WRITING
What Stephen King, Mrs. Bain, and Yours Truly Have in Common
Even when popular opinion is against us — sometimes, we must take a stand
Grammar is as much a part of language as your limbs are a part of your body. A newborn can’t control his or her limbs: those chubby little arms and legs going every which way. If they continued to flail about in the same manner well into adulthood (assuming nothing medical was amiss), he or she would find it difficult getting on in the world. Likewise, without the correct use of the arms and legs of grammar, one’s use of language to communicate would suffer.
No one understands the truth of this as do writers. They know that grammar is a game and that there can be no game without rules. Some writers can follow the rules to a tee and never rise to the top. That’s life. But no writer is likely to rise to the top while she blatantly ignores the rules. That, too, is life.
The problem of gender
If you are a serious writer, and lover of the English language, as I am, I’m sure the following scenario has happened to you:
You’ve conquered the blank screen, tamed word after torturous word, and now you find yourself well on the way to constructing a damned good…
