KA Applegate and Sentence Fragments

[CatMorph]

One strange thing KA Applegate does is use sentence fragments or single words a lot. Like this. Falling. Falling. And somehow that actually makes you scarier, because when you're scared, your mind really does speed up like that and rush your thoughts as quick as possible because there isn't time to think.

But it's bad grammar. I can remember trying to copy that on my elementary school papers, and getting marked down for it. I guess when you're a writer, it's okay to break the rules as long as you do it right.

[Kyle]

Well, school is meant to teach the rules. Once you're an author (out of school) you're allowed to break them. She wrote the way we speak and think. Very stream of conscious.  Its little things like this that grabbed me from the start.

[NothingFromSomething]

It's a casually-written Y.A. series, most of them were written that way.  Yeah, it's the sort of thing that would drive an English teacher nuts, but it's pretty common.  And frankly sort of for the best given the tone/style of the series, heightens the expression.

[Quaf]

Man, I remember get called out for doing that in grade 5 in my creative writing piece and having to rewrite the whole thing, and then getting the best in the class and an A+ in year 10 for doing exactly the same thing. It's not the best grammatically, but it sure is effective to get your reader engaged.