I can't wait until I'm allowed to break the rules!

This week was so overwelming! I thought I knew what went into a good sentence, but now I have to go back and check everything I write to make sure it's okay! I think one of my biggest problems that I didn't even realize I did was dead constructions. The book described these as constructions that just take up space and don't really add anything to the meaning of the sentence. Dead constructions include phrases like "There is" and "it is." The book also talks about how avoiding those constructions can help you with subject-verb agreement, which is another problem I have with writing.

However, we also learned from the powerpoint that once we understand a rule we can break it! I can't wait until I can do that! I want to be able to break rules on purpose rather than on accident. There are a ton of writers that do break the rules (the book gives the example of Dickens' "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"), but you can tell that they are breaking it on purpose to add literary style. There are also many writers who use sentence fragments in their creative writing very effectively because they know when to use them and when not to. I want t be a good enough writer that I can know when breaking the rules is appropriate, so bring it on!

I was having a hard time finding an editing mistake this week, so I went somewhere I knew I would find one: Facebook. You gotta love status updates! While I was looking I noticed that there were a lot of sentence fragments, way more than I thought there would be! One such example: "Wanting to do a Valentine photo shoot with my girls. Should be fun." Although we still get the meaning of the status, Neither sentence has a subject. The first one should be clarified with "I am" or "we are" or something similar. The second sentence should start with "it."