Oh heck. I’ve got posters all round town advertising the Writer’s Café and I’ve been reliably informed it should be Writers’ Café. The former would be OK, of course, if I was always sat there on my own sipping a cappuccino. As that never happens, it’s very popular actually, either people don’t mind that I, as a proper published author, am crap at punctuation, or they just don’t know the rule themselves.

Now, I’d like your opinion on the following thoughts. And before you all write in, all two of you, the title to this piece is ironical, OK?

1.Personally, I think it’s better to know the rules, as I more or less do, yet sometimes still get them wrong, than never, ever know the rules in the first place. You may disagree, but a kind of blind panic happens in my head when I have to do a final edit of a piece. I tend to vomit  early drafts onto screen without worrying too much about tricky stuff like spelling and punctuation, just go with the flow, then I struggle with dots, dashes and commas at the end.

2. That the rules are just too complicated. Though I realise punctuation is important for understanding and flow and breathing and all that, you know what, I actually believe most of us get what the idea is and understand what’s going on even if it’s not quite right. It’s a bit like trying to learn French: there are so many instances of the same words used for different meanings and the teacher will say, oh but you’ll understand it in context. Well, I think most of us get the context about punctuation. And I know a book like Eats, Shoots and Leaves  is a great read and has examples on the subtlety of punctuation, but I’m not a subtle writer.

3. The idea in the writing is the most important thing: getting the words and thoughts the right way round; finding just the right word for the right feeling; describing with just enough detail for a reader to picture it all and want to go on. (And this last sentence was really hard to punctuate and I’ve no idea if really I’ve done it correctly, but you still get what I mean, don’t you?)

So, I don’t mean don’t have any punctuation at all. I don’t mean make really awful, stupid blunders all the time and never learn. I mean that, as long as the intention is there, a nod to the rule, as long as the author is making some sense of a story and it isn’t too stiliting, then what’s the problem? I sometimes think it is too easy a stick for pedants to wave over we sensitive, creative types. Luckily, I’m completely shameless and the joy of writing and making stuff up overrides any terror of getting a comma or apostrophe in the wrong place. If it didn’t, I really would give up. So, I also believe a lot of creativity is squashed by such fears in a lot of people.

So, Writer’s caff, tues pm, 330, for people wot want to write, OK?