Are we blocking our own way?

I have a lot of thoughts on what you wrote:

1. Embarrassment is a big motivator for me. I do not want my name associated with a crappy product. I get that, at some point, I have to stop revising and put it out into the world, but, when that time comes, I want that product to be the best that I could possibly create.

2. It's very tempting from a monetary standpoint to throw something out there that I've put the least amount of effort possible into.

3. Striving to be perfect improves your writing. Even if you can't achieve the impossibility of a perfect story, the very fact that you tried moves you much farther up the learning curve than simply putting out the same old crap. If I would never have gone to a writing group and would have never posted on this forum, the dreck that I put out would not have been worth reading by anyone.

4. The "best" books don't win the largest audiences. I can live with this. My goal is to be happy with the work that I put out.

 

When I do sit down to write and edit and finetune my book, I will make the best that *I* can make it. I will make my story the best that it can be. Not what anyone else says is the best. I do read what the 'rules' are, because one of my favorite sayings is to know and understand the rules, so you can break them in spectacular ways.

 

I think this is the key point here. As long as your story isn't full of grammatical errors and poor structure. Also, as long as there aren't gaping holes in the plot, or things randomly tossed in that don't really fit.

In the end, the story is your story and no one else. You can take suggestions with a grain of salt, if you like it in your story then add it. If you don't like it, then write it off.
I can honestly say I love the Harry Potter series because it grabbed me at a young age and I could not let it go until it was finished. But the one thing that always stuck out to me as a big flaw was in the prisoner of azkaban and the use of the time turner. Honestly, if that thing existed then why in the hell didn't they use it back when Voldemort was up to no good? You know, sneak up on him BEFORE he killed off Harry's parents.
My theory is because the story itself is good, kids and adults could relate to a lot of the characters. The plot was generic, but had it's fantastical moments that kept the story moving and people were able to look past that flaw. They could look past it because they knew deep down that there wouldn't be a story if someone would have thought to use the damned time turner.

 

I think there are other "rules" that can dramatically impact the way the story is received. Is there tension and conflict? Do the scenes have a purpose and advance the plot? Is the dialogue too stilted? Is sentence structure varied? Were the characters realistic and fully developed? I could go on and on.

Again, the rules are there to help you.

 

I agree with this, and you shouldn't break rules just for the sake of breaking them. I'll even say that there are some rules that should almost always be followed, like those you listed above. However, if your story itself is going to be negatively affected by a rule, why keep it? For example, the notion of showing, not telling. For the most part, I follow this rule. But if the scene would work better if I just told the reader what was happening, what a character is feeling, etc, then I'll end up breaking that rule.

 

As an author, you have the ultimate responsibility to determine what rules to follow.

There are a lot of "rules" about writing that I don't agree with, so I don't use them. I do try hard, however, to make sure that I fully understand a rule before I make that evaluation.

Personally, I tend to disregard a lot of rules that are stylistic in nature.

 

The showing, not telling rule? I have to respectfully disagree. While it can be a sign of lazy writing, italicised internal dialogue can be used to show something about a character. Instead of saying 'she felt self conscious', I can show it in her thoughts.

 

Sounds very interesting

 

I think that Ankari is saying that using italics to show internal dialogue is, in itself, breaking a rule since so many editors are against it.

Again, though, I completely separate such stylistic rules from technical rules. Kind of like the rule that now you're supposed to use a single space instead of a double space between sentences. I prefer the double space. Another one: some editors don't like the default "fancy" quote marks that Word uses and think you should reset them. I just don't think that these things matter all that much.

 

Am I seeing correctly? I'm using the "Look Inside" feature at Amazon and it's set up like a research paper?

 

I am very intrigued. The part that I put in bold in your original quote makes me happy I think I'll have to get around to reading this one.

 

Ok, I wasn't understanding