Wisdom from Teh List

[lyssie]

However, I am
not going to spend hours worrying over whether or not I spell
everything correctly and get all the grammer correct in the
narative. After all, that is not what counts. The only thing that
matters in a story is if the writer can get the story across to the
reader. If the writing flows in a readable manner and has something
remotely like a beginning, middle and end, I don't give a...if it is
written in one long unpunctuated paragraph.


You heard it here first, people, spelling? Don't worry about it. Punctuation? Passe. Grammar? For Nazis.

As long as there's some sort of flow (which, I've got to know, how the FUCK do you have flow without ANY PUNCTUATION/SPELLING/GRAMMAR?), it doesn't matter if the story is an unreadable block of paragraph.

CAN I PLEASE KILL THE STUPID FUCKERS WITH MY MIND?

Comments

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Can I help?

Please?

Gina

[jacksrubberduck.livejournal.com]

I will provide blunt instruments of torture.

And sell tickets. :)

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Good. Can I have 5% of the profits?

[antiwesley.livejournal.com]

Now you know why I __________________________________!

(Fill in the blank with the appropriate Kris comment that is applicable to the subject.)

And yes, you can kill them.
Clean up the fandom gene pool. It's a good thing.

[meeshy.livejournal.com]

Now I remember why I'd rather spork my own eyes out than read new people in fandom!! (The sane ones excluded from that statement, of course!)

[jacksrubberduck.livejournal.com]

But of course.

I'm thinking we could possibly set up a 'society for the prevention of cruelty to language' with the rest.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Good plan. *plots world domination*

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

Yay!

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is, I don't think this was from a newbie.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Yes. I've even got a spoon for that.

Alibi! I knew there was something I was forgetting. Hrm... "Officer, I'll have you know I was watching Battlestar Galactica at that time."

[meeshy.livejournal.com]

Oh dear lord. Again with the why I don't read fic any more.

[ancarett]

Oh, I've been on the receiving end of that type of justification. There are reasons I don't attempt to read certain fanwriters' stories any more. . . .

[morwen_peredhil]

With your mind or with a blunt object. I'm with you either way.

[kellifer-k.livejournal.com]

It's times like these you need a cattle prod and the will to use it.

Or just a sharp, pointy stick.

No.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

You cannot kill her with your mind.

You must use large and painful implements. And slow torture.

Starting with the frozen sperm whale.

[ilanala]

I'm willing to forgive an occasional typo, bad grammar or awkward phrasing if the story is interesting enough to distract me from it, but it's very rare that it doesn't at least temporarily distract me (unless my brain is in auto-correct mode and I fix it as I read). A story with consistent spelling/grammar issues had better be amazingly good for me to keep reading. And I don't care if something is the most brilliant piece of writing ever, but I'm not going to read it if it's all one paragraph. Just, no.

Please, do kill them.

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

Has this person ever tried to read a four-page long block of text with not breaks or punctation? Because all I get from that is a headache. *smites with you*

[cleverocity.livejournal.com]

a readable manner

I do not think this means what they think it means.

[sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com]

CAN I PLEASE KILL THE STUPID FUCKERS WITH MY MIND?

Please do. If you did that, then there'd be ever so much more room on this planet for the rest of us. No more traffic jams, no more really long lines at the grocery store....

[lavidaessueno.livejournal.com]

*smites them all with evil editor wand of doom*

[scarfman]

No, you may not kill them. Paying them even that much attention only encourages them.

[qwirky.livejournal.com]

How can someone *read* anything that has bad grammar and no punctuation?

[thekatebeyond.livejournal.com]

My, but the idiots are out in full force today. My initial plan was that we exile them all to an island somewhere, but then I realized that there are so many more of them than us. Why don't we exile ourselves to a nice tropical island with maids and cabana boys? We can get SFF by satellite.

[velvetandlace.livejournal.com]

Kill them. Kill them now. SAVE GRAMMAR AND LANGUAGE FROM THE DIM-WITTED!

[ebneter.livejournal.com]

Please, kill them. I, too, volunteer to help.

Of course, I'm so anal-retentive, I proofread and correct my instant messages...

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

Total. Fucking. Moron.

That is all.

[wenshar.livejournal.com]

You'll also have to kill the enablers those who send feedback of positive awe to such fics. Please. *slides hot poke towards Lyssie*

Technically, that could be correct...

[beverly-mcintyr.livejournal.com]

However, you need to have the appropriate skills and understanding of grammar, spelling, and other writing techniques. Experimental fiction is all right if you have the skills to back it up and the understanding of the conventions you are discarding.

As someone with a degree in writing, I can understand the gist behind that thought, but it is not something someone should tackle until they have mastered getting a story across plainly.

And for the writing to flow in a readable manner, one needs to use grammar. You see, grammar makes things readable because it conforms the language into a pattern that most people can understand. It is a part of the commonality of written expression. So what counts as a writer is being understood to get your story across.

There is a point that this person could write this way, however they would have to make this point with correct grammar and punctuation to begin with.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

My IM client autospellchecks as you type. I can't decide if the red squiggly lines annoy me, or allow me to not be so anal about proofreading.