Rules of grammar and spelling…

I have a feeling that this one will get me a few rolled eyes, but we all remember or… partially recall studying where to place comma’s, how to punctuate, and how to spell. This is all stuff we know.

However, are those rules solid? Must they always be followed? Absolutely not!

You’re going to find in your writing that, when building a sentence to describe something that is ongoing that a rule or two may need to be bent or twisted. Maybe there is a scene that requires you to create a word like ‘deindustrialization’ or something like that. Dialogue is a perfect example of this. Nowhere else will you see more run-on’s, sentence fragments, or words misspelled. Why? Because that’s how some people talk.

Now, does this mean that the rules can be ignored completely? God no. Bad spelling and grammar will turn your reader off quicker than a poor plot ever could.

It’s important to know the rules, but it’s almost important to know that there are gray areas. A good example of the gray areas is when you’re writing in the past tense and trying to figure out when to use the words laid, lay, lied, lie. If you google one of those words and look at any grammar site, you’ll notice a good deal of discussion and disagreement on when to use each.

So I guess what I’m saying is follow the rules, but be conscience of when you can’t follow the rules and find a way to work around them that doesn’t degrade your writing.

Thanks all for me. Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim