Boy, do I got'em!
I have no doubt about that! Between the blog and the newspaper column and the kindle works and the self-published novel and the self-published memoir, I've exposed a lot of inadequacies. I'll discuss a few some others have mentioned, and some I've noticed myself.
BIG WORDS
This is one someone noted recently. I respectfully disagree. I strive to keep my writing as basic and direct as possible. Some might feel it is too simple. I have never been too flowery or over-descriptive. I have read some authors who can take three pages to describe a sofa. I usually describe it in two words - a sofa. Or, if I get real fancy, three words - a big sofa.
That said, I'm sure that in some of the political pieces, like the Saturday Soap Boxes, I might use concepts that are not common to every one. Not every one is well-versed in politics, or our base civic knowledge. So it is not impossible that I might take off on something not everyone is familiar with.
In poetry, I don't use big words, but I will MAKE UP words. That's one of the reasons I call it fake poetry. I express myself without regard to to any set rules about poetry. I'm not the first one to revel in made up words - e.e. cummings and Ogden Nash did the same thing.
That said, if any one reads something I wrote that they consider too high-falutin', please call me out. I'll be glad to consider changing it.
GRAMMAR
What's that siren I hear? Oh, no! It's the grammar police coming to take me away!
Oh, yeah. I gots a problem. Me and Grammar (Grammar and I?) are in a very shaky relationship.
You'll find the most grammar misteaks on my blog. It is done early in the morning, and the edit time for it is strictly limited. That might change, as I am now semi-retired, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
The newspaper columns go through a second edit, and it often change quite a bit. Sometimes the edits get posted back to the blog. Sometimes they don't.
The books only on Kindle are edited by me several times, but they have not been reviewed by outsiders. Here Comes Tommy has not been grammar reviewed by outsiders. Reading it the other day, I found another grammar mistake. Subsequent editions will make whatever corrections I and others find.
History of the Trap and Crowley Stories (finished, but not yet published), were reviewed by me dozens of times, and by a professional editor, and by beta readers (people who read in advance of publication to make comments and suggest changes). Still, I know, stuff slips through. I was reading a best-selling history book, that had to have gone through many levels of edits, only to find something slip through that I commonly do (form instead of from). So, basically, editing is a never-ending process.
Grammar also is a strange beast. Unlike math, no matter how precise the rules are written, they are only a current codification of how a language is supposed to work. English is a living, breathing language, and grammar is only a best guess interpretation as to how the language is really being used at a particular moment in time. It is an explanation of things, more than it is a fixed, never-changing set of rules.
I use spell & grammar check on Word. But honestly, on the grammar part, sometimes I overrule what it asks me to do. The suggestions don't always make sense, and I'd rather say things in a more colloquial and less-structured manner. I ain't gonna stop using ain't, no matter how often it's pointed out that it's not a real word.
That said, please help me spot errors where you find them. And I intend to get the Grammarly program. Although, I can't promise you I'll always do what it says.
POLITICAL VIEWPOINT
Everything is political. Everything. It's impossible to get away from. Even refusing to comment politically is a political comment. You can't get away from it.
Some of my blog stories are very political. They get labeled Saturday Political Soap Box. Others may also have politics in them - I give them, as one of their labels, politics.
It creeps through in other blog stories, but not in explicit detail. It is possible to be very conservative and still find plenty of stuff that I write that you can enjoy. I've had some conservative readers say, that although they disagree with me, they still enjoy reading my perspective. And really, who could ask for more than that?
Here Comes Tommy, Eric Reid and the Time Team, Through the Closet and Into the Woods - all are not very political. History of the Trap is not explicitly political, although I would say it has elements of sociology and psychology.
Crowley Stories are not primarily political, but they do present some progressive characters and situations. My Europa, a completed short I am still editing, is very political, but I feel like it presents a more optimistic version of where our political system could go (it's set in the 2030s).
MORE
Oy. I'm just getting started, but this is running too long. I try not to let individual blog entries run too long. I'm highly conscious that most readers now have shorter attention spans, and read shorter articles on the interwebs, It's good to keep things in digestible bites. I even follow that rule in my longer works - breaking into chapters, chapter parts, and individual stories into digestible chunks.
I'll try to get back another time to discuss more, including point of view, tense problems, stage directions, character feelings, and more!
I'll keep writing. I got no other choice - it's in my blood now, and it's what I love to do - for better or worse. I hope to do well enough to keep as many readers on board as possible, and maybe make enough where I can continue to phase out of accounting.
But whether that happens or not - I'm not stopping.
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