Writing and editing, spelling and punctuating, wanting to be a writer …
I am quite frequently asked to look at other people’s work. A lot of the art work I see leaves me feeling humble, and a lot of it leaves me feeling glad … it is all a question of taste, I suppose, though some of the art work I am asked to glance at is so awful that I find it difficult to compose a reply. By the same token some if it is so good that I feel a right twit showing mine.
Today I was asked, for about the fifteenth time in the last four weeks, to look at somebody’s manuscript. Yet another person who wants to write a book. Step One, I always tell people, is to make sure you can spell and punctuate. If you cannot do that – do not attempt to go any further! There are several hundred steps after Step One, and if Step One is not right none of the others will follow.
Today’s request went like this:-
“I have been wrighting my book for about four year’s and I have got about half way. It is a story about a family who live in america and who buy a dashund for a chrismas present for one of there kids, it starts of in the winter just before the school holladays when all the kids are leaving their teacher’s at the end of the day and suddenly there is a explotion but none of the kids are hurt nor anything like that. Witch is lucky because it is nearly chrismas and they will be wanting there present’s.”
For a moment or two I wondered if this was supposed to be a joke. I looked at the author’s profile (note correct use of the apostrophe) and found that she is in fact a nursery teacher (the mind boggles) and – actually – a really talented musician. So talented, in fact, that she plays in a major national orchestra.
Stick to the music job, I wrote to her. I would love to be able to play an instrument – any instrument ! – the way you can. But, just as I cannot play a musical instrument, so you cannot write …
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Catherine Broughton is a novelist, a poet and an artist. She is widely travelled and writes regularly for magazines and blog sites. Her sketches are on her web site http://turquoisemoon.co.uk . Her books are available from Amazon and on Kindle, or can be ordered from several leading book stores.
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Catherine Broughton is a novelist, a poet and an artist. Her books are available as e-books on this site:-
https://payhip.com/b/tEva “A Call from France”
https://payhip.com/b/OTiQ “French Sand”
https://payhip.com/b/BLkF ”The Man with Green Fingers”
https://payhip.com/b/1Ghq “Saying Nothing”
They are also available on Amazon & Kindle, or can be ordered as paperbacks from most leading book stores and libraries.
If you enjoyed this item please share.
Catherine Broughton is a novelist, a poet and an artist. Her books are available as e-books on this site:-
https://payhip.com/b/tEva “A Call from France”
https://payhip.com/b/OTiQ “French Sand”
https://payhip.com/b/BLkF ”The Man with Green Fingers”
https://payhip.com/b/1Ghq “Saying Nothing”
They are also available on Amazon & Kindle, or can be ordered as paperbacks from most leading book stores and libraries.
For English grammar:-
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar
