Consistent formatting of our stories and books is important. That’s why we have rules for punctuation, abbreviations, number use, etc. It’s best to follow those rules; it would be chaos if everyone formatted their work as they chose. But . . . writing is an art, not a science, and there are times when we can, should, or even must break the rules.

Think of these situations like eating at an excellent buffet. At a buffet, it’s hard to make a bad choice as long as it tastes good. In writing it’s hard to make a bad choice as long as your writing is clear.

So sometimes it’s okay to break the rules if doing so will make your writing more understandable. For example, one rule is “Don’t start a sentence with a number.” Another is “If you must start a sentence with number, write the number out.”

So, say you’re writing this dialogue:

“Eighteen thousand, nine hundred fifteen dollars and thirty-seven cents,” Jane said. “Not a penny more. That’s all we’re going to get from the insurance company for the storm damage.”

The first sentence starts with a number, so how can we edit to conform to the “don’t start a sentence with a number” rule? We could restructure the passage:

“The insurance company is only going to pay us eighteen thousand, nine hundred fifteen dollars and thirty-seven cents for the storm damage,” Jane said. “Not a penny more.”

But that doesn’t carry the same impact, does it?

Restructuring writing to avoid style or clarity issues is called recasting or editing around it. Sometimes that’s possible and even desirable, but as in the above example, recasting may cause the passage to lose impact. So we might chose to leave the passage as it is, that is, let the dialogue start with a number.

But you no doubt noticed that “eighteen thousand, nine hundred fifteen dollars and thirty-seven cents” reads awkwardly. So let’s rewrite the passage like this:

“$18,915.37. Not a penny more,” Jane said. “That’s all we’re going to get from the insurance company for the storm damage.”

That’s easier to read, but the rule is “If you must start a sentence with number, write the number out.” So now we’re violating that rule.

We can’t have it any of the three ways. We can’t:

        Use numerals, because numerals shouldn’t go at the beginning of the sentence

        Write the number out, because then it reads awkwardly, or

        Edit around the number, because we lose impact

One way or the other, we’re either violating a rule or weakening the passage. You must decide which is the lesser of the downsides.

There are a couple of ways to make your choice.

        Check the style at the publication you’re aiming for and write the passage as they expect it to be.

        Decide what your preferred style is and write it that way. (Developing a personal style manual helps with that.)

But however and whatever you decide, be consistent throughout your work.