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Everything You Need to Know About Grammar in Six Minutes
I left school at sixteen and entered technical college, the place where I learned to solder components, weld joints, and do calculus (go figure). Then I went to university and studied engineering so intensely that, apart from law and management, the only other non-technical subject I took was a mandatory technical writing class. In that class I learned how to explain that the sprocket must be inserted into the chamfered vestibule and then rotated ninety degrees counter-clockwise.
It was only in my thirties, while struggling through a heart-wrenching divorce, that I learned to really write, but only so that I could spill my guts into a blog that no more than a dozen people would read. During that time, I also learned to write about strange esoteric, and probably metaphorical, experiences such as how “the universe snuck into my bedroom last night.”¹ I also became enamored with grammar, and apparently also a little aware of alliteration. I studied books and courses on grammar, which I covered in How I Write Stories that Go Viral².
And now I’ve written a helluva lot, and I’ve crafted my style. I’ve honed my process, and learned how to find my groove. After all of that, just recently, I’ve been realizing how simple grammar really is. It’s one of those subjects that they make a meal out of in middle-school and high-school…
