{"id":122,"date":"2014-04-08T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2014\/04\/08\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_8\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:16","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_8\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nI
\nmentioned recently, that I\u2019ve been pondering why some writers couldn\u2019t care
\nless about the ins and outs of grammar and punctuation. In fact, some authors
\ntend to view grammar and punctuation as a rudimentary part of the art of
\nstorytelling.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI
\ndisagree.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWhen an
\nartist learns to paint, there are details he must study. I\u2019m not an artist, but
\nlight and shadow seem important. Also, a painter must have knowledge of the
\nprimary colors and which colors to blend for a different shade. What about
\nperspective? An artist must decide what is best to bring into the painting.
\nOnly then can he bring his vision to life on the canvas.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nLikewise,
\na musician who does not start with the fundamentals will never be able to truly
\ncapture the music and make it his own.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nGrammar
\nand punctuation are similar to light and shadow for the artist and scales and
\nchords to the musician. They are the basis for the art of storytelling. Knowing
\nthe far from rudimentary portion of storytelling is the first step toward
\nmastery.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nFrom an
\neditor\u2019s standpoint, an author who presents a knowledge of grammar and
\npunctuation is an author who cares about his craft. He gets an edge up over the
\ncompetition.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nEditors
\nwill also be more understanding when an author breaks the rules of grammar and
\npunctuation if the author first shows a clear understanding of the rule. After
\nall, to break a rule effectively, one must truly understand it.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAuthors
\nwho don\u2019t under the rules are often misled. For example, there are authors who
\ntake out ever that<\/i> in their manuscript.
\nWhy? Because they were told it\u2019s a weasel word. However, some sentences require
\nthat<\/i> for clarity of the sentence.
\nThis and similar misunderstandings are a sign to an editor that the author isn\u2019t
\nserious about the basics of his craft. How does it expose the writer? He didn\u2019t
\ncare enough to learn the rule himself. He simply mimicked the misunderstanding
\nof another.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIn my
\npondering on this subject, I reached a conclusion: an author who does not study
\nthe basics of his craft must believe that he is a pupil in a lesser art.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHappy
\nediting.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned recently, that I\u2019ve been pondering why some writers couldn\u2019t care less about the ins and outs of grammar and punctuation. In fact, some authors tend to view grammar and punctuation as a rudimentary part of the art of storytelling. I disagree. When an artist learns to paint, there are details he must study. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[67,21,32,73,70],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-editing","tag-editing-advice","tag-grammar","tag-punctuation","tag-self-editing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}