I’ve been knee-deep in edits for the Wonderstruck book and Bible study over the last three months. And one of the biggest challenges for my beloved editors is distinguishing the grammar rules broken by accident versus those which are intentional.
Why? Because when writing, I’m a rule breaker.
Now in writing, different types of rule breakers exist:
The Haphazard Rule Breakers: These writers bulldoze through rules because they never bothered to learn them. They may know enough of the do’s and don’ts to form a readable sentence, but the way they break the rules, their sentences need to be corrected and edited carefully.
The That’s-The-Way-I-Said-It Rule Breaker: These writers break rules, because they feel the way they communicate verbally and in print are interchangeable. They assume the sound and sight of a word is the same. They’ve never taken the time to study skilled writers or hone their writing—which is oh-so-different than communicating verbally.
The Highly Intentional Rule Breaker: These writers follow and honor the rules, but they also know some rules need to be broken in order to create phrases that haunt and images that linger.
At times, I fall into to be a Haphazard Rule Breaker—in particular, when it comes to colons and semi-colons. Though I’ve read and studied the rules, I still find them gooey and messy. When I’m tired, I fall into the trap of That’s-The-Way-I-Said-It and toss words on a page rather than handcraft them. But my heart’s desire is that I’d be a Highly Intentional Rule Breaker.
This kind of writing requires a skilled editor to tell you, “That’s not working!” and “I know what you’re trying to do, but you’re not doing it well.”
For example, I-tried-to-write-a-sentence-like-this-all-hyphened-together-to-create-a-sense-that-what-was-happening-felt-like-single-gulp. My editor kindly told me to delete the hyphens—the writing wasn’t working.
But in another place in Wonderstruck, I built a story in which the linchpin woke in the morning and everything changed. To slow down the pace of the story, I placed hyphens between every letter of the word s-t-r-e-t-c-h. It was a kind of punctuation pun that visually stretched, but also slowed the reader down enough to feel the stretch in the moment. I broke the rules, but it was highly intentional.
Another example is a moment in the book when I lost my breath. I had to catch it again. Rather than say I took a breath, I caught, my, breath. The commas between each word made every editor and copyeditor who worked on the book cringe, but I was being strategic. In the build up of the story, I wanted the reader to catch their breath along side of me, slowing down to drink in each word.
Now if you break the rules too many times, or even use the same trick twice, you’ll annoy your reader. But if properly placed and highly strategic, you can sprinkle wonder, delight, and joy into your writing.
What are some of your favorite tricks to the trade of writing?
