I've found very, very, very, very...
This would be a good place for me to rest my case.
When someone tells me published novels are always breaking rules, it tells me they don't know the rules.
Perhaps you should check the credentials of such folks before forming such assumptions.
Reading a few novels would have answered this question, along with a million others.
Sounds like you think I don't read.
...especially if they read very much.
Yep, that's what it sounds like.
The word "said" is supposed to be invisible, but when you put it first, it becomes all too visible. It throws everything out of kilter.
At last. Something not ad hominem, without attitude and informative. Thank you.
...it tells me the writer is probably not much of a reader...
There you go again. I knew it was too good to be true.
This usually means a rejection.
Publishers used to employ editors for that. Michener credits his long-standing editor with his successes, saying he's a terrible writer but a good storyteller. But I guess publishers don't do that any more. Shows you how things have gone to hell. Michener wouldn't have gotten past your transom.
"Correct" is what works, what the common convention is, not most of the silly "rules" you find all over the Internet.
I go back a little earlier than that. Used to keep copies of Chicago Manual of Style, Elements of Style, etc, within easy reach, a shelf full of such rulebooks. But I guess that's old school. I guess we'd rather let James Patterson define what's correct.
I don't always trust common convention, which provides
de facto rules that evolve from common abuse. There's a reason it's called "common," and it has given us, like, whoa, dude, a new language that I, y'know like don't find awesome.
Seriously, as an editor I had to wade through lots of invented, contrived jargon. Geek speak. Techo-babble. "Architected," "media" as a singular, misplaced "onlys," "inputting," etc. My job wasn't to reject the imperfect; it was to find the substance and fix the writing.
But, language morphs. It broke my heart when "data" got into the dictionary as a singular noun. It is our job to fight strenuously against such abominations, to stand up and yell "horse hockey" at the top of our lungs until it either goes away or into law (paraphrasing Robert Townsend.)
