How do you handle rules? With a moment of grief or with a quick concession of error. Not everyone likes to follow rules, including writers. It isn’t always necessary to takes any rule set by the horns and fight back, but in fiction writing it may be necessary to get to know the rules pretty well before those horns aren’t targeted at your red cape.
As a writer, I don’t like rules. They can be used well to articulate specific ideas or they can be thrown aside in ignorance, guilty. Rules exist to help any construction of written words be clear for the reader (there is a whole other argument to be made for writing that is intentionally unclear).
As an editor, it is important to know the rules to tell the difference between creative genius or careless ignorance. There are rules about sentence constructions and the separation of clauses with commas. In technical, professional, and educational writing there is little flexibility, but that is why we don’t enjoy reading those, right? A good fiction editor can find the balance to avoid the distraction of the reader.
Do the rules apply to you? Can you handle being told that, yes, the rules to apply to you? The secret of being a good editor: know the best way to deliver the news that you are breaking the rules, but also make suggestions to get you back in line without being insulting.