This post, if they read it, will step on the toes of a lot of Grammarians, Linguistics Majors and English Professors. But it’s fun to write anyway, so here goes.
Grammar is, essentially, arbitrary. It has its place in formal communication and non-fiction writing, but in fictional writing and spoken communication it becomes, to a degree, arbitrary. That’s important; it’s not completely arbitrary, only to a degree.
Grammar: Noun
1. The study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed.
2. These features or constructions themselves.
3. An account of these features; a set of rules accounting for these constructions.
Therefore:
1. Assists communication in general to the degree it establishes a language and makes that language usable.
2. Are useful to the degree they aid communication.
3. Are useful to the extent they can be understood and to the degree they aid communication.
Now, I like grammar, I hate when I find I’ve written something that sounds like gibberish. As a matter of course I write with the best grammar possible.
However, we are dealing with fictional writing here, and there are times when Billy Joe is going to exclaim:
“Frank! Git the hos owt hea and rite quick! Little Jimmy been struck by a wolf an half bled hisself to death!”
Ok, ha ha, the characters in a story can or cannot use correct grammar, depending on what the author is trying to show about that character. And there are regional differences of language to take into account, accents, etc.
Well, what about the narrator? The writer has every right to go, himself, into character and throw correct and proper grammar out the window. You as a writer will use a different style to write a western than you do a romance (if you happen to write both westerns and romances), and the grammar you use will change, such as:
But Jenny couldn’t have…she couldn’t have been there last night. He just couldn’t believe it…how could she? His mind was numb, how…how could it…it couldn’t…how…
He finally managed to speak, a low and tortured plea,
“I-I c-c-can’t…Jenny…NOOO!!!!!”
Well! That is a dramatic little piece of romance/suspense (I hope) that perfect grammar would have ruined! For instance:
But Jenny couldn’t have been there last night. Hank just couldn’t believe it. His mind was numb in trying to conceive how.
He finally managed to speak, in a low and tortured plea:
“I don’t understand. Jenny,” he broke off mid sentence, “NOOOOO!!!!!”
Ugh. A reconstruction of the whole thing is necessary to convey it with proper grammar. You see the problem, a distortion of the events, albeit slight, was necessary to communicate it! This is grammar getting in the way of communication, in which the author is trying to convey the present scene as perfectly as possible, but were he to use correct grammar he would have to nix a part or all of his idea. That’s a crime! That’s a perfectly good idea you’ve got there, why let grammar get in the way?
Now, I must say you need a very good grasp of the rules you are about to break to make it work. There’s no excuse for bad grammar! Being ignorant of a grammatical rule and breaking it; well let me tell you I would be as mortified as any Grammarian. For instance, there is a rule about not using a conjunction to start a sentence, unless it is being used for emphasis or to make a point. Example:
Benny didn’t know where or when he would get his revenge, how long it would take or if he could achieve it. It was impossible; he would never see them again.
But he made a vow that no matter how long it took, he would find them. Despite the odds, no matter what obstacles he was met with, HE WOULD FIND THEM!!
And, the counterpart using bad grammar:
Benny didn’t know where he would get his revenge. And he didn’t know when he would get his revenge. Or how long it would take, or if he could achieve it. It was impossible. And he would never see them again.
BUT, he made a vow that no matter how long it took, he would find them. And despite the odds, no matter what obstacles he was met with, HE WOULD FIND THEM!!
That’s exaggerated; nobody breaks the rule that much. But after reading 100 pages of someone misusing their conjunctions it sure feels like it, and you put the guy’s book down and think “What a hack!” Believe me, the editor thinks so. It’s an important point, if you’re going to break a rule of grammar you have to know that rule inside out. You have to know what you’re trying to communicate and know it well.
That’s my maxim in writing, "You can break any rule, as long as you know the rule your breaking."
CME
Note: Eleven grammatical and/or spelling errors were brought to the attention of the author before they were fixed (including two in the making of this note). No spell checks, dictionaries, or other human, online or printed sources of grammatical information were harmed in the making of this post.
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