Rules can be useful, but it stands to reason that when it comes to writing, some of us find some rules more useful than others – and some just don’t work for us at all. We’re never going to find one set of rules that fits all, and yet there are some things that persist as ‘common wisdom’ or just ‘the done thing’.

With this in mind, here are seven writing rules that are made to be broken.

You must write every day

While it might be helpful for many to write every day, if only to keep the slow chug of progress moving along, having it as a strict rule can be counterproductive. Don’t want to write every day (or can’t write every day)? Then don’t.

You must do X words per session

Plenty of writers set themselves a word count goal for each writing session. Again, in some cases it can be useful, but in many other cases, this is a great rule to break. There’s often no point in forcing an arbitrary target on yourself, and it can take a lot of the fun out of writing. Unless you’ve got a looming deadline that demands 2000 words by noon, write whatever you want.

You must have the perfect writing environment

There is no doubting that the perfect writing space can be a great thing to have, but it isn’t always possible. It can be much more beneficial to chuck the idea of a perfect writing environment out the window and simply learn to write anywhere, if for no other reason than it will make those ‘perfect’ times seem better than ever.

You must never use cliché

You have probably heard/read things about how using cliché is often a sign of a lack of originality. It’s probably true that filling a whole book with things that could be construed as cliché is not a particularly good idea, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it entirely. Sometimes you simply can’t better the classics.

You must do impeccable research

There is a definite difference between knowing what you’re writing about and pretending to know what you’re writing about. But as long as the reader believes you know what you’re on about, does it really matter if you’ve actually got no clue? Breaking the ‘research’ rule can be creatively freeing and gives you a wonderful excuse to have fun making things up. You are a fiction writer, after all.

You must make your novel X words long

There is a lot of talk along the lines of ‘it isn’t a novel if it isn’t X words long.’ Of course, there are ‘standard’ novel lengths that many books fit into, intentionally or otherwise, but that doesn’t mean you have to stick to them. This is especially true if you decide to go down the independent publishing route – you can make your book as long as you want. It’s your book.

You must write with the reader in mind

Knowing your audience is undoubtedly a good thing, but if you always write with the reader in mind, it’s unlikely that you’ll be making your work as good as it could be. Writing what you think the reader wants is often very different to writing the best story you can write.

What do you think are the best writing rules to break?