Writing…

It is an art; it is a craft.

Even if you hate English, grammar, and writing – you can still appreciate writing where you can picture what is written as clearly as you could if you had watched the words acted out.

You can take one sentence and make two meanings out of them - simply by removing a comma.
"A woman, without her, man is nothing"
"A woman, without her man is nothing"

You can take a sentence like: "From the day you were born until the day you die" & 'craft' it to read: "From your first cry ‘til until your last breath"

This is what I hoped to do with my Preface to "Left Standing". Take something simple and 'craft' it.

Stephen King says in "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" – "A writer’s job isn’t to come up with the idea, but to be able to recognize it when it is there"

I hated English & grammar in high school and college (ironic eh?), I didn’t even do well in it. I should say, never did well academically with it. But always did well with term papers.

I could have never majored in it. My girlfriends in college both took a linguistics class (same one - as a matter of fact) where they learned to diagram sentences. If you study it that hard, you will lose your passion for it. That happened to me with music. I took an advanced music theory class in high school back when music and being a musician was all I wanted to do. I enjoy it, but I found myself analyzing it too much instead of enjoying it.

I’ve always caught movie mistakes. But now after writing, directing, and producing a couple films – I find myself looking at certain shots, plots, and dialogue – wondering why the director or screen writer chose to go that direction. I still enjoy it, but I look at it differently now.

"Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted" ~ Jules Renard
"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit" ~ Richard Bach
"Books are never finished they are merely abandoned" ~ Oscar Wilde