There are loads of them, aren't there. Adrian's question about chapters got me thinking about them all. Don't make your chapters too long, don't use a heavy accent for a character for too long, don't use too many adjectives, don't jump POV too often, murder your darlings, blah, blah, blah...
Are there ever excuses for breaking the rules and would you break any for your story?
Jon is right. Sparingly is good.
To experiment is fine, but if you want to be published, you still have to write the majority of your novel within certain parameters. Otherwise you will be left with the sole option to self-publish.
Yes, to a certain extent. If I am writing. I think, this is my story, I want to tell it the way I want to, in the way which is me and a style i am comfortable with and if others don't like it they dont have to read it. But of course it would have to be readable. =] I am not writing to please, I am writing because I love to write. People can say what is best and preferred, but that is only a personal preference and opinion and I feel so are these rules. Why follow rules and guidelines set by another's preferred style of writing. =]
I hate POV jumps in the same paragraph, though a lot of writers seem to think them clever. They stick out like sore thumbs (DON'T use cliches, lol) and I always think they're sheer laziness - it's easier to skip into another character's head to solve a story issue than write your way around it.
But I did the same in the last paragraph of my first story because my two MCs' thoughts needed to be immediately obvious to the reader in an emotional situation. I thought it worked.
Everyone breaks 'rules' sometimes, but sparingly is good :)