~ugh~

[jennickels]

I was working on editing my sg1friendathon story last night.  I'm pretty sure my turn is coming up pretty soon and I have almost 10k words to edit.  Anyway, I'm reading through my own copy and fixing things I'm not liking and then checking the comments my beta sent me and I realize I have serious issues with commas.  Specifically in relation to independent clauses which I had to actually look up.  My head hurts now.  I always thought I was pretty good at grammar... now I feel like an idiot.

So, now I have to go through the whole damn story with a fine tooth comb putting a bajillion commas in and completely change the way I write so I remember to put in commas in the first place.  I think the problem stems from my dropping the comma before and in a series (yeah, I know huge debate topic).  Some time in college it became the cool thing to not have a comma and I slowly switched over (I remember this being a big deal for me because I kept saying, "but there's supposed to be a comma there!").  Somehow that transferred into me dropping the comma before any and.  Ugh.

I apologize for my dozens of grammatically incorrect stories.  *shakes head in shame*

On top of that, I got to page 7 (of 19) and realized something was wrong with the plot.  At first I just thought I was confused in my own description of events.  See the group goes to implement this plan Jack devises to distract some Jaffa.  But I couldn't picture the geography as described.  I drew a little map and suddenly realized I screwed something up.

In my 1st draft I had a totally different scenario.  I changed it in the 2nd draft, making Jack's plan a completely different series of events.  But when I wrote the scene I reused some of the stuff from the first draft completely forgetting I changed the sequence.  D'oh.  So I had to spend ten minutes rewriting Jack's plan to match the actual events later in the story (easier than rewriting the entire section of the story).

I'm still only on page 7.  I still have a bunch of stories to finish.  Two are do tomorrow and a whole bunch of them due Saturday.  Today Owen and Brenna have eye appointments.  Brenna has worn glasses since she was 18 months and is long overdue for a checkup.  Owen's been complaining he can't see far away and he's the same age I was when I got my glasses.  That's going to take most of the afternoon.  And since I took a day off of cleaning yesterday the house is a wreck and I have to get it done today for my own sanity.  Sigh.  Can't wait to get this weekend over with.  I don't have any challenges due next week (at least not any I haven't already finished...yet).

Comments

[nymaeria.livejournal.com]

I think the thing with commas is to consider your audience. I mentioned them in my edits because that's how I learned it, and I'm also used to writing for scientific journals where the editors might snark at me (or just go in and add them anyway). But, after listening to Bill Bryson's Journeys in English several years ago I came away convinced that if one thing is true about language, it's that it's constantly evolving and changing. Bryson includes some funny quotes from people centuries ago about how the English language was just being "ruined" by things like the subjunctive tense - whereas now I can't imagine writing (or thinking or speaking) without "would, should, could." Ever since then, I can't help but think extreme grammar naziism is probably a waste of energy because it involves fixating not just on a particular set of rules, but on a particular time period as well.

It's probably more important to go with the current societal consensus, and that may depend on your audience. So, if you're writing for snarky journal editors, (or maybe applying for a job where older, possibly more traditional people will be reading your resume) a stricter convention might make sense. For a more relaxed audience of fiction writers, where creativity is more key, maybe clarity is really the most important thing.

But although I try to avoid extreme stances on grammar, I have to admit I'm still enough of a grammar nerd to find things like this incredibly hilarious :D

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'll have to take all that into consideration.

That link was hilarious. I was in tears laughing about the alot. My 5yo daughter is staring at me like I'm insane wanting to know what is so funny. I can't stop giggling.