Grammar

[pelwrath]

Is perfect and proper grammar necessary in fiction writing? On a GR is saying it’s not.

[Alatariel]

There's a lot of gatekeeping around grammar and "proper" spelling. Some of it is rooted in elitism, white supremacy, and imperialism. Grammar is an evolving thing, but I could argue some agreement is needed for things to be comprehensible. Those agreed upon rules could set a new standard.

However, at this point we are subject to the current rules and expectations, even if they are rooted in some pretty yucky things. And yes, there's more than one way of doing things and fiction writing is more fluid and flexible than academic writing (or scientific). Fractured sentences are acceptable if they serve the story, narrative voice can be personalized to reflect the character and the character could have a different way of speaking/thinking/articulating things than what would be considered "proper". And sometimes we can get so bogged down in correcting these things we forget to take in the fact that they might be that way on purpose. So like I said, some things are flexible in fiction though I think more is flexible if you are an established name in the publishing world. People seem to be more accepting of experimental works if they recognize the name attached to it.

What's a GR??

[pelwrath]

Thanks Ala and GR. is Good Reads.

[Alatariel]

Oooooh, I don't frequent good reads often so it didn't click for me. Thanks! Hope my answer helped a bit, it's a complex subject I think. Which can be frustrating.

[pelwrath]

It does and may in part explain my writing. I don’t watch my grammar, I do spelling and punctuation and why I score more as a reader than an editor.

[ScintillaMyntan]

Grammar's arbitrary and a human invention, and like Alatariel said, there's an ingroup-outgroup thing going on with enforcing it. And it's relativistic; just as there are different languages, there are different dialects and genres within English where different things are right or wrong, and grammar changes over time. Saying "lolwut?" is incorrect in regular writing but perfectly correct in the grammar of online chats, whereas something like, I don't know, putting a comma in a totally wrong place or spelling "drink" as "dringk" is incorrect everywhere.

Yet it's hard for me personally not to get annoyed by incorrect grammar. A lifetime of being told to consider what's grammatical when writing makes it hard to ignore. An error being rarer makes it more annoying to me too. Comma splices are really common, so I guess the social part of my brain learned to accept it as a norm, but a rarer type of mistake makes my head go "What is that person doing?" My mom sometimes leaves out past tenses when not writing carefully. I've seen e-mails from her with things like "I walk there yesterday" and it bothers me because I don't see anyone else doing that! I realize it's hypocritical because I don't use perfect grammar in writing or speaking. I enjoy saying "a whole 'nother." And it's technically wrong, if I'm not mistaken, to say "Are the rats or the dog a better companion?" because the rats are plural and the dog is singular. My dad, who's an immigrant, frequently messes up things like articles or conjugations in English, so why should I get annoyed by native English speakers making more minor errors?

As for the acceptability of improper grammar in fiction, I think a lot depends on whether it looks like it's intentional or unintentional. If you're like, "I opened the window. Bright sun. The smell of grass," it's bending the rules, but it looks like you had a reason for it; the fragments might be trying to convey something. But if you're like, "I opened the window, and then I," and ended the sentence for no reason, it looks wrong. I would say that goes for any sort of rule-bending in fiction, grammatical or not. If the plot doesn't make sense, is it a story that's trying to be surreal and nonsensical or is it just lack of skill?

There was a linguist, Paul Grice, who pointed out that if a person says something weirdly, listeners expect the weirdness to be trying to communicate something. For example, if you describe something in a much more exaggerated way than the norm, people ask themselves why exaggerate so much and then interpret it as sarcasm. You wouldn't say "Yeah, that's totally what I wanted. Totally. No complaints at all" if you weren't being sarcastic. I think a similar thing's going on with fiction. If you do something weird, readers think there's a reason for it and try to find meaning in the weirdness.

[pelwrath]

Thank you Scintilla, much appreciated.