

In short, we all know how much competition there is to get published these days, and none of us minds losing out on an agentive/publishing deal to a better writer. But what is quite unforgivably unfair (and economically non-sensical) is for new authors to be told that they're not supposed to try to emulate precisely the writing-styles used by the most successful authors in the world today, when the evidence would suggest that such writing-styles are precisely what the reading public want! And frankly, it's impossible for me to escape the conclusion that such 'writing-rules' are imposed on aspiring authors for the express purpose of 'sabotaging' our chances of getting published. And considering how there are only enough publishing slots for 1% or less of all book submissions these days, I wouldn't put it past the industry using these 'rules' as a crude way to simply 'thin-out' the number of submissions they seriously have to consider. And I know that sounds cynical, but then so does the modern publishing industry...

Lisa I can only imagine that the classroom really rap things up. Then once you're out it's the rush to publish. I have a friend going through this pain!

Just trying to rise above...some days, easier to do than others!

Thank you. I followed the link you gave me and will keep it close. Ann Oxrieder

I love that Kimberly! Thanks for sharing that story. Now I'll never forget either: the fair is in August!

These comments show you are not the only one with disdain for the participation trophy, C.K., and I suppose if they were meaningful my adult sons wouldn't have told me to throw theirs away when they left home. Imagine, landfills full of trophies! I'm no fan myself. I was never into team sports but in my life as an author I have found that I do have a competitive side for sure, and it helps drive me toward my goals.