Breaking or Bending, What are the Rules?

Do you break the rules? Bend them? Know what they are?

I tend to think writers are mostly rule breakers, and at the very least, benders.

But in order to break or bend, don't you need to at least know something about those rules, whatever they are?

Salvador Dali was supposed to have studied classical painting before starting on his Surrealist career. Picasso could also paint classically (if he wanted to). 

As writers, we are supposed to read the classic writers: Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, Fydor Dostoevsky, Anton Chekov, Charles Dickins, Mark Twain, Geoffrey Chaucer, and all the rest. We are supposed to read everything we can get our hands on, really, and I try to do that (when there's time).

In fact, I think there's a saying: There are no rules, but if there were, it would be not to write about writers writing ('cause that's very boring). 

For playwrights, the "rules" are still pretty similar, but I'd add acting if you can, because the more acting you do, the more you learn what works and what doesn't onstage. I think my best playwriting training, in fact, was singing and acting before I started writing. Which meant learning which plays meant something to me and why.

What I leanred was what I liked: not who the playwright was, but who she or he wanted to be and what that playwright showed me about living. 

(So. Is there a point she’s going to get to or WHAT?)

To find your voice, you have to know what you want to say - and know who you are before that.

(Finally)!

And for all those would-be rule breakers out there, I’d want you to remember just one thing: it’s no fun to break rules if you don’t know them. 

Photo by Dan Clear on Unsplash