After seeing that yet another edited version of the book was released with errors, I realized that my brain had decided to correct my work as I was reading. When you spend so much time creating something, such things can be overlooked. So I decided that it would be best to let the book sit for a while.
I did continue to write and ended up creating a trilogy. They are rough drafts at the moment, however I am starting to create the second draft of the second story. It is my intent to finish the second draft of the second story and then edit the first book. I will most likely do so again, going back and forth until I have the vision that I want to share.
What gets me the most are those that criticize grammar at the expense of creativity. It is as if there is an attempt to discourage others from writing by putting them down. I agree that mistakes can cause a reader to have issues but when it comes to writing in the way that people speak today as opposed to proper grammar, that is when history takes my side.
We do not write as Shakespeare, in fact the very mistakes that we make in every day conversation changed the language to what it is today and it is continuing to evolve. Those, such as myself, embrace creative writing to help illustrate the story that is in my mind. To sacrifice creativity for proper grammar that would alienate a majority of readers that don’t grade English papers would be silly. However to have gross mistakes is worse as it is cheating them out of a quality product.
I attempted to work with an editor however that didn’t work out too well. So I have established what I call a writing package. I schedule myself to read a grammar book for an hour, read a book that is far from my genre to spark my imagination and then to begin writing. I figure that reading the grammar book continuously will allow proper grammar to become natural while reading a book that is completely different would keep the creativity alive.
To all of the Grammar Nazis, one piece of advice, don’t criticize and belittle if what an author’s work is very creative or original. We are supposed to support each other so perhaps correct one mistake that is prevalent throughout the work and let them learn.
For my soon to be readers, I have several short stories that I will be editing soon and giving away for free. They all tie-in to the books from the perspective of those that are off to the side of the main characters. It is my desire to eventually have animations of these stories for here and YouTube, I will keep everyone informed!
