A reviewer on one of the sites I submit writing to recently wrote something that kind of boggles my mind. This person noticed a punctuation error in the first sentence in a piece I had just posted and stated that they would normally stop reading at that point, dismissing the entire thing. They praised the rest of the article. I'm not saying grammar and punctuation are not important but to reject something on the first perceived technical error that has no bearing on the content for me is a little over the top. I thanked the reviewer and corrected the error, but I still can't quite get this out of my mind.
If you are a grammar nazi, I like to think of you as a useful friend. I'm a storyteller first and a writer second. I deal in ideas, motives, plots and sometimes grammar and punctuation take a backseat. I need you guys to help me deal with my obvious weaknesses as a writer. If I'm dismissed on the first minor error, we haven't done each other any good at all.
I'm going to take this a bit further. I've been a member of writing.com for quite a number of years now. I have friends there that can write grammatically flawless rough drafts punctuated to perfection. When it comes to writing fiction, though, many of them struggle to create living breathing characters. The writing is often dead and boring. My daughter who is also a member of that site has noticed the same thing. Between us, we have written over 1400 reviews on that site alone.
The point is that we need each other. We creative types need help from those know the nuts and bolts of the language. Please don't look on me as some kind of lesser species because I struggle to correctly use commas. Keep reading and maybe you can learn something.
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