To some extent, I think it’s our English teacher’s fault that so many of you say you’re “not a writer” (bear with me, I don’t hate teachers).

Not all English teachers, mind you, just the strict ones who make writing about grammar and typos and leave out the part about free flow and communication.

The result? Generations of people with something to say but an icky feeling about writing and the belief that they can’t.

I’ll give you an example. My sister and I once took a college English writing class during the summer. It applied to my major but she just needed a class for additional credits and we wanted to do something together.

We got this teacher that was a total nightmare with his grading and his hatred of comma splices.

I don’t know why, but my brain doesn’t understand what a comma splice is but according to this teacher it was pretty offensive to use them. Your paper could be well written, well researched, have a good flow to it but God forbid if there was a comma splice and he would knock you down to a “C-”. (To this day I don’t understand comma splices!)

I figured out that the way around it was to leave out the comma and be slightly marked down for not using one rather than use it “incorrectly” and be heavily penalized.

It was so stressful and frustrating that I’m sure my sister never took another class like that and we were both miserable trying to get through it with a decent grade.

It could make you HATE writing if you weren’t passionate about it.

By the time I got into my upper classes, I had such a fear of using commas! I often employed the same strategy of omitting them where I thought they should be rather than getting marked down for using them wrong (it was a good strategy by the way, as so many teachers seem more angered by the incorrect usage than the omission of them). Maybe because not using one makes them feel you just didn’t think it needed it but using it incorrectly means you didn’t know HOW to use it.

Now I don’t think that teacher was trying to make it so the majority of the class never wanted to write anything ever again… he obviously had a pet peeve and he took it out on us.

The problem with this, and with so many teachers like him, is the grammar and punctuation are there to SUPPORT the writing, NOT the other way around.

The most perfect grammar and punctuation on a paper can’t exist without the words.

And if the words are boring… well, I don’t have to tell you that you aren’t going to read them!!!

The sad thing is that the extra pressure to be grammatically correct and perfect makes many of you who are feeling this desire to write feel an immediate “Nope!” instead.

Or “That’s not for me”.

Because writing formally, stuffy, so different than the way you speak IS NOT for you.

You are right.

But writing from the heart, speaking about your dreams, desires, perhaps sharing something you’ve learned so others can possibly have an easier journey – THAT, that is likely what is calling you.

Not the old-fashioned, boring, beat-a-dead-horse kind of writing.

Oh! And I recently read a post about someone whose editor HATED clichés and trained it out of him. And here I am using them, ha!

Sometimes clichés and overused expressions capture my intent and tell you what I’m thinking, feeling, seeing, and hearing in a way that leaving it out just can’t.

So look at me over here breaking all the rules and I still have a website, I still have a blog, a professional writing career AND I still get to write to people via email that subscribe to me.

The writing police haven’t shown up.

Every once in a while I will have an email subscriber write to me and say there was one typo in my email.

Instead of taking it personally I just think, “Wow. That person must not give themselves grace!” Because one typo out of my many emails, well that’s just nitpicky.

I’m going to be honest with you – No one is going to have NONE without a proofreader or two.

I see grammar and punctuation as the accessories to your outfit. They can take it to the next level but without your clothes you’re naked!

The content is most important. You can always hire a proofreader and use Grammarly.

Writing needs personality and creativity. You can’t smother that with rules and have it still be engaging and feel good.

So I tell anyone who will listen just to write. Let it FLOW. See where it takes you. See what it wants you to know!

Then worry about editing it, but whatever you do, don’t make it sound different or ruin it (I used to be guilty of editing my blog posts until they no longer even sounded the same!).

Now I don’t want you to hate on your English teachers because they’re doing their jobs and they THINK good grammar and good punctuation is the way to educate you.

I just wish they would place the higher importance on content, and the lower importance on proofreading. Allowing the students to find their authentic voice and their writing style.

Once writing style is achieved, if you have a passion for it or need writing as a tool in your biz, you would just automatically want to support it with better grammar and good punctuation, IMHO.

Let it flow… don’t worry about why or who will read it.

I give you permission to forget the rules for a while or intentionally break them.

REBEL.

Why not, right?

Let me know in the comments if you had a teacher like the one I mentioned who was hard on the proofreading. Did it affect you for life?

XOXO,