Writer in Residence

Hey there insideadoglings, I found this on the interwebs the

other day – it’s a cartoon from The Oatmeal and it explains the semi-colon ( that’s this lad => ; )

Seriously guys, I’m 42 years of age and a professional writer* and it took a cartoon to teach me this! Why didn’t that happen when I was in school? (I mean when I was in baby school – not when I was a teen and it was already too late.) Why, in baby school, weren’t there funny and memorable posters like this to explain the unexplainable?

Until recently, I have had a horrible time understood punctuation. It’s only when I began working with my wonderful beta readers** and my pro editors***that I began to begin to start to understand punctuation. My understanding has improved immensely; partially because my saintly Aus ed takes the time to explain things to me. (Seriously, she is so great about it. *waves to Elise*) But - God help her patience - I had to ask those questions over and over again. Because, folks, I have a serious problem remembering abstract rules.

Unless I see them in cartoon form! Yes! I’ve come to realise that I need to see things. I need concepts mapped out visually. It’s how I process information!

It’s such a relief to understand this about myself. Up until now I’ve thought I was just a dumb-arse and incapable of learning. I think this is something that teachers should be more aware of; because I can’t be the only person to learn this way, can I? Surely, there are hundreds of kids all over the place struggling through the school system who would benefit from the use of visual aids in the learning process?

Another instance of this is spelling. I have never been able to hold spellings in my noodle. In English class, I would lose whole grades due to nothing more then my poor spelling ( literally the difference between an A and a B! Ca you imagine that? Just for spelling.) Do you know when my (still very poor) spelling started to improve? When I discovered spellcheck! I kid you not. The very tool that folks are lamenting will destroy spelling everywhere, is the tool that has helped me learn.

I was saying this to a headmaster recently and he asked how I use spellcheck. I said, ‘I look at my misspelled word, then I let spellcheck change it and I register the difference: that way I don’t keep making the same mistake over and over.’ Headmaster asked how I had been taught to spell originally. I told him that –like everyone else – I’d been forced to stand up in class and spell the words out loud ( the same way we learned maths btw – another of my weak areas.****) The headmaster nodded. ‘You learn by seeing,’ he said. ‘Not by hearing. Some kids are like that.’

Yeah. Some kids are like that. Some 42 year olds are like that.
I’m glad I know now. I only wish I’d known when I was 8. I wish I’d known when I was 14. But I’m damned glad I got this chance to pass the information on – just in case you need it.

-0-

*squeeeee! Pro writer! (Sorry – had moment of unrestrained glee when I typed that. )
** Beta’s are the unlucky folks who suffer through the rough first drafts of my novels. Those poor souls who send me notes like ‘What the hell was happening in this chapter? I couldn’t understand a word of it!)
*** (what do pro editors do? This is what they do!)
**** the only way I could do maths problems? Draw them! Literally, draw ten apples, and rub four out. Or draw 100 apples then take ¾ of them away. There are 25 left? – ah! A quarter is 25%!