What to do when grammar gets you down.

[LadyKatina]

I can't help but mention all the "Punctuation saves lives" posts make me think about my day job. It's SHOCKING the number of coffee mugs and t-shirts people will buy with some variation of that joke on them.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

This...

Commas are slaves to my will. I use them when and where I want them for reasons of rhythm, pacing, sentence flow, and so on. I find it more productive to just focus on how the sentence sounds rather than trying to fixate on grammatical rules in that regard. I'm perfectly happy to throw in a comma when the rules don't call for one, or to remove one when they do.

Grammar is important but not at the expense of story elements. A character's speech pattern, or prose written in a specific way to invoke feeling, is far more important than restricting myself to grammatical rules, as long as I'm bending those rules for a purpose.

I suppose it depends on what grammatical issues you're having with commas. If you're using them completely inappropriately, and not for some effect, then perhaps you do need to work on some fundamentals. Care to elaborate on the way you're using commas?

 

[saellys]

If grammar is your weakness, get a guide like those recommended earlier in this thread and learn how to use it. Grammar is part of writing, and by extension, it's part of being a good writer.

Furthermore, if you rely on your betas to point out your grammatical mistakes instead of bettering yourself so you don't make them in the first place, you're going to have a bunch of betas who are so bogged down with fixing your grammar that they don't have the time or energy to say anything constructive about your story. A good beta should catch the few minor grammatical mistakes you missed, then give you a ton of notes on characterization, continuity, immersion, and pacing (plus anything else they notice). They should not have to focus on grammar to the exclusion of all that. A disproportionate amount of grammar mistakes will detract from the story, which is what they're there to critique.

It's okay for grammar to be your weakness, but it's not okay for you to keep it that way and rely on others to fix it for you. Kill your weakness.

 

[Addison]

I agree with T.Allen. Your choice and use of grammar is just as much a part of your tone and voice as anything else.
Me, personally, I don't sweat the grammar stuff until I'm at least in my fourth draft of the story. That way I don't hang myself before hand.

 

[thequillwitch]

I think you should focus on your story first and foremost. In the meantime try taking some courses on grammar and punctuation. There´s a bunch of free stuff on the internet. Write your story then go back and edit with the info on hand. The whole adver adjective thing is really personal taste i think.

 

[saellys]

Grammar affects readability, and is about much more than personal taste/tone/style.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Grammar affects readability, and is about much more than personal taste/tone/style.

I agree with this for the most part which I why I stated...

...as long as I'm bending those rules for purpose.

You certainly don't want grammar to be a detractor, something working to pull your reader out if the story world. Still, there is a certain point within storytelling & style, where an absolute adherence to grammar rules should be forced into the back seat...for a purpose.

 

[wordwalker]

The trick is, to "break" the rules you have to know where they are-- otherwise you run into them by mistake and just trip over them.

With grammar, that isn't quite the same as having to know every rule of perfect English, but it certainly means knowing what form makes what word refer to what, what readers subconsciously expect from a professionally-used punctuation mark, and so on. Call it knowing the common denominator of what words mean to the most readers.

Then you can start tweaking, so that the final result's enough of what you want without taking the readers too far; when you distract (or confuse) someone, all your wit and poetry are wasted.

 

[saellys]

Exactly. The rules exist for a very good reason--to insure that your readers understand your meaning. Sometimes the rules of grammar legitimately do get in the way of style, or your narrator's voice demands certain concessions. T.Allen and wordwalker both have it right: grammar-bending should happen for a good reason, and you can only do it successfully if you know how grammar works to begin with.

Long story short, if you want to be a writer, you need to understand grammar.

 

[TGNewman]

Thank you all for your helpful replies. I have taken a great deal of advice on board.

I'm going back and getting my grammar down, before I continue with my most recent edit.

Thanks again,

Thomas

 

[saellys]

Good luck! I promise that being able to do this stuff effortlessly will be totally worth the time you're putting into it now.