Tuesday, May 05, 2020

ON WRITING: check your grammar

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This is a bit of a PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT for all you writer's out there, from someone who read's (and write's) a fair number of script's:
Grammar is important.
It affects the way we read and more importantly it affects our confidence in the writer. It's daft in a way because whether or not you can correctly employ an Oxford comma technically has very little bearing on the poetry with which you depict your love triangle / bank heist / helicopter explosion. However if you are someone who has ambitions to wield the written word for a living, learning the fundamentals of your weaponry should be the basic requirement.
It comes down to an idea of faith. When we encounter some avant-garde formatting or stylistic tic, if the writer has demonstrated a solid command of the language, we are minded to give that writer the benefit of the doubt. However, if the writer is struggling with basic apostrophe use, it starts to create an element of doubt that can cast a shadow on other elements of the script - structure, plot and characterisation.
So, if you don't already know this, and even if you do, take half an hour to study correct use of apostrophes, then cmd + muthaf*ckin' F every single apostrophe in your script before you send it to anyone to read. If nothing else, that sh*t needs to be locked down cold.
[If you struggle with learning difficulties other other challenges, of course get someone you trust to proof read for you].
Believe me you will be appreciated for it for ever. And your Chinook-crashing-into-the-hoover-dam denouement will then be appreciated in all its flaming glory.
Posted with love to you all (and a bit of a stern and waggly finger).

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The insight you seem to have regarding the apostrophe leads me to believe you may be part proofreader.