Fucking with Grammar and 'Writing Rules'

[gaylolis]

Are you one of these people who are constantly irritated by the rules of English grammar while writing? For example, when they told you to remove all passive voice.

If so, have you ever made an alternate stuff so it suits your writing better? Like changing it into passive-aggressive voice.

on a side note, i'm curious about novels that's entirely written in passive-aggressive voice.

Or if they told you to stick to past tense, you used future past continuous something and gets your character stuck in all different timelines at once.

Or if they told you to stick to one POV, you end up switching between narrators who didn't know what the fuck they're doing and act like unpaid intern.

You might be one of them who really love to abuse all kinds of punctuation. the more improper, the better. For a bigger twist, insert wingdings and emoticons in the middle of the dialogue. Or insert dialogue tags when it's the furthest thing from actual dialogues. For example, "[Music stops]"

Perhaps you'd also hate to end your sentences in periods, but instead ends it in a different punctuation each time, like an exclamation mark! You also love to spam it until it's longer than the entire line in your monitor, like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for example.

Feel free to list all the standard things you fucked with :D /

 

[Zirrboy]

Breaking rules on principle still means you live by them

 

[gaylolis]

Breaking rules on principle still means you live by them

it's fine. i just don't like following them so i find ones that suit me better, even if they're technically also rules.

 

[BenJepheneT]

To me, if you find general writing rules annoying i.e. don't overuse the semicolon (;) or try to remove all passive voice, it shows a misunderstanding behind the reasoning of said rules. It's not a never use these even if your grandmother's on fire but rather to avoid it being a crutch that a beginner writer could rely on and hinder their growth.

For example, if one overuses the semicolon, it would make their paragraphs look messy. The writer would start using the mark as a way to avoid writing full sentences and shortening descriptions. As a result, the writer inadvertently cripples their ability to form effective prose when it comes time for it.

As for the passive voice, it's to prevent your prose from having a sluggish pace. I mean, this is easy to visualize. She had her shit fucked out by a kangaroo or A kangaroo fucked the shit out of her. Which one reads more exciting? I know the latter one is.

But that doesn't mean you should adhere to them like INGSOC laws. If you avoid semicolons like a plague your prose would instead present this near staccato pace where the reader is forced into a formulaic pace with barely any deviance to the reading flow. Instead of an emotional roller coaster, it'll be like an emotional Nevada highway occasionally interjected with some bumpy pebbles along the way. Same thing goes for the passive voice. Going active all the time leaves the reader with no breathing room. There comes time to push the reader into the scene as it is time to slowly present scenarios to the reader on a calm, silver platter. Of course, action scenes definitely rely on active voices, but if two characters are simply having lunch on a picnic bench, it's alright to go Ayami was fed with the best pie she had ever tasted in her life instead of THE BEST PIE AYAMI HAD EVER IN HER LIFE FED HER-

I don't know how many times I've repeated this: balance is key. It's not illegal to break rules, but rules are implemented for a reason.

 

[gaylolis]

Spoiler

To me, if you find general writing rules annoying i.e. don't overuse the semicolon (;) or try to remove all passive voice, it shows a misunderstanding behind the reasoning of said rules. It's not a never use these even if your grandmother's on fire but rather to avoid it being a crutch that a beginner writer could rely on and hinder their growth.

For example, if one overuses the semicolon, it would make their paragraphs look messy. The writer would start using the mark as a way to avoid writing full sentences and shortening descriptions. As a result, the writer inadvertently cripples their ability to form effective prose when it comes time for it.

As for the passive voice, it's to prevent your prose from having a sluggish pace. I mean, this is easy to visualize. She had her shit fucked out by a kangaroo or A kangaroo fucked the shit out of her. Which one reads more exciting? I know the latter one is.

But that doesn't mean you should adhere to them like INGSOC laws. If you avoid semicolons like a plague your prose would instead present this near staccato pace where the reader is forced into a formulaic pace with barely any deviance to the reading flow. Instead of an emotional roller coaster, it'll be like an emotional Nevada highway occasionally interjected with some bumpy pebbles along the way. Same thing goes for the passive voice. Going active all the time leaves the reader with no breathing room. There comes time to push the reader into the scene as it is time to slowly present scenarios to the reader on a calm, silver platter. Of course, action scenes definitely rely on active voices, but if two characters are simply having lunch on a picnic bench, it's alright to go Ayami was fed with the best pie she had ever tasted in her life instead of THE BEST PIE AYAMI HAD EVER IN HER LIFE FED HER-

I don't know how many times I've repeated this: balance is key. It's not illegal to break rules, but rules are implemented for a reason.

finding balance is kinda hard since everyone has their own preference. i just roll with whatever makes me the most comfortable at the moment.

perhaps the rules are there to achieve a generalistic goal, which along the lines of making a clarity out of writing. but what if the Author's goal was none of them? it may be along the lines of, "They told me not to do it, and I did. It was fun," that sorta thing.

and using different tones for an established formula may create a surreal tone, which is among my absolute favorites. so i think preference and biases may play heavily in this matter :D

>She had her shit fucked out by a kangaroo or A kangaroo fucked the shit out of her. Which one reads more exciting?

the one with passive-aggressive voice, no contest :D /

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I still don't even know what is going on in my book, and I probably break several rules.

 

[BenJepheneT]

finding balance is kinda hard since everyone has their own preference. i just roll with whatever makes me the most comfortable at the moment.

perhaps the rules are there to achieve a generalistic goal, which along the lines of making a clarity out of writing. but what if the Author's goal was none of them? it may be along the lines of, "They told me not to do it, and I did. It was fun," that sorta thing.

and using different tones for an established formula may create a surreal tone, which is among my absolute favorites. so i think preference and biases may play heavily in this matter :D

>She had her shit fucked out by a kangaroo or A kangaroo fucked the shit out of her. Which one reads more exciting?

the one with passive-aggressive voice, no contest :D /

i was speaking on a more general sense. it's totally fine for an author to tip the scale if they feel so. they just have to acknowledge that their personal subjective interpretation is, well, personal and subjective. they can look pretty stupid if they get surprised by outside reaction/trying to reinforce their stance. they chose this route, they should know the baggage that comes with it. it would make a risky but calculated stray off the beaten path look more like some guy with no effort trying to stand out on a whim.

 

[gaylolis]

i was speaking on a more general sense. it's totally fine for an author to tip the scale if they feel so. they just have to acknowledge that their personal subjective interpretation is, well, personal and subjective. they can look pretty stupid if they get surprised by outside reaction/trying to reinforce their stance. they chose this route, they should know the baggage that comes with it. it would make a risky but calculated stray off the beaten path look more like some guy with no effort trying to stand out on a whim.

well, it's actually nothing new and had its own niche. you can find a good numbers of them in the literary circle iirc, such as House of Leaves and many works of the Absurdist Fiction genre or Postmodernism (perhaps?).

while Absurdist Fiction also had big name authors as Albert Camus and Franz Kafka, they're not necessarily for the general audience.

as for what baggage it is, it all depends on knowing the audience and how to reach out to them. nevertheless, the attempt of pushing the boundaries of Fiction do require some understanding of the literary medium, hence a certain degree of foundation and it's probably not for someone who's just starting out.

but what's more important is knowing yourself i guess. know what kind of things you wish to express yourself through literary medium. if you already have a decent or even strong foundation of who you are and what you plan to accomplish in this endeavor, the less likely you'll be swayed by those who are only concerned by their own interest, resulting in authors straying from the path they always wanted to tread and doing things that making them hate their craft, and ultimately themselves.

if you know who you are and understand your nature, it may be easier to locate those of the same mind and understanding, and it'd be easy to find amidst the wide audience of divided ideals.

but yeah, an audience only comes to play if you have something to convey. hence the rule breaking is more about coming ashore to waters that felt like home and using them as foundation, one can explore things as deeply as they wished as they have somewhere to return to.

in my case it's just nothing special. i don't really like to force myself to write, but when i do it the way i wished, it's just so satisfying.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

be Like lord Timothy Dexter; add all the punctuation at the end; Proceed to tell everyone to shove em right were they would like them to be;

profit;

 

[Ai-chan]

Are you one of these people who are constantly irritated by the rules of English grammar while writing? For example, when they told you to remove all passive voice.

If so, have you ever made an alternate stuff so it suits your writing better? Like changing it into passive-aggressive voice.

on a side note, i'm curious about novels that's entirely written in passive-aggressive voice.

Or if they told you to stick to past tense, you used future past continuous something and gets your character stuck in all different timelines at once.

Or if they told you to stick to one POV, you end up switching between narrators who didn't know what the fuck they're doing and act like unpaid intern.

You might be one of them who really love to abuse all kinds of punctuation. the more improper, the better. For a bigger twist, insert wingdings and emoticons in the middle of the dialogue. Or insert dialogue tags when it's the furthest thing from actual dialogues. For example, "[Music stops]"

Perhaps you'd also hate to end your sentences in periods, but instead ends it in a different punctuation each time, like an exclamation mark! You also love to spam it until it's longer than the entire line in your monitor, like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for example.

Feel free to list all the standard things you fucked with :D /

Passive-offensive: Your book is fucking loved, you obnoxious fucking fucker!

 

[CarburetorThompson]

be Like lord Timothy Dexter; add all the punctuation at the end; Proceed to tell everyone to shove em right were they would like them to be;

profit;

I live real close to where Timothy Dexter is buried. The town he used to live in even has an industrial park named after him. His house is still there as well.

 

[XianPiete]

Writer: i am edgie and dont follow ur gramer and ritin rulz

Reader: What is this unreadable garbage? *presses the one star* *makes alt accounts to continue one starring it*

 

[gaylolis]

Writer: i am edgie and dont follow ur gramer and ritin rulz

Reader: What is this unreadable garbage? *presses the one star* *makes alt accounts to continue one starring it*

doesn't work if it the site has no rating system :D /

and it won't stop some Authors who actually want to get showered by 1 stars or simply doesn't care i guess.

some do write them on purpose to get attention by trolling the readers and making the readers rage just grants them euphoria. but indeed some subset of readers, myself included, do enjoy these kinds of trollfics when they're well-done enough--such as invisible dragon and my immortal for example.

if one doesn't like them, probably the best way is just ignore them. unless the author genuinely enjoy it, they probably will just lose motivation and quit since they didn't get any attention.

 

[CKJ5]

I find following the general standards of writing and finding ways to do well within them challenging, and I love a good challenge.