How I Learned to Stop Picking Nits and Love the Language

Edie here. Today I'm super excited to have a good friend, Ramona Richards as a guest. She's a great editor and an amazing writer. Her newest book is sitting on my nightstand right now - and isn't going anywhere any time soon because I love it so much. The details about the book are at the end of the post, so be sure to give it a look and a great Write Conversation welcome!

How I Learned to Stop Picking Nits and Love the Language 

by Ramona Richards
@RamonaRichards

If when we are taught English we are just taught the rules of grammar, it would take all our love of our language away from us. What makes us love a subject like English is when we learn all these fantastic stories. Feeding the imagination is what makes a subject come alive.

~Daniel Tammet, author of Born on a Blue Day

That Infernal Editor

It’s a universal piece of advice given to every writer who ever sat down at a keyboard: turn off your internal editor and just write. Easier said than done for most of us, which is why I call it the “infernal” editor. One of the crafts we must learn to ply our trade is English grammar, and an emphasis on the importance of correct grammar is in every class, blog, or tutorial we read. But in the first draft process, that’s the exact thing that can stop us cold.