Will You Get Fined if You Don't Follow the Writerly Rules?

If you Google writing rules, you’ll discover scads of sites, all claiming to have the magical formula for stellar writing. They offer good ideas—some even great—but the thing about writing is that it’s not only subjective but somewhat fluid. And therein lies the problem:

Rules change all the time.

Semi-colons used to be in vogue. Currently they’re naughty-naughty. Head hopping (changing POV’s) throughout a scene was trendy. Try it now, and you’ll be crucified. What’s a writer to do? How do you know when you’ve crossed the line into no-one-will-read-this territory?

Research.

No, you don't have to slip on a white jacket and goofy-butt goggles or enter any BSL-4 labs. Here are just a few ideas:

• Attend writing workshops. 
• Go to writer’s conferences. 
• Join some online writing groups, for crying out loud.

You need to know what rules must be adhered to and which ones are okay to jazz up with a feather boa. The bottom line is that your writing needs to be easy to understand by the reader, no matter what rules you’re following.