Boris Diaw Is Not A Verb, Jerk

When I tell people I'm a writer, most people are justifiably nonplussed. It's a pretty vague term that can apply to writing anything from the most interesting fiction in the world, sports articles, local news stories, plays, directions to how to properly work a Kindle Fire (starting to get pretty good with it, by the way), etc. It's kind of equivalent to saying your a musician without clarifying what instrument you play and what genre in which you dabble. (For some reason I thought of an AfroDJMack of Patchogue when I wrote that sentence, so shout out to that guy, whom I don't know as a person at all.) Anyway, when I do share a bit more about what I write, reactions kind of vary, with most people being politely interested and whatnot, but every now and again, you get people who seem to be intimidated by it.

Now, obviously, no one literally curls into a fetal position at my mention of my less-than-profitable profession, (Usually, it's my top notch physical condition which causes that) but people, at times, seem to tense up a bit and apologize for their grammar, or if they send me something to read and/or edit, they apologize for errors in advance. The point of this post is to tell people to relax. I'm not just talking about myself here, but more in general.

It bugs me to no end when I see people called out on their grammar, punctuation, and even spelling in public forums and things like that. I mean, clearly gratuitous issues in any of those areas is something that an author or speaker should address in order to make sure their thoughts are being conveyed effectively, but the quality of a person's ideas should never be measured by whether or not the correct "your" is used and your knowledge of where commas should be placed. Frankly, I believe anyone who looks at that stuff under a microscope outside of a professional workplace and makes other people feel inferior as a result is a sad person without much to contribute to the actual topic at hand. If they do have actual opinions to add beyond corrections and still shoot people down, then they're insensitive people.

If someone were as critical of my work before heading into college, there's a chance I'd be a semi-unwealthy theatre graduate with a surprisingly unique vocabulary rather than a semi-unwealthy writing graduate with a more explicable unique vocabulary.

In closing, don't be afraid to speak your mind. Share what you want say and judge others based on the content of their ideas not their editing skills.

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