When I started writing in earnest four years ago I discovered my grammar and creative writing skills weren’t up to scratch when I had previously thought my grasp of the English language was pretty good. It was an incredibly steep learning curve to get to a point where I felt comfortable releasing my first novel to the world without it being ridiculed for its lack of professionalism.

Jump forward to 2019 and while editing my latest novel, ‘Bonds’ I’ve found my grasp of grammar is actually still lacking. The past few months again have been a vast array of lessons learned. Comma use, conjunction use, em-dash/en-dash, etc. and trying to figure out the differences between UK English (which I had been immersed in for half a century), and US English (which I’m having to write in as a writer based in, and writing about Americans).

I think I’ve now got a grip of the basics and a few of the more intricate aspects of modern creative writing, but I’m fully aware that I will continue to learn each day what is right and what is wrong in the literary world. Most readers won’t be able to explain, or point out with any accuracy, what is wrong in a grammatically incorrect piece of fiction, but I know from experience that I can just tell that something is wrong — even if I can’t explain what it actually is that is bothering me. As writers we don’t want that to happen to our readers who have forked out their cash to buy our work.

Anyway, as I approach launch of the new book, I’ve spent several weeks revising the grammatical errors in my previous book and in my short stories written under my pseudonym. I’m hoping that they will be less likely to make readers twitch uncomfortably now.

We all make mistakes, (I’m sure there are plenty just in this blog) knowing that we’ve made a mistake is the first step, followed by learning what to do about it, and then make sure we don’t repeat those errors. That’s something that I’m learning as a writer (and in life generally) — learn from my mistakes and don’t be afraid to admit them. It’s never too late to learn new things, and it will never be too late to learn how to do something properly.