Rules vs Guidelines--How Confusing the Two Can Be The Difference Between Success and Failure
This morning I woke up to a surprise. The surprise being, my previous day’s ‘Alaskan Fisherman’ post was one of 24 atomic essays posted on the Ship 30 for 30 Twitter page (Insert Tooting Horn Here).
It made my day. And not just for the obvious reasons. The truth is I came THIS close to not hitting publish.
Not because I didn’t like it. Far from it. Plus, I worked on it far longer than recommended.
No, I balked for another reason.
The post was simply too long.
One hundred words over the Atomic Essay guidelines of 250 words. And this, only after having hacked things down from over 400 words. But then a simple thought occurred to me.
A guideline is just that. A set of parameters to work within. It’s NOT a rule.
Rules are regulations set up to govern. To govern contests, for example; the violation of which can lead to disqualification.
Ship 30 for 30 is many things but it’s definitely not a contest, I reminded myself (unless the battle every writer wages against themselves qualifies as such).
And even if the 250-word limit were a rule, I realised, there was a Get Out of Jail Free card for that scenario as well. The ol’ adage: Some Rules Were Made to Be Broken.
I admit to being a card-carrying member of that club. All the while being quick not to lose sight of the word, SOME. ALL? Bad. SOME. Perfect.
And this was the perfect instance of SOME, if ever there was one, I reasoned. So publish I did. And as it usually does…
Everything worked out fine.?
In the world of print advertising in the 50’s through to the 70’s there was a thing called long copy. Words would be written to extol the benefits of the product the advertiser was peddling. If written well, it would draw the reader in, grab attention, interest, desire and call for the reader to take action. It was a compelling read. The only guideline was the amount of space on the page, good design principles and a minimum font size. When a story is compelling enough, be it an advertisement or a life experience, “Damn the Guidelines” the reader will soak up every last word. Job done ?