GRAMMAR: To Edit or Not to Edit

So, I have started this blog, and already I have had offers of editing my grammar!  Lets look at that.  I may not be a writer as such, however I have been a practicing artist for years.  In the previous blog I touched on the creative experience.  Just a rambling as I suggest by my blog's name.  So now, lets look at grammar.

Do I know sentences don't start with conjunctions?  Do I know what a gerund is?  Or an article...perhaps the 8 parts of speech or a all the other wonderful nuances of  English grammar? How about run on sentences?  Hope so since I studied grammar and just came back from spending a year teaching it in Thailand!

The thing is, if I were to get after my students for every mistake they made, they would never speak or write at all!  You have to find the balance and the appropriate time for editing.  And I don't feel this blog is it!  Sure, I check spelling as best I can and I do as much as I can to not develop too many bad habits, however I am doing this to have fun and I want others to also!  Add to this all the times words get edited by auto-check and wow, it goes on and on!  I seldom read a book now without finding errors. If you are editing in your head every word in these blogs, I feel sad for you, it is like me now and paintings.  I cannot remember the last time I looked at a painting without critiquing it in my head!  I refuse to that with my writing.  I know the rules and I will apply when necessary however not with a fine tooth comb here!  I am WRITING this and letting the thoughts flow.   There are reasons for not spending my time hung up on every word in every sentence or the structure of things.  

​There is a wonderful painter and teacher  named Robert Henri.  He wrote a book called "The Art Spirit".  He lived a while ago however the points he makes in his philosophy on painting was not lost on me.

I am not going to quote word for word but basically one of the things he talks about making many beginnings.  That it is important to work the entire painting because if you are not willing to and get caught up in one little area, the rest will suffer and you might as well cut out that precious little painted piece and make it its own painting. (see, I know "it's" is the contraction form and "its" is the possessive form! lol!).

There is more to writing than just grammar, and sometimes editing has to be sacrificed on the altar of ideas such as flow, voice, intention, audience and style.  As time goes on, I will be more careful with my grammar however right now, I am just getting into it.  I feel it is more important to do it, then to get all caught up in the details.

I know someone I have heard called an art snob.  She used to make frames, went to the same art school as me, and not that long ago was pooh poohing a little shop where locals sold their wares.  She suggested it was scandalous they put Dollar-store frames on their work.  I thought this was terrible, to make such a critical statement based on one thing such as a simple frame!

If everyone felt judged in such a harsh manner, no one would ever create anything!  I have made it clear I am a newbie, and that my intent is not heavy yet still there has to be judgement.  And if your going to write or paint or participate in any activity that goes public, GET USED TO IT!

However (oops started with a conjunction!) forget what others are saying, or what the critic in your head is saying, JUST WRITE!  Communicate!  Some of the best talks and stories I have had were with people I met waiting in line!

I have written the first draft of a manuscript.  Am I going to assume every word is precious?  Every idea fits, and all is well? OF COURSE NOT!  If I were to do every detail while painting a portrait of a house without making sure of the perspective, where would I be?  A lovely painting of a crooked house! (unless I wanted that then that is another matter!).  If I sketch it on the canvas, and it is too big, would I leave it?  No, hopefully not!  Sometimes you look at a painting later and see a grave error and go back to the thing, but if you make a point of roughing it in, then looking at it and then working it, and then looking again editing where you need to, then, in art speak, you create a history.  It shows in the piece AS LONG AS YOU KNOW WHEN TO STOP and I think the same is true of writing.  I will touch on this again in another blog since I may not be the world's greatest writer, but I have learned a thing or two about the creative endeavours..

In closing, if you are writing, or worried your not good enough, take consolation in the fact there is always someone out there to edit your ideas.  What is precious is the fact you have desire and have ideas.  The rest can come.  And if (oops, did it again!), someone is critical, that is no big deal.  That is what they are into.  Doesn't matter. In a while you will see a progression in my grammar but that is all part of the journey I should think!  We all cannot start at the end!  Writing and life doesn't work that way.  

Carry on writing, enjoy, and don't be daunted by the critic or the blank page.  After all, that is all it is,, a critic and a blank page!