You're Doing It Wrong. On Purpose.

While not many people enjoy it, I don't exactly consider doing it "wrong," but part of my writing style is using sentence fragments if that counts for anything. Plus my main character has a tattoo.

I've never done anything extravagant like the things you've stated, though. I don't think I'm that gutsy, haha. Though some of that would be interesting to try...just to see what happens.

I have a short story out with misspelt words and similar sounding words substituted for each other. It's not sold, but no one's told me never to darken their door again either.

My novel WIP is in omni, and the MC is a vampire (basically ). I'm not the least bit sorry! And I got a rush-job tattoo just before flying out of Dublin, so ha! Not sorry about that, either. It has nothing to do with my WIP, but I got to say ha!

Polenth said:

I have a short story out with misspelt words and similar sounding words substituted for each other. It's not sold, but no one's told me never to darken their door again either.

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I did similar with one of my stories (might have been the first I had accepted). It's full of misspellings. I had a few people point them out - some of them then realised why I'd misspelled so many words.

It was a bit of a gamble since the publisher could have just told me I was an idiot who couldn't spell, but they got it as I hoped they would.

There are lots of rules for kids' books and one of them is not to have too many POVs. I broke the rule in my first book and wrote it more in an adult thriller style where the reader knows what's happening before the main character because of the POV shifts. In the first four chapters, I have four different POVs. And in terms of it working, it's in my signature (WR) and was selected as a Junior Library Guild pick and is nominated for three state award lists. No tattoo though.

Tex_Maam said:

posted the entire first draft on your LiveJournal

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The link in my sig is to the online serial I posted on WordPress, for free and with no editing. I tend to write fairly clean first drafts though, so it was less of a problem.

Please, tell me your tales. Bonus points if it actually worked, or involves a tattoo.

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The MC of the aforementioned serial has a number of tattoos all in the shape of whatever birthmark was required for the latest 'Chosen One'.

God dammit...I'm never able to get bonus points. Not this time! I'm going for GOLD.

People say, "I HATE EPIGRAPHS! PHOOEY!" I say, "SHUTEEEEE! I'LL USE ONE IF I WANNA!"





I not only used a Leonard Cohen epigraph in my upcoming novel, I got it tatooed on my arm!

THERE! #forthewin

I do all sorts of things wrong. I use my intuition to know when it's okay to do something wrong in my writing.

Have you checked out the Write It Wrong contests?

Here are the results for March: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241701

Here's the contest for April. There's still time! http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=242645

I named a space opera after a Jimi Hendrix song. Okay, after THE Jimi Hendrix song. And it has 7 POV characters, but it's told in third person.

And every character in my Ushers trilogy has at least one tattoo. Most of them are covered in tattoos.

I have a tattoo. It was pretty once but it's ugly now. I like it all the more for that. I also said if I ever sell the Ushers, I will get one of their tattoos done on my arm.

1) Tattoos? Tattoos are dumb.

2) Just be careful that you're not being wrong for the sake of being different/ no one is really a speshul snowflayke.

3) Sometimes I tell lies. (See #1.)

No tattoo (at least not in conjunction with writing), but what about beer?

My rule-breaking was actually at a local conference booksigning. It was a large event with 100 authors signing. Everyone always sticks to that dress/slacks look and I refused to. I write southern humor. So I wore jeans and a t-shirt with a whale on it that said "Save the Humans." I also had a beer next to my stack of books and yes, I was drinking it.

I sold every book on my table. See, people assumed that since I actually HAD a sense of humor, my books might be funny. I also think that I looked far more approachable than someone wearing a suit.

What is the point, really? I jumped out of a CFO position so that I'd never have to wear a suit again (except maybe funerals).

I do everything wrong.

The MC is not attractive.
There are no sex scenes.
No magic, ghosts, vampires, zombies, werewolves.
No young adults.
Zero romance.
No car chases.
MC looks in a mirror once to reflect on his appearance.
Discussions of weather.
Ample backstory.
Plenty of scenery description.
No profanity.
Some exposition to the reader via dialogue.
No onstage violence.
Two pets killed.

And it sold to two different publishers.

ETA: And a couple of dreams, too.

To me, "wrong" just means I couldn't sell it, and "right" means I could.

Sentence fragments.

Oh, wait. Sentence fragments IS a sentence fragment!

I don't do it wrong intentionally, 'cause most the time I don't know right from wrong. I just try to make it work for me, as a reader. If I find out later that I broke some kind of structural or grammatical rule, I'll consider correcting it, but 9 out of 10 times I leave it.

I wrote a book (a long one at that) with only 13 chapters, the longest of which was something like 60k words. It was also easily the best chapter in the book and I loved it. I've been told by a lot of people that you can never sell a book with long chapters and that I'd need to break it down, but I did it intentionally with a very specific structure in mind. I haven't sold it, so maybe everyone was right, but I certainly don't regret it and I don't have any intention of changing it.

ETA: Oh yeah. I think everyone's heard this one before, but I broke a fairly major querying rule (on advice) and it got me an agent. My first time out I viewed the rules as never ever to be broken ever. The second time around, I considered them more guidelines. I included pages even when they weren't in the submission guidelines, I submitted to more than one agent at an agency, probably sent out far too many queries at once lol. I even called an agent (at Writers House no less) because I'd gotten a request that wanted me to mail my manuscript snail mail two days before I'd told my agent I'd have a decision. That last one was awesome, btw, because they were super nice about it and upgraded my partial request to a full and read the whole thing in like three days and got back to me. I actually got a second request from the first agent I talked to on the phone who had me randomly pitch to him while he was tracking down an assistant for me to talk to.

In any case, I had a lot more requests (I'm convinced because my opening pages rocked) and I had opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise, so I wouldn't change that at all, either.

KTC said:

God dammit...I'm never able to get bonus points. Not this time! I'm going for GOLD.

People say, "I HATE EPIGRAPHS! PHOOEY!" I say, "SHUTEEEEE! I'LL USE ONE IF I WANNA!"

I not only used a Leonard Cohen epigraph in my upcoming novel, I got it tatooed on my arm!

THERE! #forthewin

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FTW, indeed!!! My tattoo humbly salutes yours, sir

It's quite a list.

*One WIP is in omni POV
*I've changed POV mid-scene while writing 3rd limited (or does that make it 3rd unlimited? lol)
*I love writing books with quests in them, and won't stop no matter how unpopular quest fantasy is.
*Said quests have even been known to involve a Magical Widget of Great Power at the end.
*I started a book with a flashback.
*One of my next WIPs has a prologue.
*I've written two books that were over 120k words, and they aren't overwritten.
*I cross genres. A lot.

I probably just explained why I'm not published.

And I have tattoos. So do most of my characters. What do I win?

Tex_Maam said:

what have you done "wrong" deliberately?

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Half a million words of fanfic?

My current WIP has a prologue. *ducks*
But it's actually necessary! Really!

I've switched POV mid-scene in 3rd person limited. Otherwise we would have been sitting with the MC while she is incapacitated and someone else would have had all the fun without us. I did use line breaks between the POVs.

No tattoos, though, sorry.

A couple people have already said sentence fragments, so I'll add that I allow myself more adverbs and adjectives than is considered kosher. It's probably due to some deep-seated, subconscious hatred of Hemingway.

Actually, I use far more descriptors when speaking normally than most people do, and speak really precisely. Most people assume I'm being a smartass, when really it's habit.

Multiple first person POVs. Apparently this is wrong. I got the memo once, but it's lining my cat's litter box.

And I DO have quasi-writing-related tattoos. I had them done a few months ago as a way of reminding myself to balance the thinking/intellectual/work side of things with the dreaming/pondering side. Applies to life in general, but specifically my writing.

Oh, goodness.

I don't have time to do things wrong on purpose. Mostly because it happens whether I try or not .

Tattoos? Yes. Mine's definitely more uplifting than my MC's, though. 'Course, his is like a bad guy pager, wriggles like it got maggots in it, and causes loads of pain. Mine, well, doesn't.