Paul Thayer
your-book-editor.com
Friday, May 16, 2014
The dirtiest word in the English language
I have to
mention a dirty word—grammar. Oh,
horrors! I know, I know. Studying grammar is about as much fun as poking
yourself in the eye with a stick. But if you take writing seriously, you have
to acquire the tools of the trade. If you want to build a house, you have to do
the same thing—get the proper tools, learn how to use them, and learn carpentry.
Unless you do that, your new home will look like a tree house built by
nine-year-olds.
Most technical
shortcomings are as crucial as the literary ones to providing your readers with
a smooth reading experience. If, for instance, your reader notices that you
have written many run-on sentences or that your page is peppered with
semicolons, his/her read is disrupted as much as if your scenes lacked details
of the setting or your plot wandered off on a tangent.
I also know that obvious
problems with grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling are reason numero uno for rejecting a manuscript.
Literary agents and acquisitions editors rarely read more than a few pages—or
only one page—before hitting the Reject button, which is easy for them to do
when they see writing that’s littered with technical clunkers.
Many readers who aren’t as
sophisticated as literary agents also notice writing errors. As proof of that,
find some self-published novels on Amazon and read their reviews, especially
the one- and two-star ones, not the five-star ones the author solicited from
family, friends, and all their pets. Some of these reviewers mention how
grammar and punctuation errors disrupted or ruined their reading experience.
Too many self-pubbed authors have made the mistake of skipping the last step in
the process—having their book professionally edited.
Sorry, friends, but you
can’t get around the need for this kind of education. You simply must learn
about all the nuts and bolts.
So okay. You have decided to
suck it up and learn about the rules of the writing road. Where to start? Take
a class, either online or off. Buy a good college-level textbook and study it
cover to cover. Or find a website like this one: DailyGrammar.com.
I will discuss some
technical issues in upcoming posts, so stay tuned.
Paul Thayer
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