Breaking Rules Week Day Two: Sometimes Grammatical Mistakes Work Best

Emma Donoghue’s Room begins like this:

Today I’m five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I’m changed to five, abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. “Was I minus numbers?” “Hmm?” Ma does a big stretch. “Up in Heaven. Was I minus one, minus two, minus three — ?” “Nah, the numbers didn’t start till you zoomed down.” “Through Skylight. You were all sad till I happened in your tummy.”

The entire novel is grammatically incorrect because it’s narrated by a five-year-old boy. The story itself takes place in a room. We quickly learn that Jack’s mother has been kidnapped and raped. The little narrator is the consequence of one of those assaults, but our little boy doesn’t know anything about assault or kidnapping. To him, the room is all there’s ever been, so he finds his joy in the little things. He’s never experienced anything else, so why would he feel trapped?

The innocence of his language creates a stark contrast for the horrific existence of Jack’s mother. Sipho Sepamla achieved something similar by writing in pidgin. He was an apartheid poet, and his most famous poem goes like this:

I doesn't care of say black
I doesn't care of say white
I doesn't care of say India
I doesn't care of say clearlink
I mean for sure da skin
only one t'ing come for sure
an' da one t'ing for sure is red blood
dats for sure da same, da same for avarybudy

He chose pidgin to show how simple and obvious his message was. By employing such language, he showed the apartheid government up as pathetically stupid. Similarly, Hubert Selby wrote his book, Last Exit to Brooklyn, with punctuation and syntax errors. This time, the writer broke the rules to lend an air of authenticity to the novel. The language is immersive and precise.

It’s not easy to make obvious writing mistakes, but sometimes, it’s the best way to achieve your literary goals. You can achieve a lot by keeping the rules, but sometimes, you can achieve even more by breaking them.

I’m going to give you a tough exercise today. Write a poem or short story in the pidgin or street slang in your city.