rules
I’ve written here over the last week that I’m participating in a month-long writing challenge called NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month, wherein the rules are to write every day and complete a fifty thousand word novel by the end of November.
There are rules, of course, some written and some implied.
All of those rules are on the honor system.
There are rules about starting early. There are rules about editing. There are rules about how you engage other people about what they are writing. There are rules about just about everything.
But in creative pursuits rules can also just be guidelines, too, and some of the best results come from colouring outside the lines.
I had a social media conversation last week where someone asked about the “rules” for creating art. What was allowed, like, if using a straightedge to draw a line was considered breaking the rules.
But like many creative pursuits, even if there was a rule that said you shouldn’t draw straight lines with a ruler, only freehand, then there would also be a hundred better reasons than rules to break any such rule and use any tool your wanted to draw as many straight lines as you pleased.
I’ve broken a few NaNoWriMo rules while I might fess up about breaking them, I think the final result will prove that those rules were mostly just strong suggestions anyhow.