Friends know that I enjoy writing and have aspired to be a published author, but I wasn't able to devote enough of myself to get it done because of a crazy work schedule, raising my kids without a partner, and poor time management skills. Health problems forced me to retire from full time work much earlier than I planned and all but one of the kids are now on their own. I have the time now but I find myself coasting by playing video games or binging TV series and I let creative ideas of my own go by the wayside. I'm done letting what I believe are good ideas get forgotten and having the works I started writing languish in the well of lost plots (see Jasper Fford's "Thursday Next" books if you don't understand the reference).
Returning to serious writing is not without its problems. I wasn’t an English major in college but I
did okay. I knew proper grammar usage and what rules I was expected to use for typed submissions.
Too many decades have passed since I graduated and I am finding that I
have backslidden when it comes to using proper grammar and punctuation in my
writing mainly because my career choice didn’t require much formal writing and I chose not to hone skills I didn't need to use. Degrading
formal writing skills aren’t my only problem, however. Standards on what is acceptable have
changed. I’m starting the feel like what
Kathy Mattea sang of in the song, “33, 45, 78 (Record Time).” Warped and scratched and out of date.
The changes, however, aren’t just with standards for
grammar. They are also technical. I ran across a problem with spacing today and
this is one I’m going probably going to be facing until I stop writing or give
up and let someone else type what I have written. The standard used to be that
two spaces were to be included between sentences. The current standard is one space. My understanding is two spaces were necessary
for clarity because typewriters use a "monospaced typeset” because some
letters and symbols were easy to overlook if they were too close together. Word
processing software is able to bypass that need since it can use fonts that
adjust letter spacing to maintain clarity.
I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to adjust and
change my ways. I have “known” that two
spaces is proper for 40+ years and doing it that way has become as natural as walking
for me. If you were to look closely, you’ll
find this document is spaced both ways since I have only just learned that I
need to change. No, I didn’t do that on purpose but I’m also not going back to correct the errors.
I’m considering taking a grammar and composition course just
to refresh my skills and get them up to date. I have no need to work towards a
new degree so I might settle for auditing a course at a community college or
simply use an unaccredited course that I’m able to find on-line.
Whichever I go the ride’s bound to be bumpier than I want
but it’s going to happen.
