Writing - Learning to Read and Write. Again.

I've never been ashamed to admit that my grammar and punctuation could be better, but I'm not exactly proud of it either. For someone who has been accused of talking like a dictionary or an alien (once, in a pub, by a stranger), I'm pretty hopeless.

Part of it stems from a shoddy education, part of it from my inability to concentrate on anything I was ever taught and there's a generous portion of laziness thrown in to boot. I can't help but suspect my brain is wired differently to many people or at least badly fused in several important areas. I distinctly remember being off ill at junior school when everyone learned joined-up writing. When I came back it was like Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, they were all writing like pod-people.

Typos, grammar errors and punctuation problems in my 'grown-up' writing stems from some of the above and my strange typing style which seems to almost bypass my conscious thoughts and puts down words how they sound, rather than how they are spelt. I then make a poor proofreader as Ben Clark could attest to in our work on Solar Wind.

I cannot under any circumstances however, use dyslexia as an excuse. I know people who are dyslexic, and I know that my problems aren't their problems.

If you think it's currently pretty bad or not that bad at all, then believe me when I say that ten years ago it was dreadful. I had some help then from a friend which has put me in good stead and have made some progress on my own since. Writing comics which have short sentences, dialogue and an overuse of ellipses and hyphens has meant the semi-colon has become a thing of superstitious dread. An Eldritch Old One whose hideous sign makes my mind wobble with uncomprehending terror.

The only time I use it is to wink at people ;)

And even then I feel funny.

So, finally frustrated with it all, I've decided to make the effort. I'm reading 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss (who would probably have a heart attack reading this blog) which is entertaining and mercifully brief. The title is based on a punctuation joke, and I was surprised to find it was the clean version. I shall also be attempting Kingsley Amis' 'The King's English' and Robert Graves' 'The Reader over your Shoulder' which have been gathering dust on my shelves for years (indeed, I'll have to check I haven't thrown them out in a previous fit of disgust). I only bought them because I thought that in liking their writing, I might not get too annoyed at what they had to say.

You may wonder what this has to do with you it's not your problem. Well, if you've been reading this blog, it IS your problem. Nobody likes to read anything chock full of mistakes and at the risk of attracting pedants everywhere, I'll be trying my best to avoid them.