How important is grammar?

Cfpub, I will rewrite Page 5 to be the end of the story and I will send it to you. Februs what is minimum requirements to you, are confusing and tedious to me. I'm still not sure when to do the speech marks. When I did put them in the story where I thought they should go, I didn't know when to add commas or not. It's easy for you, but difficult for me to grasp how do it properly. I'll make page 5 the ending of the story.

What is confusing and tedious is trying to read something which is jumbled and unclear. As for speech marks you open them when someone says something in your story and close them again when they finish. I'm sure you must already know this as virtually every piece of writing that features dialogue which you will have read will have been written that way. It's not in any way a complex issue. Here is an example from one of the parts you sent us:


Although with a little effort it's possible to decipher which character is saying what you typically end up re-reading the text as one minute you are reading the speech of one person and then without warning it's switched to someone else. Imagine how much more confusing this would be if 3 or more characters were involved in the dialog.

Cfpub, part 5 has been emailed to you with the ending changed to be THE END. Please include yourself as an author on this part of the story. Thanks for making this work. My story writing days are officially over.

We'd better add Linda to Parts 1 to 4 then

spankdaddy

Why not just take a look at the first four parts of your story, which are now edited. I'm sure you will see the difference. And don't worry about the commas - all we are asking is that your put in speech marks/double quotation/marks/inverted commas/whatever you want to call them, and take a new line when a different person speaks.

We will deal with the commas.

Oh come on, don't get all huffy. You've got a lot more in you yet.

I don't mind if Linda gets added for her help on getting my parts 1 - 4 published.

Linda said - all we are asking is that your put in speech marks/double quotation/marks/inverted commas/whatever you want to call them,

Linda, it's easy for you to say this because you know where to put them. I'm not a writer. If I were reading these stories aloud they wouldn't have speech marks and people would understand them.
Why can't people understand them if they read them without speech marks? The story would still be the story with or without the speech marks.

I would of never tried writing a story had I known it would be this complicated. I am sorry that I don't have the level of education required to meet your story standards. I just write what I think of in my head and rely on Microsoft Word to find the spelling mistakes and I do my best at making it sound good. I read and re-read my stories and make changes before submitting them. I even read them aloud to see how they sound. The fact is I'm pretty pleased with what I hear. I'm sorry that I'm just not smart enough to write for this forum.

You have made your point spankdaddy, several times in fact. Perhaps it is time to move on now!

Ok, I give in. You don't want to write any more, that's your choice. You have been offered an incredible amount of help and encouragement here, probably more than any other author, but you don't want to learn. You won't even look at what's been done to parts 1 - 4, to see if you could pick up some hints.

And don't give me the 'I'm too old to learn' rubbish. I'm about the same age as you and I'm still learning new things. (I'm sure Februs will attest to the the fact that I was a computer numpty when I came to this site - but I am learning.)

Note: This post reflects the writer's personal view, and in no way represents the opinions of the Library Staff.

Linda, you are right. I don't want to learn. I don't see the point in learning. Writing isn't for everyone. I tried it and because of all the style rules I don't like it. I didn't like English writing in high school and I sure as hell don't like it now. I wish I had never started Part 1. If my stories aren't acceptable the way they are written so be it.