A writer’s worst nightmare: to be or not to be grammatically correct.
Yeah, those little green squiggly lines in Microsoft Word can be annoying. But how many bestselling books have you ever read are grammatically correct? Sometimes being the smartest person in the room is an annoyance to the average reader.
Will it make me look stupid if I’m not grammatically correct?
In my opinion, sometimes it’s worse, on the page, to be grammatically correct. Yet there are so many people, especially nowadays because they’re afraid grammar is falling by the wayside, who become the “grammar police” and fix every single grammatically wrong sentence structure in a story that it doesn’t even feel like a story anymore.
Now, is the above sentence grammatically correct?
A normal person doesn’t think, read, or write grammatically correct. Whether they should or shouldn’t is beyond the point. If we follow all the grammar rules, there are many things writers shouldn’t do. Obviously, there are rules that will MAKE US LOOK STUPID if we don’t follow them, but following certain rules make us appear stuffy.
For instance, commas vs. semicolons.
I cringe when I see a semicolon, even when I know it’s correct. When I’m in a person’s head, their POV, that person is going to think in clipped sentences and sometimes way too long in the eye of an erudite. Characters don’t think in terms of semicolons or what is right and wrong in grammar. Characters have their own way of speaking, of thinking, and a good author will follow that way despite what the grammar police say. Look at the bestselling authors of this century, even the last century. Semicolons are rarely, if ever, used.
I once had an editor who corrected my sentences to semicolons on almost every single page. I had to ignore them. Sometimes, I changed them, depending on the sentence or the way it was said. Sometimes it challenged me to think of a different way of saying the sentences altogether. And I finally had to write a “letter to the editor” and let them know why I chose to ignore the changes.
I read a lot. And I read a lot of bestsellers. Most authors are bestsellers for a reason, whether you like them or agree with the fad or not. So my suggestion to would-be authors is to read those best sellers, figure out what it is that makes them work, and don’t always listen to the rules! Sometimes that means disagreeing with your editor! After all, a good editor will know the grammar rules, and will try to follow them despite how you feel it makes or disrupts the story! But a good author will know when it’s time to ignore those rules.
That being said, I have to say that authors who chose to be grammatically correct, if you’re doing well, then by all means you should keep doing what you are doing! Maybe times are changing, but I haven’t seen it and I refuse to follow in those footsteps. The grammar rules of yesteryear don’t always apply to the way we read today, and neither does it mean we are stupid or disrespectful for not following them. And if I’m going to lose a reader because they don’t like my grammar, then I’ll probably gain five more because they weren’t annoyed with my grammar. And yes, I have been annoyed by reading too many semicolons. I would rather read the wrong word than too many semicolons.
If in doubt, do what the bestsellers do. Not what the grammar police tell you to do.