Writer's Fallout Shelter

I'm a grad student in an English lit program

I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do to help? (Kidding-the graduate student assistant in my lit class is just really sarcastic about his choices in life.)

When all is said and done, we, as writers, need to do what works for the story we are telling. Conventions and rules have a purpose and we need to know and understand them, but we should also feel free to move within them and push against the boundaries in order to tell the best story that we can.

Haven't I been saying those sorts of things in every debate we've had about literature?