Don’t waste time on it. People who want a never-ending fountain of free are like shoplifters. They never had any intention of paying in the first place. Funnel that angst into writing more books and focus on people who WILL pay for your stories. Use that energy on creating a brand and connect with an audience who would never dream of stealing from you 🙂 .

I break rules all the time, but I know the rule so that makes it a stylistic choice not sheer ignorance. And sure a lot of classic writers would laugh in my face but they are dead and their writing became a classic often because teachers forced people to write papers about their stuff not because anyone really cared to actually read it.

I’ve edited literally THOUSANDS of writers and most of them won’t get an opportunity to laugh in my face because it was unpublishable crap. Or, if they did publish it, they sold copies to friends and family because it was unreadable crap. Yes, we always have outliers who broke rules, but if you study writing, often they really didn’t. It just appears they did.

Rules exist for reasons. For instance, one POV at a time. Feel free to ignore it. There is a big-name author who does this, but while I love movies based off his books, I hate reading his books with the power of a thousand suns. Why? Because he is a notorious head-hopper and there simply is not enough Dramamine to make reading his stuff worthwhile. Clearly this does not bother some people, but often if a book is put down, people will say things like, “Well, I got confused. Too many people. Never knew who’s head I was in.” Then, Houston, we have a problem. Rules are for the reader.

But a writer does need to understand structure and “rules” before breaking them. That much is true.