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Minutia quibblery

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason Byrne
  • Start date Start date

How many modern grammatical rule changes have you adopted?

  • I follow all current literary guidelines.

    Votes: 2 22.2%

  • I still adhere the a couple elements of Old Way.

    Votes: 4 44.4%

  • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit (Don't change me).

    Votes: 3 33.3%
  • Total voters
    9
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Emurelda said:
All this time I've been doing these writing courses when all one needed is to open a ready made book to copy. Just that simple isn't it. For some reason I seem to think this is analogous to the birth of a supernova...I can't put my finger on why!
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From all the books I've read, they are all slightly different in format. The story and dialog drives the format, to a certain degree, imo.
 
Considering I've only been at this 1 year I have learned it the 'new way' ;) so to me, the new way is the old way. That being said, I have my own style and if the slipper fits, I ain't forcing on a clog!
 
Karen Gray said:
Considering I've only been at this 1 year I have learned it the 'new way' ;) so to me, the new way is the old way. That being said, I have my own style and if the slipper fits, I ain't forcing on a clog!
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Sounds familiar!!
 
Karen Gray said:
Considering I've only been at this 1 year I have learned it the 'new way' ;) so to me, the new way is the old way. That being said, I have my own style and if the slipper fits, I ain't forcing on a clog!
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One year!! So am I correct in understanding your books have been written within 12 months?
 
That is amazing. Ok I should get writing then. Ahem. I officially started this year. Although I had an outline in March. 3 months later...and got my precious 25,000 words in. I did chop off a modest 10 thousand. But I like this motivational feeling knowing that there is greater potential to deliver more.
 
Emurelda said:
That is amazing. Ok I should get writing then. Ahem. I officially started this year. Although I had an outline in March. 3 months later...and got my precious 25,000 words in. I did chop off a modest 10 thousand. But I like this motivational feeling knowing that there is greater potential to deliver more.
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Once you hit your stride no one will stop you. At the rate I am going now I will hopefully have all 15 novels done and dusted in 5 years give or take a few months :)
 
Karen Gray said:
Once you hit your stride no one will stop you. At the rate I am going now I will hopefully have all 15 novels done and dusted in 5 years give or take a few months :)
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That is wonderful. I was telling a friend today that I am almost at the point of no return in my writing..almost not quite there. The point of no return is when I get so lost in my writing element it all just flows. I already feel like I am swimming towards that point. Again my sense of visual and spatial comes into how I 'see' this. ;)
 
Emurelda said:
That is amazing. Ok I should get writing then. Ahem. I officially started this year. Although I had an outline in March. 3 months later...and got my precious 25,000 words in. I did chop off a modest 10 thousand. But I like this motivational feeling knowing that there is greater potential to deliver more.
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@Karen Gray makes me feel like a slacker. Only been working on my first ms since 2006 (not including the short story I had originally written back in the 70's).
 
Emurelda said:
That is wonderful. I was telling a friend today that I am almost at the point of no return in my writing..almost not quite there. The point of no return is when I get so lost in my writing element it all just flows. I already feel like I am swimming towards that point. Again my sense of visual and spatial comes into how I 'see' this. ;)
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It's an awesome feeling... being in 'the zone.' You do get a tad obsessed though lol.
 
MontanaMan65 said:
@Karen Gray makes me feel like a slacker. Only been working on my first ms since 2006 (not including the short story I had originally written back in the 70's).
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Oh NO! Remember writing is an escape for me. It's hard not to become immersed and think about the story all the time. And when it's straight in your head it kinda falls onto the page xx
 
Karen Gray said:
It's an awesome feeling... being in 'the zone.' You do get a tad obsessed though lol.
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That zone is the place where artists develop their best work. You see it when a singer gets so wrapped up in their song that no one else exists. It's wonderful to witness even better to be amidst it.
 
I will tell you something I used to say to a lot of my kids when explaining about how they were all progressing at different rates...

There are LEARNED riders, TAUGHT riders and NATURAL riders.

Each type has its own positive traits and negative traits.

Learned - Struggle to understand the physical aspects and focus on the theory, they know exactly how to do it but can't translate the knowledge into movement - Similar to the storyteller who can tell you the best tale you have ever heard, but can't write it down.

Taught - are the middle ground. They have a good understanding of both theory and practice and progress at a steady rate. They will never bee quite as good at the theory as the Learned or quite as good at the practical as the Natural, but in the end they do better because they are a more stable student who can rely on both aspects to propel them forward. - Similar to the writer who tries hard, perfects their craft and improves steadily.

Natural - are the wild cards. Rare and hard to understand in their own right. They have never needed the theory to teach them how... they just did it. BUT they can be lazy and take their craft for granted. And at times when theory is important, they struggle. - Similar to the writer who can put a story on paper like it was supposed to be there but misses essential grammar and spelling errors because they just don't know the theory behind their craft.

In an average group of say 10, I would probably teach 4 learned, 5 taught and 1 natural. The learned riders will plateau at some point, but they will be comfortable at that level. The Taught riders will excel at whatever they wish to do, but will take longer getting there. The Natural rider may excel or they may burn out, it's a fifty fifty, as the wild card you never can tell.

Most of us fall into the TAUGHT category (even if it's self taught) We are all just progressing at different stages xx
 
Karen Gray said:
Oh NO! Remember writing is an escape for me. It's hard not to become immersed and think about the story all the time. And when it's straight in your head it kinda falls onto the page xx
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Oh, I know! When you lay in bed at night with scenarios running through your brain while you try to quit thinking long enough to go to sleep.
I do the same thing when creating a computer program and it has an issue. So, before bed, I can't do those two things...
 
Re the OP (!!) -- I definitely fall into the stubborn, dig-in-the-heels and don't change category ... having said that, I am also increasingly aware that this whole 'write and get published' game is in the end a collaboration between writers, editors, publishers and readers - each influences one or more of the others to produce something the market wants. So I think we need to be a bit flexible and open to new ideas -- even when they are just so wrong!! ;)
 
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I was firmly in the two spaces after a period camp until I was shamed out of it by my husband, who harped incessantly on it. And, of course, when you realise why the two spaces rule was adopted, it makes sense to drop the second now that computers do the spacing for us. Not that it didn't take me a long time to stop being irritated by the lack of space between one sentence and the next. And as for serial commas, I'm all for them. But then, I edit official natural resource management documents, where clarity of meaning is of utmost importance, least we end up with some yahoo skirting the rules because of ambiguity. (Now, those documents are even more boring than style manuals! Whew!)
 
Robinne Weiss said:
I was firmly in the two spaces after a period camp until I was shamed out of it by my husband, who harped incessantly on it. And, of course, when you realise why the two spaces rule was adopted, it makes sense to drop the second now that computers do the spacing for us. Not that it didn't take me a long time to stop being irritated by the lack of space between one sentence and the next. And as for serial commas, I'm all for them. But then, I edit official natural resource management documents, where clarity of meaning is of utmost importance, least we end up with some yahoo skirting the rules because of ambiguity. (Now, those documents are even more boring than style manuals! Whew!)
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I have to say it puts me off. I get uncomfortable reading because it messes with my eyes lol.
 
This is a very nice collection of comments from copy editors, the poor saps who have to sort out our indiscretions. Interestingly it's a mix of things they don't like and things they don't care about, like using 'like' instead of 'such as' (see what I did there?) or split infinitives.

One specific - every publisher I have ever spoken to hates double spaces after a full stop (period).
 
TBH I've never heard of using a double space, but then I learnt to type on a typewriter, does anyone remember them?? :p
 
This is the first time i've come across the debate about single vs double spacing. I've always thought it was double spacing. I automatically type like that without even thinking. I better get back to retraining myself. All this time...
 
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