04 AUG 10

 I posted this on a talent promoting site.

There are many on this site who purport to be writers.
Sad to say, they're not.
They don't know the basic rules of this craft they claim as their own.
Spelling!  Punctuation!  Grammar!
Why do so many claim to be writers?
Dunno. . . maybe because it's an easy claim. There's no real "test" given. . .
except for the final product. Most of what I've read here fails. . . and I'm not
claiming to be a writer. . . nor am I an English teacher.
BUT grammar IS important!

"I cannot stress enough the importance of grammar: Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse."

If you cannot play the diatonic scale, you wouldn't pass yourself off as a musician.
If you're going to claim to be a mason, you'd best know how to butter a brick.
So. . . if you're going to say you're a writer. . . at the very least, spell-check your work.

There, you now have my opinion on this subject.
(For what it's worth.)

-Fini

PS:
Hope I don't come across, here, as pompous.
I don't mean to be.
I read a lot. . . and I mean a lot.
I'll, sometimes, have three books going at the same time.
Consequently, I carry a sort of "sight picture" of the printed
word in my mind. When I encounter a misspelled or misused word,
I recognize it for what it is because that word's "picture" doesn't match the one
in my head. . . I'll then look it up. There's the key. . . look it up.
Never write without a dictionary at hand. . . a thesaurus too.
If you wish to be taken for a writer, these are traits to be developed.
Along with your imagination, these are the tools of the trade.
I don't always get it right. . . but mostly I do and my mistakes I use
as teaching aids.
Writing well is hard work. . . and don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

PPS:
The points I've touched on are BASIC writing skills.
Whether or not people actually read your work and enjoy it
depends on the content. . . and THAT depends on you alone.

ADDENDUM:
It's now November 2010.
I came upon this on the internet...
thought I'd add it here.

"The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, “I have an idea but I can’t express it”; that man hasn’t an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit."
- Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske -