“Writing as Self-Revelation”

Grammar is Only Skin Deep

Let’s face it, English teachers are scary!  I’m laughed at when the people closest to me see how mad I am when I have to turn in a second English paper before the first one has even been graded and handed back.  Why?  Because I never know how that teacher grades or what their expectations are.  Do they put the hammer down on grammar or are my ideas and efforts in translating them onto the page the most important?  I have been in several classes when I have said out loud (well not close enough for the teacher to hear of course) that no matter what I do it will never be good enough.  I have even been told that my writing was “stiff”, “unrealistic.”  Yes, and when I walked away from them I had a few choice words.  Of course they were wrong!  I was using big words, I sounded smart, and I even used a thesaurus!   Need I quote Stephen King once again, yes I do, “Any word you have to hunt for in the thesaurus is the wrong word.  There are no exceptions to this rule.”  What I had a problem with was finding my own voice.  I was too concerned with writing for the teacher rather than just letting myself be heard beyond the surface.

There is a part in “Writing as Self-Revelation” where the author Luella B. Cook talks about a time when she was asked a question, “But what do you do about all the errors in grammar and spelling?  Do you just over-look them?”  Her reply was simple, “Temporarily yes.” She is “looking for something else, for something real that a pupil is trying to say, for some hint of possibility that I may help him build upon.”  In analyzing this “nervous concern over errors” Cook believes it comes from “criticism.”  “Criticism has long been our stock and trade.  Pupils write and we carefully correct their papers judging the value of our own efforts by the thoroughness with which we have identified their errors.”  Doesn’t that explain the comic above?  Instead of the teacher finding value in the content of the past student’s words, wanting to be recognized and remembered, he’s basically shhh-ing him because incorrect grammar he believes reflects badly upon him as the teacher.

Is the constant need for immediate proper grammar the same as talking in someone else’s voice?  It’s rule following at its best.  You’re doing it simply because someone else told you to.  If the content within is the mouth watering dessert you were craving, does it matter if it’s served on a paper plate or fine china?  Getting your ideas down and having that teacher who helps you develop it is priceless.  The grammar can always be fixed when you’re finished.

While I am not saying its okay to not learn and practice proper grammar, I am saying that WHAT a person says is far more important than HOW a person says it.

John Grisham’s commencement speech at UNC-ChapelHill in 2010 gives a great argument on the importance in finding your own voice.  He says the “most difficult task facing a writer is finding the voice in which to tell a story.”  After all I do agree when he says “a voice is more than a sound”, holding “three essential elements”, “clarity, authenticity and veracity.”  So I say find your voice.  Screw the thesaurus and have a teacher that "temporarily" looks beyond the surface of the skin/grammar.  Let them see the depths of the content, there is a good argument to be had here.  Challenge them.  If all you’re being graded on is grammar, ask if you could see what your grade would be if only looking at how your voice translated to the paper.  Speak from your heart, plead your case and be heard beyond your skin.

“The Goody-Two-Shoes Nature”

Blood at My Fingertips

It’s true isn't it?  Writing is laying our inner most thoughts out for the world to be influenced by and for us to be criticized with.  It is gutting ourselves with a dull blade and as the need and want becomes more we push harder and harder to form our blood into words.  It’s funny and head turning that this is so empowering. 

“The Goody-Two-Shoes Nature” says writing practice is “like any other sport.”  So why then does it suggest we walk away when it becomes difficult?  Any person who dreams of writing writes with their whole heart.  A bad day of writing is simply just that.  An athlete who has a bad day does not have the option to not step on that field.  They are dedicated to their sport.  They do what needs to be done to get through the practice or the game they barely had the effort to attend.  Does that mean their “heart isn’t into it?”  Absolutely not!  It just means we as writers and athletes alike are human and we all have days we need to push through life’s difficulties to do what our heart desires.  It was Stephen King in "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" who said “Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard either emotionally or imaginatively is a bad idea.  Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing to do is shovel shit from a sitting position.”

We are not all so fortunate to have the option to “rest completely for a while” and “come back more fully choosing to engage.”  There are deadlines in writing which are our game days.  So having a routine for writing practice doesn’t make us being “dutiful.”  It makes us being whole heartedly dedicated to our sport of writing.  We will take our much needed break during our off season and heal from our injuries and strains then.  But until that day comes we will step on that field, walk into that gym, sit down with pens in our hands or finger tips at our keys and we will push through any wall that tries to block us.  When game day comes, some athletes throw up before their performance, I scream before writing.  You have no idea how many times I screamed when writing this.  But I finished and you are reading it.  I poured my blood into every one of these words.