Can you get a novel published if your grammar ain’t no good? That’s a good question and it deserves a better answer than a mere “yes” or “no.”
Elizabeth posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:
My question is about grammar. I’ve just started to take my writing seriously and noticed that my grammar is not all that great and needs some real improvement. I’ve tried reading grammar books, but they seem to confuse me as to what I should do. Do you have any suggestions on this? I know I need to have good grammar to get published later on in life.
Randy sez: This is a good time to talk about your strengths and your weaknesses. Everybody has strengths. Everybody has weaknesses. Is it better to focus on the strengths or the weaknesses?
Strengths are those things that you do Xtremely well. An editor says “yes” to your book because of your strengths. But no writer on the planet is strong in everything. Some writers are strong on plot and only mediocre on character. Some are the opposite. Some writers shine on dialogue. Some on their creation of a compelling Storyworld. Readers have different tastes, but they typically gravitate to writers who are strong in what they like, even if they’re not so strong in other areas. If you’re going to get published, you need to be strong in at least one area.
Weaknesses are those things that you do Xtremely badly. An editor says “no” to your book because of your weaknesses. A weakness is a show-stopper, and you will find it very hard to get published if you have any serious weaknesses.
The strategy I teach for improving as a writer is the two-pronged approach:
- Identify your strengths and find ways to make them even stronger. Never outsource this, because if something is truly your strength, then it’s almost impossible to find somebody else who could do it better than you do.
- Identify your weaknesses and find ways to bring them up to the acceptable level. Don’t waste time trying to turn a weakness into a strength. That would be pointless and would waste vast amounts of time. Either find a resource that can teach you how to make your weaknesses at least acceptable, or else outsource this task.
Just as an example, if I were back in high school and wanting to go out for a sport, it would be idiotic to try for the weightlifting team (I’m a beanpole and always will be) or the baseball team (my eyesight is too bad). But my lean physique makes me a good candidate for the track team and I’d be ideal for the 5k, 10k, or marathon. It would make all kinds of sense to do mostly endurance training (my strength), with just enough weight training (my weakness) to give me a decent finishing sprint, and with no attempt at all to improve my eyesight (my other weakness).
Now moving on to Elizabeth’s actual question, her weakness is grammar. Elizabeth, you have two choices:
Door #1: Improve your grammar to the point where it’s acceptable. You’ve tried this and it isn’t working. Stop trying.
Door #2: Hire a freelance copyeditor or proofreader to bring your grammar up to snuff. This seems to make the most sense to me.
The bottom line on weaknesses: Either get the help you need to become acceptable, or outsource it to somebody for whom it’s a strength.
The bottom line on strengths: Focus a substantial amount of your effort on becoming world-class in your strength. Most of the rewards go to those who are really, really, really good in one particular thing. Remember that nobody can possibly be really, really, really good in everything. Pick one strength or two and focus your efforts on those.
If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.
Seconding the recommendation for Door #2 here.
Reading a book on grammar is a lot like being force-fed tofu-flavored rice cakes.
It’s good for you but it’s also dry, boring, and most folks end up dreaming of bacon double cheeseburgers before they really see any significant benefit from it.
(What, you don’t dream of bacon double cheeseburgers when studying grammar?)
The BEST thing about hiring a freelance copyeditor or proofreader is that they should not only point out grammar snafus – they also tell you WHY it flagged their attention.
It’s easier to stay focused, pay attention, and learn your grammar when it’s applied directly to something you’ve written. The “lessons” are keyed directly to the way you write and the mistakes you make most often.
Elizabeth,
Being in a writer’s critique group might also help. A critique group usually has at least one grammarian and the group can point out what’s wrong and suggest a correction. This way, you’re learning with your own work. And if you have to try to explain to another writer why a particular sentence doesn’t work, you’ll learn to spot these errors in your own writing.
After that and before you submit, you can hire a proofreader or copyeditor.
Lizzie, you do not need to be afraid, especially if grammar is your only area of weakness. I suggest you simply get yourself a proofreader, just as Randy has advised. I can boldly say that my grammar is quite good. But that does not absolve me, completely, from the common flaws of writers. One thing you should know, however, is that the grammar of even some of the world’s most celebrated novelists aint no good at all. It may sound ridiculous, but it is just the truth. Moreover, you may be even better than them, after all.
Thanks Randy. Thanks to Obinna too. Grammar is my only weakness that I know of. Although it does cause other problems in my stories sometimes because it makes it hard to read. This really helped me. I think I’ll go with option two. I’m tired of trying to make my grammar better. At least I now know that if I stop focusing on my grammar as much I will have more time to write and work on my strengths.
Elizabeth, I don’t know how much you read, but reading tons seems to help so many of us pick up style, voice, rhythm, grammar, etc. Sort of by osmosis, through your fingertips. I don’t think there’s such a thing as reading too much. 🙂
You can also play with & customize the settings in your word program to alert you to grammar issues, that way you can see your own problem areas before you’ve written an entire book with the same issue. JM2C. 🙂
Practice, practice, practice …
Few Olympic gymnasts were born flipping and twirling. The problem with poor grammar is most people’s poor grammar is different from your poor grammar; though their writing habits are far from perfect, they will conclude from your peculiar gaffes that they are smarter than you. Readers want to believe an author has something positive to contribute to their lives, and they won’t believe that if they think they’re smarter than you.
Camille was spot on; a writer only reads too much if the reading precludes the writing. But keep a dictionary handy, and use it. And read aloud. If you hear yourself speaking well, you will develop a sense of grammatical correctness, even if you don’t know the rules.
A really good book on grammer, that doesn’t dry out your eyeballs, is Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. It’s an English book, though, so there maybe small differences if you are submitting to American editors.
I would have a serious think about how bad your grammer is. An English teacher recently looked at one of my short stories and told me there were some grammer faults but she wouldn’t change them because they added to the voice of the piece. Sometimes erroneous grammer is a quirk of your voice that will be lost to a proofreader so make sure you find one sympathetic to your style. It’s up to you to ‘murder your darlings’ not someone else. DH 😀