Every Writer Knows Everything About Grammar
That's not true. Here's where writers go to double check their grammar. Plus, a few thoughts about learning to read like a writer, reading widely, where to find books, and outsider writers.
I learned my grammar intuitively, by reading,
which is to say that I often doubted my chosen grammar and my writing often had grammatical mistakes. Even now, after having studied English as an undergraduate in my thirties, after having obtained my MFA in creative writing, I still sometimes doubt my chosen grammar.
When I was in my MFA program one of my mentors told me that I needed to become a grammar nerd. She was definitely a grammar nerd, and I admired it. Her deep knowledge of grammar allowed her to write and give feedback with precision (we’ll talk about the importance of precision on another day).
I, on the other hand, childishly rejected grammar. Because I didn’t understand it (and because I was sometimes rudely corrected, which is its own [classist and often racist] issue), I had decided I was subversive in my shirking of grammatical rules.
Until I learned that those who are truly subversive know the rules of what they’re subverting inside and out. How can one “undermine the power and authority of an established institution” without knowing how that power and authority works?
The funny thing is, when I tried to take an undergraduate course on grammar (not literature or writing), it was cancelled because of lack of enrollment. As someone who now teaches writing and composition, I’ve learned that grammar is undervalued, which means its rules are often inaccessible to those who want to know them.
This is the first of many times I’ll share grammar and writing resources for those who would like to deepen their knowledge.
So, here are some resources that helped me, both before I made my way to college and now.
Grammar Girl
I listened to the Grammar Girl podcast a few times a week when I began taking my writing seriously in my late twenties. You can go to Mignon Fogarty’s website, too, where you’ll find all sorts of great resources.
The Elements of Style
This book is, in my opinion, essential for all writers. It is dry and very direct, which is what makes it great. Many style manuals are giant tombs but the slightness of this book is part of its accessibility. It addresses essential rules of punctuation and grammar, common words used in error, reminders for better style, and some matters of form. You can find used copies everywhere, for cheap!
The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab)
As a composition professor (yes, it’s possible to go from nearly failing high-school to teaching college composition!), the Purdue OWL was an invaluable resource both for myself and my students. It’s accessible, easy to follow, and has sections on both APA (American Psychological Association) Style, which is used mostly for social sciences and education fields, and MLA (Modern Language Association), used primarily for the humanities.
Not only are they a wonderful resource for grammar, but the site also has resources for resume writing, GED test-takers, and avoiding plagiarism. You can check out their site map and explore it yourself.
Other ways to embrace your grammar nerd.
Read Widely. This is the one essential piece of advice nearly every
successful write will tell you. There is no better way to fully inhabit and understand grammar and form than reading many, many books. Reading them and writing inside of them, being unafraid to underline and mark them up and decorate them with sticky notes. Whether you like, love, dislike, or hate a book, it has something to teach you.
Before I called myself a writer, my mother gave me the book Reading Like A Writer. I reluctantly accepted it, because she was my mother, and I assumed she was somehow criticizing me, but it ended up being an invaluable resource for me.
Yes, we can search grammar websites, listen to podcasts, and read books about writing and grammar, but if we aren’t insatiably curious about what the books, essays, or news articles (yes, news articles!) are doing, then we are missing out on really absorbing new ways of thinking and writing, and we aren’t truly exercising our critical thinking skills. In order to do something in our own writing, we need to understand how other writers have done it. This also goes for innovation. We cannot innovate without knowing what we are building upon, even if that “knowing” is more intuitive.
Something I love about writing is that intuition. Every writer is different, but the more I read (and watch films), the more inspired I am, and the easier it is for me to generate new ideas and be inspired to create different things.
George Saunders, who has his own Substack, wrote a terrific (terrific is a word he uses, which I find endearing, though he would never use it to describe his own work) book about reading and writing based on the class he teaches at the Syracuse MFA, called The Russians. I took the class myself, and I’ll say that the book is an excellent replacement and resource for anyone who is interested in story writing.
Speaking of Russian writers, I have found it incredibly
helpful to read widely not only through genres (nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, short stories, novels, essays, poetry etc.) but also geographically. Early on in my life as a reader I sought out texts from places that were underrepresented in mainstream (read white, western, straight) literature. I’ve especially enjoyed learning about Japanese literature (specifically Japanese short stories, which are made from a very different formula), Chinese novel forms, Caribbean short stories, Czech farce and dark comedy, literature from India, and South African and Nigerian Literature, amongst many others.
Seek writers writing outside of the mainstream, both alive and long gone.
“Mainstream” is a funny word to me. It assumes that there is one stream, when culturally, especially here in the United States, we have many cultures/streams. I wonder, who would you call a mainstream writer here in the United States?
I think that, in order to be a well-rounded writer (and human), I must step outside of what feels easy to me. I’ve had this opinion since a very young age, and I’ve always sought work and perspectives outside of my own, as outlined above. But I also think that means, for me, continuing to read books that feel challenging, and even finishing books I don’t necessarily like, or that make me feel uncomfortable. Pinpointing that dislike or discomfort is important for me, and I more often than not come away having learned something new about myself. At the least, when it comes to a book or a piece of writing I dislike, I can figure out why I dislike it, and work not to repeat those mistakes in my own work.
Many “outsider” writers are now well-known names of literature. Take Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick. Although Melville experienced some success with novels that he himself said he wrote simply for the prestige, his most prolific work, the one he poured his heart into, was roundly rejected. It didn’t slap. For the rest of his life Melville struggled emotionally and financially.
It wasn’t until the early 20th Century that scholars began to recognize the allegorical nature of Moby Dick, and its importance in the Canon.
Other writers who come to mind when I think of “outsiders” are Franz Kafka, Sylvia Plath (who was recognized for her poetry while alive, but whose work was not fully appreciate until after she was gone), Lucia Berlin, Kathy Acker, Kate Chopin, James Purdy, Katherine Dunn, Zora Neale Hurston, Harry Crews, Octavia Butler, William Melvin Kelley, and Henry Darger.
When I think of the mainstream, as a queer nonbinary person, and as someone who was raised as a girl and woman, I think of the Canon. Many of us were taught books and texts written primarily by white, mostly straight, men. This is especially true for Millennials and older, but even now books written by people living in marginalized identities are at much higher risk for banning.
I still remember the first moments I realized how many of my favorite authors, like John Updike, Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, along with the authors I’d been forced to read in school, had a hand in forming my own internalized misogyny, not to mention racism, if there ever were any non-white people featured prominently in their books. How the authors I admired would not necessarily admire me back.
This isn’t me saying these authors are terrible or their books are bad (though some of them are!). It’s me saying that we need to consciously look outside of them. Especially if we are straight white men. I am still flabbergasted when I meet white male writers who don’t actively seek out women, LGBTQ, and non-white writers.
Where to look for books:
Your Local Library and Librarians
Twitter, where there is a huge writing community, and many authors announce their book releases.
Your local, independent bookstore(s)!
Have more suggestions? Leave them in the comments!
