Dec 09 2008
Editing - spelling and grammar
Amanda of becomingafictionwriter.com has pointed out that I missed something – it’s so obvious that I took it for granted, but I should mention it. You need to check your spelling!
Once again, computers make life much easier for us these days because you can use the Spell Checker that comes with your word processing program. Don’t use it mindlessly though – read each suggested correction before you approve it, because spell checkers don’t check meaning, they simply pick the word that’s the closest match. If you’re not sure what the word means, look it up!
I am in two minds about using the Grammar Checker. The trouble is, Microsoft’s Grammar Checker is such an old fuddy-duddy! It follows very strict grammatical rules which would work perfectly well for a university thesis – but it doesn’t work for fiction.
These days when we write fiction, we don’t write as the omniscient author. We put ourselves inside the heads of our characters and write from their point of view. To create that illusion, we need to choose words that reflect the way that character would speak. That means our prose is more colloquial casual than the books of earlier times, which inevitably means it includes a fair amount of bad grammar. If you edit all that bad grammar out, your writing is going to sound stilted and old-fashioned.
It’s probably not a bad idea to run the Grammar Checker, so long as you don’t regard it as the authority. Look at what it suggests and don’t feel guilty about clicking on the “Ignore” button. One of a writer’s most valuable skills is to understand grammar rules well enough that you know when to break them!
