Well That Was a Busy Semester

            Hi.

            I’m done with the semester.

            Well, kind of done, you see there’s this online class, early Brit Lit, that I really haven’t been keeping up with and I’m hoping to knock it out here in winter break, but mostly I’m done. I think I may be a better writer now than I was four months ago, but it is difficult to self evaluate. Here are a few things that I have learned.

            If you dig into the craft of writing you may find that there are “rules” to it, things you “have” to do to be successful, unless of course you don’t. Confused yet? One example would be ending a sentence with a preposition. Grammar rules say prepositions are terrible words to end sentences with. But. In creative writing, grammar rules can be violated if you are trying to make a point. The same can be said for every other rule in writing. The rules can be broken, it’s just a case of knowing when and where and how to break them, and it has a lot of writers chasing their tails trying to figure out the system. A lot of us just wind up relying on instincts, but I think I cracked the code.

            The mistake is thinking there are rules at all. The rules are really just cause and effect. A writer only needs to be aware of what effects breaking a particular rule will elicit. Ending a sentence with a preposition will make the sentence look odd, perhaps pull the reader out of the immersion of the narrative, and give the impression of ineducation. A writer may use it if (s)he wants to establish a particular voice for the narrator or a character, or to distance the reader a bit. Good writing has many typical patterns, but when the need to do something unorthodox arises it’s an advantage to know how to break the mold to accomplish what you want. I just need to learn all of the rules and why they are rules. Then I will be able to follow and break them to full effect.

            I also learned that the middle grade/YA novel I have been “working” on for about five years (I haven’t even finished the first act) is pretty darn good for an intermediate creative writing course. I submitted the introduction and first four chapters of the manuscript for grading and peer review, and it was well received. Even better, the critiques helped me solve a few minor problems and one or two huge ones. This is quite encouraging, but I’m not going to start crowing until it sells. It has to be accepted by a publisher first, and before that happens I have to finish it. I can’t finish it until I know exactly what is going to happen in the book, and I don’t, so it looks like I won’t be crowing for a while.

            In the meantime, I’m still plugging away. I have one semester left until graduation, and we’re expecting baby 2.0 in early January. Let’s do this.