Gotta Write

I’ve read some work of other aspiring writers, and while sometimes their stories are interesting and their writing styles are relatively good, I can’t help but stumble in my interest every time I run across a glaring grammatical error or spelling error.  I don’t care how good the story is…when something ain’t right, it just ain’t right.

That’s me trying to be clever, by the way.  I don’t generally use “ain’t” in my writing.

Okay, back to what I was trying to say.  If you’re writing a story that you someday hope to sell, you can’t just throw out the rules of grammar and punctuation.  There are exceptions of course, such as when that’s your writing style and you consistently offend grammar and punctuation as a rule throughout your writing.  On the other hand, if you’re going to disregard the difference between its and it’s or your and you’re, then you might turn off some readers who cringe when they come across errors in writing.  If a potential literary agent or publisher happens to be that type of person, then you’re grammatically offending the very person who can help you.

I honestly didn’t know all the huge errors I was consistently making in my writing until I took my final English Composition class in college.  It was then that I learned about how important it is to know the rules of writing no matter how creative you might be. 

I keep a grammar book at my desk so I can reference it when I need a little help.  There are also a ton of online resources you can use if you need them.  Keep in mind that even if you don’t care much about grammar and all that jazz, rest assured that someone does.  Unless you’re just writing for yourself you should care about this stuff.

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