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Once you decide to dabble a toe into the pool of writing, you’ll learn that the waters are full of guidelines, many disguised as hard and fast rules. This important distinction was one of the first, and hardest, things that I had to learn. Some rules are irrefutable such as, every story must have a beginning, middle, and an end. Others, not so much. One of the “rules” I was taught in my very first writing class was that all chapters must be at least 5000 words in length. That’s simply not true. It may, or may not, be a good guideline, but a “rule?” Definitely not. Continue reading →