The meditations of G.B. Lindsey

A few years ago, while wandering through Borders (RIP, darling), I came across a book from a writer I'd never heard of before, the cover art of which induced me to lift it off the shelf and take a closer look. The blurb on the back was equally awesome: Sci-fi, futuristic, with a fascinating apocalyptic premise. I bought it then and there, took it home, and read.

And was sorely disappointed.

Not because the premise wasn't what it was cracked up to be. It was. Not because the story itself wasn't intriguing. It was. Not because the research wasn't sound. I'm sure it was.

I was disappointed because the writing let me down.

Now, plot development and characterization aside, I feel there is a distinct importance to the way a story is technically told. In the case of the above book, the problem lay in overt cliche and bland phrasing and word choice, but on a much more bare-bones front, grammar, spelling, and punctuation are also incredibly important. I fear this necessity is being overlooked more and more these days, especially in this age of immediate internet publication (i.e., start a blog/website, post, and tada! Written work!) And I have no problem with netspeak or e.e.cummingsing it up because I will be the first to agree: it's easier. Faster. Takes less effort and still usually gets the basic point across. When I'm texting on my phone, for instance, I don't usually stop to capitalize or punctuate everything, and I use numbers in place of letters with the best of them. I cut corners.

Let there be a caveat, however: How much would you, a reader, trust an author if he or she couldn't properly spell as many as three words in a thousand-word article?

Let's take the unofficially published stuff out of the equation for a moment. I have been in the middle of a fantastic hardback novel only to be confronted by spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, repetitive wording, incorrect punctuation or the ever-popular mistaken homonym (their/there/they're, etc, thanks a lot, spell-check). And there is no faster way to make me immediately start questioning the author's expertise and dedication, and therefore, the reasons why I should even be reading said book.

I have a life, time I'd like to use wisely and profitably. Things to do and lots of books on my to-read list. So maybe this nitpicky-ness makes me a snob, but then again, why should it? I feel the phrase actually being sought here is "having certain standards".

Becaaaauuuuuse... let's take that caveat and change it from "article" to "medical article". Starts putting things into perspective, doesn't it? I certainly would wonder about a doctor who can't even be bothered to put his or her work through a proper edit, and the reason is this: you can have the most interesting subject, the soundest research, the best story in the world, but if you cannot convey it comprehensively to a reader, that gem will be lost. Maybe not entirely, but in some way, some part of it will disappear.

There are amazing stories out there. Amazing. Not just published, but written all over the web, in fanfic, in blogs, in journals, in parody, on news sites... Everywhere. So many of them suffer, however, from the author's inability, or (and much worse) unwillingness to convey the essence of what he or she is writing.

The internet gives us an incredible connection to people of different countries, languages and backgrounds. It's an aspect I treasure, and I understand that there will be differences and mistakes and misunderstandings, that not all people write in the same language or style and that this is the reason for most of the miscommunication on this front. I'm not asking for some universal language requirement, and I'm certainly not asking people to tailor their writing for an 'English speaking world' or whatever the heck. I just want to stress the importance of knowing how to convey a story technically as well as artfully, especially if you want to publish it for the world at large, because it is a damn shame when something so beautiful loses its potency because of spelling errors and inattention to detail.

Thoughts?

I feel very privileged to have been interviewed recently by Darcy Moon, a good friend of mine, a talented writer with a keen knack for world development and unique characterization, and a dedicated blogger. Please come and read the interview here, and then stay and treat yourself to Darcy's writing blog, Silver Cup of Snow, an introspective study of the craft and its role in her daily life, as well as the projects on which she is currently hard at work. Darcy is a boundary pusher, and the results are always delightful.

...is all the little bits of research you end up doing. Running times, the anatomy of a gun, epileptic symptoms, neurotransmitters, law enforcement offices... Once I found myself going into detail on Ford F350 Super Duties. It's very similar to how a friend of mine once described her aspirations for acting: taking lots of lessons in lots of subjects so she could be fairly knowledgeable in as many fields as possible.

I think about Michael Crichton, one of my favorite writers (rest in peace), and how much fun he must have had while looking up dinosaur science/quantum mechanics/nanotechnology/gorilla family interaction/insert awesome notion here, and it just makes me enjoy it all the more. As writers, we get to find out a little bit about a lot of things, within a very short and condensed time frame. Even the most mundane research takes on an element of enjoyment once I've gotten firmly into it.

So much inspiration to be had out there.