As a rule of thumb, I don't follow the rules - not when I dress, shoot photos, and especially not when I write. When I was eleven, my sixth grade teacher told me that one should NEVER begin a sentence with a conjunction. And here I am, all these decades later, still breaking the rules.
The most valuable advice my mother gave me about being a creative soul was that it was best to break rules, colour outside the lines, and never allow others' opinions to interfere with what I thought was good. Thus, I might wear white shoes in February or take a photo of a toe adorned with sea bubbles, or...a giant thumb.
Breaking rules is especially good when writing. Early in my writing career, I was told that humor and bad language had no place in books about life behind the sacred closed doors of hospital critical care units. Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, I am not, so excuse me while I guffaw and swear a little.
Now, according to the publishers, I'm bending rules by breaking out of the 'niche writer' box and writing in other genres. When I finally figure out how to get my new work out to the readers, I'm hoping the transition will be smooth. My husband, upon reading this blog, assured me that 90% of all people alive today will have no idea who the hell Cherry Ames is - maybe things are looking up after all.