It was on one of those meetings between parents and teachers that appeared every term. It was when my mother spoke to my teacher in Swedish. My mother brought up the subject of my spelling, that she thought I could improve a great deal. My teacher put her feet down.
“Don’t you dare complaining to her about her spelling! Your daughter has a talent for writing. Don’t stop her from using words she likes because she cannot spell them. That will block her and diminish her talent.”
My mother recently told me this story. She never complained about my spelling ever since.
And here I am, writing in a language that is proven to be the most difficult to spell in the world, in a company of people that expressively say that correct spelling is vital for being read in the first place.
How many writers’ talents are diminished by this ideal?
There are so many of them, all wanting to write movie scripts. Is one better than another because of correct spelling and perfect grammar? No. Talent for writing needs honing to be good and maybe great, but spelling has little to do with the ability to pass an image through to the reader.
So much of my energy is put to spelling and grammar.
My talent might not be damaged by this, but it sure does not help.
Do I limit the flow? Do I choose the phrases and words I am certain of instead of the word that I know I want, but I cannot figure out how to spell it? I try not to. I try to learn while I write. But I'm no super-human. Of course my writing would be different if I didn't have to bother so much.
But damn if I give up.
Stefan Holm was told he was too short to become a high jumper.
6 comments:
Yeah you are right, creativity can be harmed by limitations from outside. i personally think too that children need enough liberty in expressing their creativity. Otherwise they are concentrated in complying the rules that others like parents and teachers control instead of concentrating on their creativity.
A friend of mine told me about a study with the conclution that children that learned maths before they started school were more creative in their ways to solve a problem and better understood the essence of maths, than children that learned maths at school.
That says a great deal, I think.
The English language is in need of spelling reform. I find I must write around my poor spelling.
My spelling improves a little bit every year but how I wish I had it in me to be a better speller.
The major problem with spelling English is that the letters in the Latin alphabet is not matching the sounds needed in English.
There were a guy who constructed an alphabet for English. But it was too late to have any breakthrough.
As my teacher said - don't let bad spelling stop you from writing!
Desiree,
See? I am just reading and reading here tonight! I am going to be making a new blog this week on another site - not wordpress - to talk some about tools for writers. I will send you the link when it is done - I will be talking about vocabulary, and writing for comprehension, and some other things.
Many, many native speakers of English have trouble with the spelling. There are so many exceptions to rules. The only thing to do I think is keep a dictionary close at hand. Even I check words almost daily. I am a good speller - very good - but so often a word just won't look right and I must check to be sure.
You are doing very well with your English. There are times when I read your writing and know you are not a native speaker, but that is not because of errrs. It is more because sentence structure differs in our languages, I think.
I say, don't worry about the spelling. Just keep a dictionary at hand, and a good thesaurus. And some of my writing friends who are Spanish speakers say they use Google translation or other services to help them out. When they get stuck for a word they write it in Spanish, translate it, and see what words Google comes up with! Sometimes they find the right word that way.
I am writing you a book myself! It's time to stop and go to bed!
Linda
Linda: I will love to visit your new blog as well. You write so beautifully.
I have a little free program called WordWeb that is to great help. I think I'll extend to the pro version.
I guess my phrasing make me sound like a less wise Yoda. At least I don't write "as cream on mashed potato" (= "as cherry on top") :-)
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