Comments on: Style and Grammar – Rethinking Black and White

By: Sally Slater

Sally Slater — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 04:18:02 +0000

I am TOTALLY guilty of grammar mistakes in my train-of-thought writing (I don’t check these blog posts that carefully, or my replies to comments) but super duper anal in anything I “publish” or do for work. And I love words of the day! Never too late to learn something.

By: dcrazygalz

dcrazygalz — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 04:12:30 +0000

I wholeheartedly agree with you about how poor grammar takes away from the story. My rule is if there are more than 10 (obvious) mistakes, I stop reading. I compulsively edit my posts, other peoples posts, and any other articles I come into contact with. And of course, that’s not to say that I am perfect by any means, and I am sure that, even though I have checked this three times, there will still be mistakes. And while it is true that it is “just a story”, the English language was invented for a reason. And personally, I love seeing new words that I haven’t encountered before. I check the dictionary to see the meaning, and that interests me. I love learning new words.

By: Sally Slater

Sally Slater — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 07:34:59 +0000

Haha, well, AP style is extremely ANTI Oxford Comma, so there’s that. I’m fine with using it in fiction, but if you’re going to use it, you ALWAYS have to use it.

By: N, Shimobi-Obijuru

N, Shimobi-Obijuru — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 02:49:15 +0000

Hey, if you’re for the Oxford comma, then you’re a writing genius. 😉

By: Maja Diana Jørgensen

Maja Diana Jørgensen — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 21:35:18 +0000

Well. Grammarly is good for some things. Like, I’ve learned split infinitives and I have some concept of dangling modifiers. Plus it fixes most tenses, which is–according to Kevin–where I have most problems. However, it doesn’t do exactly what the site advertises it as. It’s good for me and a “quick edit”, but it’s far from perfect. I like it though. Especially the free add-on.

I still have a long way to go, but hearing this from you means a lot. And I agree, it hurts to edit, cut and re-write sometimes. But you gotta kill your darlings, as Stephen King said.

By: Tetras

Tetras — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 09:39:16 +0000

Oh… there’s this link too: http://kriswrites.com/2012/06/27/the-business-rusch-perfection/

This was passed to me by an author whose work I admire. It helped me a lot.

By: Tetras

Tetras — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 04:39:42 +0000

LOL I’m definitely the waltz, classical music, even native American flute tunes gal No constant sharpness or staccatos in those!

But if you knew you were breaking rules to begin with, that wouldn’t be half the freeing as just expressing – with no thoughts to rules or conventions:

5:00 http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

hahaha, not quite sure how that vid adds to the discussion but it’s a cool vid, eh?

By: Sally Slater

Sally Slater — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 03:47:53 +0000

I have always viewed words/language as musical, even when they’re in written form, and I think that’s where you and I are alike. But I think we jive to different tunes Probably just a preference thing – I tend to like alternating sharp staccatos with lengthier phrases. If that results in me coming across as succinct, fantastic, haha.

FWIW, I agree that being a good writer is about having a good story, not having good grammar. A good example of that in action are my stories from college. Technically clean, but still horrible because the plot/characters just aren’t there.

That video is awesome. I’m a bit of a “pedant” for sure, but I also think I have an appreciation for the whole “giddy euphoric bliss” of beautiful language.

I think the lesson in all this is that there is a middle ground. But I still stick to my Picasso metaphor (*gasp* not a metaphor!) – I think breaking the rules works best when you know what rules you’re breaking.

By: Tetras

Tetras — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 03:38:46 +0000

Btw that vid wasn’t put to say that you’re this ‘vile’ grammar nazi he’s talking about. It was to demo that this “style vs grammar” issue you’ve brought up is a divide that seems to be quite on-going in more circles than our Wattpad one.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 03:34:16 +0000

If I thought you’d have the time I’d add you to the list of people to take one final look after I have all my beta’s go through it. But you already have your hands for LOL I’m hoping by the time I get this to my beta’s I’ll have found most everything and then some of them might be able to find the rest.