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Saturday 7 September 2013

So I am writing a book

with my dear friend, Laura, the Fairy Blogmother.

Well, lets amend that.  Laura, a professional writer, is doing all the hard slog and I just interject now and again with pithy, British comments, so perhaps contributing to a book is a better way of putting it.

It has been interesting.  We know each other so well now and know how each other speaks, so the temptation to edit each other's prose to make it more "English" or "American" is not about who has the loudest voice or egos, but about what sounds right to us or what grates our gorgonzola so badly, we feel the need to change it.

For me, writing is all about getting down as fast as possible what is going on in my head.  I rarely go back and edit, except for spelling and punctuation and, I believe, speak in a very English way.  If it sounds right in my head, it usually is.

So getting involved in a totally separate-from-the-book conversation about "Different from" and "Different than" confuzzalated me.  To me, one sounds right and one doesn't in my head and I don't think anyone will be able to convince me, despite logic, laws of grammar and the like.

Imagine my delight on being sent this link this morning. I shall now go back to this morning's edit and resist all temptation to add the Oxford comma.....

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