Dear Writer Please Stop: On Grammar

When you shopped for your present home, what role did the bricks play in your decision to by or rent the property? Did they factor into your decision at all? Have they ever? I ask because this article has to do with words, and words seem to have a great deal in common with bricks. Sometimes, writers lose sight of the fact that we are architects—the builders of residences which will be inhabited by those that are not ourselves. So, when we build a home, it should be complete, furnished with all the things its new resident seeks but doesn’t know to ask for.

Occasionally, I find myself traipsing across Reddit, searching for places to write or affect a positive change. Usually, that means sharing things I’ve learned, offering writing advice, or crafting a new story from a writing prompt. But there’s always a whole host of topics and questions that I won’t go near. It’s not that I don’t have an opinion on such things, I just know that my feedback won’t make an impact on certain topics.

They say there’s no stupid questions. I’m not convinced.

This article is actually my answering a question that I walked away from. Because a question can actually tell you a lot about the person asking it. If the question is too simple, it says that the asker isn’t putting in any effort themselves, so your answering it won’t actually help that person in any meaningful way. Questions themselves are often more valuable than the answers, but they can only matter when you struggle to answer it for yourself. But let’s circle back to the question’s specifics; we’ve got more ground to cover beforehand.

You’re a brick peddler.

You have your cart of bricks, which you take to market everyday. They are lovely bricks—the absolute finest if anyone where to ask you. They never do, but sometimes you tell them anyways.

One day, a couple approach you in their search for a home.

“Excuse me,” they say. “We hear you build homes we might like.”

“Absolutely,” you tell them. “I’ve got the very best bricks. Just look at what I have here. You can have these! And you’ll be fortunate to own them.”

But the couple isn’t convinced. Even though your stack of bricks doesn’t look much like a house, they eventually concede and depart with your cart, thinking maybe they just don’t understand home building the way they thought.

After the fact, you feel proud and return the very next day with a new set of bricks.

This is the way modern writers frame the world I see when searching through Reddit. We seem to have forgotten that words aren’t the end, they’re just the means to it. No matter what it is you write, the purpose of the words is to communicate a story. If the words themselves detract from that purpose, then it’s bad writing.

We’re all storytellers. The work that our words enact is supposed to be in the delivering of our story to another. That’s the entire point of any form of communication—to relay a thought, an idea, or an emotion that we couldn’t otherwise share with another person.

It is absolutely heartbreaking to see questions like:

‘How do I not offend xyz?’

‘How do I write about xyz?’

While I greatly endorse writing constraints, it will absolutely cripple your progress if you write in an effort to offend no one. Because, no matter what, without exception, you will never write a thing that is for absolutely everyone. And it’s not difficult to see why.

Consider this:

This article is nonfiction. Do you prefer to read/write fiction or nonfiction? What about non-reading activities? If you were outdoors, would you prefer to go walk at a park or go hiking on a mountain trail? And what about choosing whether to be indoors or out? Would you rather stay in and game or would you rather be fishing/hunting?

Your answers here only matter so far as establishing that we’re different. People differ. And that will never change. If I write an article on hunting bears in some foreign locale, this piece will be of no interest to someone who would rather be gaming. If I wrote a piece on the best 10 parks to go for a walk, so too would the hiker not be interested. And this isn’t a slight on my writing. It’s just that people are different.

If you’re serious about improving your skills as a writer, this is something you must accept. When you write a story that’s intended to earn any form of compensation, you have to accept the implied writing constraints. And those constraints require a construction that suits the needs of someone that is not you.

On Writing Constraints

I believe writing constraints are marvelous. They’re an excellent tool that forces your stories this way and that, making them move in directions they wouldn’t have otherwise. And they can be brilliant for cultivating greater skill in your craft.

If you’re seeking to sell a piece to a publisher, they have constraints too. They’ll specify a few things like genre and word count, which might be extremely low barriers, but they’re barriers nonetheless. Whatever constraints you receive, you have to build the whole house and it has to suit, not the publisher, but the people the publisher want to live in it.

Constraints are this sign:

If you don’t meet the constraints, you can’t proceed. But let us return to the question at hand. The Reddit question posed was basically this:

“Is it really that important to be grammatically correct?”

And again, my answer is this same image. Grammar is a minimum requirement and it’s the lowest possible hurdle set before storytelling. Even if your grammar is immaculate, if your words take your reader out of their story, then it’s bad writing. And poor grammar is above and beyond, the simplest of ways to hinder your reader.

Writing is work. Writing is craft—a technical profession whose intricacies are like the coding within the Matrix. You don’t have to be Neo to see them, but you do have to spend a great deal of time writing, reading, and studying within the field.

To this day, I think the most valuable piece of feedback you can receive is a specific reference within your writing along with the statement, “This took me out.” Because the reader is giving you a treasure trove of valuable information.

The only caveat here is if your reader is actually a hiker reading your park article. It’s understandable for someone outside of your target audience to stumble with your writing but you should still consider their feedback. On the other hand, what you should absolutely take to heart is when you receive similar feedback from an actual park goer.

Storytelling vs Writing

Even after completing and publishing Twilight Wolf, I still struggle to call myself a writer. And I think it’s because I don’t actually believe it. It’s not a matter of surrealism or disbelief. I just don’t consider myself a writer. Never have.

To me, I’m a storyteller, where writing is just a thing I learned to better share my stories. And I think it might be important for new writers to reach for this same aspiration. So, strive to write in such a way that minimizes the visibility of your words. Your task is to deliver your story to your audience, so if your words get in the way of that, change them.

In closing, I challenge you to ask better questions. You will discover far more reward in entertaining a deliberate question, than you ever will in receiving a hasty answer.

Happy writing,

JT