Forward March!
I literally realised five minutes before typing this sentence that there was no picture of me on my blog! So, that's me above. At the time I was setting out on a journey I'd covered twice before — National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). That's my old computer who got me through last November and then tragically died, taking with it four years of uni work, three novels and countless short stories. I didn't expect that my computer would die, as evidenced by the fact that I never backed up my work. I also never expected that last November would be the start of the flurry that I had been waiting for: after writing my novel in November I thought I would have a break and then edit it for a few months. Obviously, having lost the entire novel I could no longer do that but I found something more. I started getting involved in a local writers group and submitting short stories to publications. I was published simultaneously as a writer and editor, getting all of the firsts away in one fell swoop. Then I submitted more. I faced the fear of rejection (I was rejected, too, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected), the dizzying thrill of the wait for a reply and the utter joy of acceptance. It's been a crazy ride guys and if you're putting it off I can only tell you what you already know: it's going to be scary, fun, crazy, exciting and in the end you just might get published so get going!
To see my published journal contact the Geelong Writers.
To see the awesome collaboration novel I'm in (you can read it for free online) go here.
1 Word Back
Back to Basics
There's been a lot of charts popping up on the net about grammar and spelling. Yes, these charts have been around for a while, and yes, they do target the same things (the obligatory apostrophe section and the ever-present section on 'their, there they're' and 'your and you're'). The oatmeal probably do the best ones in that they are correct while being entertaining (did you know that dolphins get run over by jet skis if you misspell 'weird'?). I'm actually glad that these things are around - they're a great chance for people who are unsure of their grammar and spelling to get bite-sized lessons. On the other hand, we really shouldn't need these. I did all of my primary and high school education while only encountering grammar in one class: Greek class. That's right, I did thirteen years of schooling at a sub-tertiary level and I only learned grammar when it related to another language. For all that I still had good grammar but it was no fault of the school system; I just read so much that I knew what sentences looked like. When I got to university and had to take grammar tests (they do this for students in Professional and Creative Writing) I did well on them except when it came to the 'why'. In fact, my only 'why' was 'because it looks wrong'. I've since studied editing and put myself through hell trying to learn all of the things I should have known my whole life. There can be no doubt that I would have had a much easier run if I had learned grammar from an early age. There can also be no doubt that if grammar and spelling were taught in early schooling there would be no need for the charts around the web.
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