One of the worst things about my writing… besides the fact that it’s romance and no one takes a romance writer seriously… is that despite my beautiful Associate’s Degree in English from Sinclair Community College I have no skills in grammar, punctuation, or spelling.
I know what a noun is because once I took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and my best friend was waitin there for me, she took another ferry, but other than that the parts and rules of of the grammatical arena are lost on me. I have no concept of their correct usage and generally terms like prepositional phrase and dangling participle are just set ups for really bad “that’s what she said” jokes.
This lack of comprehension in the very foundation of our written language is a horrible flaw in my otherwise perfect presence in the universe. To be well written and interesting, to hold the attention of the reader, and to accurately convey its intended message a literary work must be grammatically correct.
Or not.
I lack an understanding for the foundations of grammar and punctuation not because I’m stupid or unable to comprehend basic instruction… In addition to the English degree I really do have a Bachelors in Political Science AND an honest to God Juris Doctorate law degree and I graduated fairly solidly in the middle of my class on both occasions.
I am intelligent and literate and I’m well aware when I read something that somehow doesn’t sound right. Could I point out to you the structural and grammatical errors? Nope, we’ve already gone over the fact that I can’t and honestly the reason is that I don’t care.
I am an emotional reader not a critical reader. Unless something is written in a way that interrupts the the flow of the movie being generated in my head as I read I don’t take any notice of sentence structure, grammar, punctuation or even spelling unless it just looks wrong.
I read, and write, for the story itself.I don’t care if the participles are dangling but believe me I want to know what color shirt the main characters are wearing and what motivated them to choose that particular outfit for the occasion. I want long, rambling, rich descriptions that take me away from where I am and leave me somewhere that feels good.
I want to feel as if I’m walking alongside the characters as they go about their life. I want to crawl inside their minds and know what motivates them. I want to live and breathe their story as if it were happening to my best friends and I don’t know about you but if I’m taking a walk on a beautiful spring day with a couple of friends I don’t worry too much about who’s participles are dangling.
Sometimes, I Write Books... 