I’ve never forgotten when I heard Jeff Gerke say “The only writing rule a writer can’t break is ‘don’t break faith with your reader.’ But if you break a rule, break it well.” The quote might not be exact because it has been a few years, but it is close. I thought of Jeff while at the Write In The Springs conference last Saturday.
In class after class the rule “Don’t use the same noun or verb or phrase in proximity to itself.” has been drilled and drilled and drilled into my brain.
Margie Lawson, our presenter for Write In The Springs, demonstrated several ways to use words or phrases respectively to better touch our readers’ emotions. And not just repeat one or twice, but three, four, or five times. Experimenting with these techniques during the conference was fun. Coming home, looking at my WIP, and playing with the different ways we learned was not only fun, but greatly improved my WIP.
Hurray for breaking the rules!!!!!