Grammar Sucks

In case any of you were wondering, the drought here in Kansas appears to be over. At least that is what all the water standing on already saturated ground seems to be saying....and still it rains. All I can say is that if it is up to my family to build the next ark, fuuuget about it! We can't even get a room in our basement completed, so I am pretty sure an ark to save the world (or at least Kansas) is out of our skill set.

How do you like the new blog look? I was finally, after months and months of trying, able to change my backgrounds, fonts, etc. Thank you Google helpers (they run blogger) and also thank you Z for all your help. I would like to blame blogger for the issues and at first it really was an issue with blogger, but more recently it has been an inept user and not blogger at all. My apologies for all the nasty comments I have left both Google and blogger. I hate admitting my imperfections!

So the look of the blog is not the only thing about to change. To J'nelle, a faithful blog reader who has asked me numerous times over the last year or so, "When are you going back to daily topics on your blog," you will be overjoyed to know that as of tomorrow, they will be back. The rest of you may have mixed feelings about this, as do I, but there is a reasoning behind it and I will now share it with you.

Out of the need for employment this summer, I decided that a job could and should be one you enjoy and I enjoy nothing more than writing. That is when I realized it was time to seriously look into the world of freelancing. I honestly thought with the world being on the internet that finding freelance work might be easier than it was 30 years ago. Perhaps it is, for someone who has not forgotten everything they learned in grammar school about grammar, but I have had to face some harsh realities about my writing skills. The most important reality is that I am lazy. My feedback seems to be that my content is "good" but my editing, punctuation and general understanding of sentence structure are greatly lacking. Potential employers seem to find my own twist on grammar and the English language not to their liking. Go figure!

Lucky for me though, one of those who critiqued me rather harshly also decided to take me under her wing. I am not sure if she is a writer herself, a teacher or just someone whose eyes are offended by poor grammar and run-on sentences. At any rate she sent me a very long and detailed email in which she stated that she had taken the time to read or at the very least skim, my entire blog. She picked out several posts in which she said there was great emotion and the content was, (in her words) "quite excellent," but the grammar, sentence structure, etc where highly lacking. Much of the rest she said were, "at times enjoyable," but often times "very incohesive" (is she making up words?) In other words I think she meant my thoughts are all over the place. I wanted to say, "lets see where your thoughts are when you are 50, menopausal and running yourself crazy," but I refrained. 

She said some of her favorite parts of my blog were when I blogged about topics. She said my thoughts were more cohesive (she seems fond of this words and its variations) and it appeared my audience (you guys) seem to enjoy them a great deal according to my comments section. She said they also opened me up more and let my readers take a peek at who I am not only as a writer but as a person. All this being said though, she felt that my laziness in grammar detracted greatly from the actual content. However, what I lack in sentence structure I apparently make up for in my words, so she would like to mentor me. Yay me! No seriously....yay me! I have been writing lazy for so long that I actually need someone to help me edit and correct grammatical errors. I always thought that one day I would be a writer and I would have someone around who would edit and do those corrections for me. Apparently that is not the way it works, so I need to learn.

So here is how it is going to work. She has given me a list of five topics and she would like me to assign a topic to each day. These topics are what she would like to see from me based on what she has already read in my blog. The topics she has chosen, she believes will show different sides of me, different skills in my writing and possibly ultimately open up doors for me in the writing community. She will be reading my blog daily and if she finds a topic not working or not showing her what she is wanting to see in my writing, she will have me change it up. Finally, she feels I need to be writing something everyday. Her words, "You have a natural ability with words, emotion and basic content. You simply need to work on grammar and hone those skills to be able to take your work to the next level and be an employable writer." I am good with the writing everyday, but it appears that I will be doing it for free for sometime to come. I guess I am still going to need a day job. Have I mentioned that grammar sucks?

Since I am not sure what topic I am going to assign to each day yet, I will let the topics be a surprise for you all. Start reading tomorrow though to find out what Monday is. Also, as always your comments are appreciated and if you aren't currently following me on blogger....please do. I have a feeling that the more followers I have on here the more enticing (employable) I will become to would be employers.

So until tomorrow, hope you all have a dry and happy Sunday!