Got an e-mail from Suzanne in Connecticut this morning,  telling me she enjoyed my photos and blog “immensely,” but …(I can often sense when there is a “but” coming) “you really need a copy editor. Your punctuation is atrocious, and there are about 10 typos in just one of the passages I read. I am available to do it,” she added, “but no matter – it just needs to be done before you post. You writers!!” She added a photo of her dog, for good measure.”

It was an interesting message, and it spoke to so many changes in our culture to my own particular ideas about what is important in writing in general, and in the blog in particular. Aside from the slightly patronizing tone,  perhaps predictable in one who cherishes punctuation and grammar, the message prompted me to think  about punctuation and grammar. They – and the people who care about them –  have never been my friends, not in grammar school, my brief run at college, or, as my editors can testify, in publishing. I remember a fourth grade teacher who wept to my mother at the prospect of having me in her class again. I have never been big on rules.

I have to be honest – punctuation is the least important thing to me when it comes to  my blog or my writing.

I have a good friend who is an artist, and she told me recently that she can’t bring herself to blog much and promote and sell her art because she believes her grammar has to be perfect. She spends so much time polishing her writing that she doesn’t get to do much of it. I thought, how sad. She is a wonderful artist, and would like to present and sell her work.

I have to declare my own heretical position. Grammar and punctuation are not important to me, and have never been. Nor do I think they very important in writing. My Random House editor agrees with me. It’s the story that counts, she says. And the ideas. Words are important, as are voice and style. But I agree with my editor. From the first, I decided that an integral part of the blog was openness and frequency of posting. I promised myself that people would see something new here most, if not every time they logged on. I didn’t want to stop each time – five or six times a day – and correct my spelling. I surely did not want to send my work to a copy editor five or six times a day and wait for it to come back. It’s a kind of creative constipation to me, a great way to kill momentum and stifle imagination. The blog works because it is impulsive, and it flows, and it’s a bit chaotic. Just like me. A blog should reflect the person, not a grammarian’s notion of a person. I guess that’s what I told my grammar teacher in the fifth grade too. Sorry, Mrs. McKenzie. Sorry, Suzanne.

So my theory of writing is holding up. The blog is on target for six million views this year. And I love writing it.  I thanked Suzanne for the note and passed on her offer to copy edit my work. I told her she can get a refund if she’d like.