I am very much in two minds about this. I don’t have any qualifications (I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and felt being forced to go to school from 13-16 was stealing my life) but have life experience.
I have read about grammar and do my very best to implement it correctly. But I fail. Often. My shortcomings should not impede my desire to share my knowledge though, be it in a book (9 at the last count) or on here. I feel I have knowledge that could help others. If I didn’t publish, people would miss out and that is a fact. I know this from the feedback I have had from my books, and how instrumental they have been in others careers.
I now just accept that my writing is what it is, and I try my best to be grammatically correct and make it flow. Are my sentences perfect? Far from it, but I would like to think they are acceptable and readable.
I do understand what you are saying though. I am a relatively successful photographer. I see below par images getting thousands of likes or comments everyday from the image illiterate. I just self acknowledge that not everyone can have the same skill sets, even with something as simple as pointing a camera/phone at a object or subject. How can they do it so badly!
David, I suspect your voice is just fine if people respond positively. I’m not a grammar cop. I started as an ad copywriter and one of the things I learned was that incorrect grammar had its place if it communicated the message! M
"After all they’re just words. You can make more." This is such a good attitude. It reminds me of what I often say to my woodworking students when they hesitate to move forward on a project for fear of damaging the piece on which they are working. "It's only wood. God keeps on making more trees all the time."
Thanks, Martin for sharing such helpful ideas with followers.
Thanks Steve, my brother had a high end cabinet shop and I wrote two business books for woodworkers back in the nineties so I can relate. Glad you enjoyed it. That is the truest sentence I could write about editing! M
I am very much in two minds about this. I don’t have any qualifications (I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and felt being forced to go to school from 13-16 was stealing my life) but have life experience.
I have read about grammar and do my very best to implement it correctly. But I fail. Often. My shortcomings should not impede my desire to share my knowledge though, be it in a book (9 at the last count) or on here. I feel I have knowledge that could help others. If I didn’t publish, people would miss out and that is a fact. I know this from the feedback I have had from my books, and how instrumental they have been in others careers.
I now just accept that my writing is what it is, and I try my best to be grammatically correct and make it flow. Are my sentences perfect? Far from it, but I would like to think they are acceptable and readable.
I do understand what you are saying though. I am a relatively successful photographer. I see below par images getting thousands of likes or comments everyday from the image illiterate. I just self acknowledge that not everyone can have the same skill sets, even with something as simple as pointing a camera/phone at a object or subject. How can they do it so badly!
David, I suspect your voice is just fine if people respond positively. I’m not a grammar cop. I started as an ad copywriter and one of the things I learned was that incorrect grammar had its place if it communicated the message! M
"After all they’re just words. You can make more." This is such a good attitude. It reminds me of what I often say to my woodworking students when they hesitate to move forward on a project for fear of damaging the piece on which they are working. "It's only wood. God keeps on making more trees all the time."
Thanks, Martin for sharing such helpful ideas with followers.
Thanks Steve, my brother had a high end cabinet shop and I wrote two business books for woodworkers back in the nineties so I can relate. Glad you enjoyed it. That is the truest sentence I could write about editing! M