You're going to use your grammar well!

In our tutorial we all had to come up with an interesting idea that we could write a personal essay on. Megan's idea- how important is correct grammar usage and knowledge for the creative writer- really got me thinking.

I believe that even creative fiction writers, even amateur writers who are unpublished, need a solid grasp of correct grammatical usage and word choice . If they were unsure about what words would best describe an a scene, or if a semi-colon or colon should be used they may omit a sentence altogether; such a sentence could have made an important contribution to the story. If a writer has a sound knowledge of grammar and word choice then they will be able to write more freely as they will not have to be thinking is this really correct? Without this set of skills then the writer could become lack confidence, meaning they may never reach their full potential as a writer.

Although creative writing allows you to play with form, style, and the mechanics of writing more than non-fiction I believe in order to successfully pull this off you need knowledge of what rules you are breaking, and why you want to break them. Without this knowledge it will just look like you do not know how to use grammar and spell correctly- which may in fact be the case!

However, don't despair. I believe that in this case practice really does make perfect (or close enough anyway!). If writers stop replying on spell-check (which causes many bad habits and stunts learning) then they will really have to think about what they are writing and why. A dictionary or the internet to look up grammatical rules to make sure you are using everything correct can be a great way to speed up the learning process. As can having a great written reference such as The Little, Brown Handbook by H. Ramsey Fowler and Jane E. Aaron. Writing courses at UQ, including the fundamentals of writing and writing for the professions, have heightened my love of the english language and made me want to know as much as I can about how to use it correctly.


In direct relation to this course, grammar is even more important in non-fiction writing (especially when it is published in magazines etc) and I believe that journalists and travel writers, for instance, need a developed understanding of grammar and word choice. Both fiction and non-fiction writers may  argue that it is the editor's job to fix grammatical errors. I believe this is lazy and that if you think like this you will never produce a work that really reflects what you are capable of.


Although I am still at the beginning of my learning in this area, and there are probably many embarrassing mistakes in this very blog, I have improved a lot over the past year and believe that all creative writers should put in a solid effort to get their grammar up to scratch if they're serious about getting published.

Image: http://www.happyplace.com/14389/comic-strip-illustrates-how-bad-grammar-can-kill-you