Breaking the rules and embracing the abstract

One of the things that really bugs me about social media is how often people treat grammar rules like they’re set in stone.

You see posts all the time about what you should or shouldn’t do, like never place a comma there or starting a sentence with “and” or “but".

When I see these posts claiming, I often get flashbacks to middle school me getting told the same things and making it my personal mission to go against the grain (Mrs. B if you're reading, this I'm so sorry).

While I do think there is a time and place for every grammar rule in existence, for example, in my cyber-security driven content I create for work, I religiously follow that exact rule. It helps with brand consistency and appearance. But, here in my creative space, I like to break as many rules as I possibly can.

And the funny thing about that is it ended up being called "style" in my college writing courses.

I specifically remember a time I shared a piece where a peer gave the feedback "I like how your stream of consciousness shows how anxious the character is because of the shorter and choppier sentences". Did I do it that way consciously? I'd like to say yes and give myself more credit, but it was simply because I spent all of those years purposely starting sentences with "and" or "but".

It was the first time I really understood that breaking these so-called “rules” can lead to something abstract. When you’re not tied to traditional structures, you start thinking about language differently. It becomes more about what a sentence feels like, or how the rhythm of your writing can echo the emotions you’re trying to convey.

I think about this when I listen to Champagne Supernova by Oasis, which has always been one of my favorite songs. The song itself has faced backlash from critics claiming the lyrics are "ridiculous" and that it's "what's stopping the song from becoming a classic". When asked what the line “Slowly walking down the hall / Faster than a cannonball,” meant, Gallagher simply shrugged and said, “I don’t f---ing know. But when you’ve got 60,000 people singing it, it means something different to each of them.”

Gallagher's point is backed up by the fact that Champagne Supernova currently has over 415 million streams on Spotify (I'm definitely guilty of more than a few of those). If the lyrics were too "out-there" for listeners to resonate to, it wouldn't have the monstrous amount of streams that it does today.

And that’s what I love about the abstract—it’s not meant to be perfectly understood. Sometimes, bending the rules takes you away from the logical and into something that resonates more deeply, in ways you can’t always explain. There’s a certain freedom in letting go of strict guidelines and just seeing where the words take you.

To me, when I hear those same lines I picture those dramatic scenes in the movies where the main character is in slow motion, but everyone else is not. But, it could be a totally different interpretation to someone else and the best part about that is neither one is wrong.

It’s become less about defying convention and more about letting the writing evolve naturally,

without being boxed in by rigid structures. By bending the rules, I’ve found that my words can lead to unexpected places—places where meaning isn’t always clear, but where emotion and interpretation can take over.

And that, for me, is where the fun of writing really derives from.