Ramble from phair

Phair, the floor is yours.

surrender

i am exhausted. last week i faced the potential loss of my employment, all my worldly possessions, and maybe even my freedom because my writing was viewed as offensive. i've been fighting for my very survival for the last 98 hours or so. managed to scrap by with a discipline blemish in my file, a career first.

but, what happened in the writing part of my life maybe the worst part of the week. a benign little ramble about punctuation and use of lower case letters for story titles was posted a few days ago. it was well written and with no grammar or punctuation violations that i could detect but i tend not to look regulatory issues of language when i read. perhaps because reading is such a chore for me, i look to the heart and soul of a piece. to find what bit of humanity has been bound to the page with words for my consideration.

the ramble in question was a stand against poor spelling, sloppy grammar, and misuse of capitalization. it was a rejection for linking any stories which grossly violate the rules of language for whatever purposes. for the writer of the ramble and all those who agree with the strict application of form over function, i beg you not to read any of my stories or books. for your own piece of mind, avoid me because i am with the stains of impure language use on my keyboard. i have yet to meet a word i can not misspell or a piece of punctuation i can not fail to use properly. my language usage is so perverted that i like to play with form and function in all manner of shoddy usage. if truth be known, i'm barely literate in my native tongue.

i'm an unrepentant language violator…i have sinned and i will sin again.

but, i'm not writing this to argue the point. if form is more important than content to you then seek those stories. if content prevails over function, read those stories. if you want both then hit a book store and buy a book that has been completed by the experts.

i'm writing this to capture my initial response when i read the ramble and saw my current story fit neatly into one of the categories vilified. it was after a 90 minute meeting where my writing was presented as little more than dirty limericks and filthy trash. so, i was a little raw. i'm still a little raw.

my initial reaction was to just stop writing. sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? drama queen, right? the reality was more like beaten slave. my art is endangering my livelihood but my art is failing in all relevant manner according to the rambler. why bother? why not just go and do the 9-5 shtick and start watching TV to dull my brain completely into submission? why not just surrender?

is this the outcome the rambler hoped for? is one less active writer in the world a good idea? if perfect is the standard then the field will be limited to professional writers and publishers…even though many typos occur in their products too. maybe it is more acceptable when they blow it.

everybody gets to have an opinion but the ramifications of your opinions when lashed like a whip on the rowers may not be the thing you hoped to achieve. instead of more clean copy stories, you may end up with less stories to pick from because somebody became so discouraged they just walked away and hid from the world.

Phair, thanks for sharing that view with us. Differences do become us and seeing and hearing from others is always good. I appreciate your thoughts and your courage to share them.

Everyone have a good night.

Peace, Health and Happiness!

Elisa

BtVS

• Chapter 44 of Becoming by kmi85 (BuffynFaith.Net).
  
  
• Chapter 12 of Someone Like You by lizardmm (BuffynFaith.Net).
  
  Legend of the Seeker
  
• Madam Denna by tequilajuju (LotS Femslash).
  
  Malory Towers
  
• Chapter 2 of Unbroken by Hafl (Saffic).
  
  Original
  
• Part 29 of Guardian Angel by D (her web site).
  
  
• Part 9 of Broken Arrow by Mickey Minner (Academy of Bards).
  
  Stargate SG-1
  
• A Flower in the Concrete by Geonn Cannon (his lj).