At the risk of debating with CC - whom I've learned it's a good policy never to debate with because she will whip out the old Philosophy Major trump card and soundly whip me with it every time - I don't think that writers risk losing their voice by trying to follow some general guidelines.
If you think about it (and CC, this actually does just kind of maybe get a little philosophical), we are all limited with the basic building blocks of the English language - there are only so many ways to construct a sentence and so many words to use (albeit gazillions of words). Yet still year after year people pour out staggering amounts of excellent writing. Two authors can take the same subject and same set of words and create completely different works just based on order and usage. I think this is where "style" or "voice" comes from more so that a disregard for some guidelines. Kind of like e.e. cummings not using capital letters or punctuation. Yes - I know his stuff. But it kind of annoys me to read it.
Strunk and White do a great job of illustrating this with the phrase by Thomas Paine: "These are the times that try men's souls." Very strong and well known phrase. Try simply reordering the words, as another author may have chosen to do: "Times like these try men's souls," or "These are trying times for men's souls." Same words. Same general meaning. All three sentences grammatically accurate and well turned. But neither of the last two examples have even close to the same style and voice as the original.
That being said, I also agree that the rules we've been throwing around in here - or actually, guidelines - are simply things we might all want to employ in moderation to fine-tune our writing. Keep it from getting sloppy.
To a certain degree, I agree with Laura in that since in fanficdom we are not writing with the intention of getting published, we can ignore a lot of what writing teachers and publishers and editors throw around as guidelines and follow our own hearts and ways. At least to the degree that we write a story that people want to read. If some of the basic guidelines aren't followed, I know that personally, I would not enjoy the story. If I'm constantly noting that "he said" "she said" appears at the end of every dialogue passage, I would become so distracted by this that I would no longer be "hearing" what the author was trying to tell me. Kind of like trying to watch a television program with a little kid jumping in front of the screen shouting "Look at me! Look at me!"
I once asked my good friend, Wendy, if she judged a story to be good based on the story itself or on the technical merits of the writer. She said - and Wendy, correct me if I've misinterpreted you - that she looks at "story" but that if the technical aspects were atrocious, she found it hard to even focus on the story. I very much agree with her on that.
Sometimes, though, I admit to starting a story that seems like it has a good premise but becoming too distracted by an amateurish affectation that I can't manage to get over. And I apply a different standard to fanfic than I do to published work - expecting a lot more from those who get paid to entertain me for a living <g>.
Writing is a craft, and like all crafts, improves with practice. So in just our simple exercise of sharing these ideas and continuing to write fanfic, we are all getting better every day regardless of what "rules" we choose to use or not.
Lynn
