Spell check
Spelling and grammar do matter, Jane Wenham Jones advises a reader, but not nearly as much as being able to tell a story
Jane Wenham Jones
TALK IT OVER
After years of dreaming about it, and creating worlds in my head, I have finally joined a writing group and begun a novel. I am loving the process and so far the feedback has been really good – others in my group say I am a natural storyteller and that they are looking forward to the next chapter each week. But it has also been pointed out that my spelling, grammar and punctuation are appalling! I did not have a great education and it is true that I know little about the rules of grammar – when somebody mentioned gerunds and infinitives he may as well have been speaking a foreign language. I rely heavily on spellchecker, frequently don’t know where to put the speech marks or apostrophes and I can feel some of my sentences are clumsy but I don’t know how to put them right. Will this prevent me – as was suggested – ever getting published?