The following information will benefit everyone who writes anything, not just those who write for publication. It will help you when you write those company reports, memos and presentations. You do want to look as if you know what you’re talking about, right? It will help when you write a note to your child’s teacher; that’ll show her/him they’re not the only one with an education! Everyone who has to read the words/song lyrics from your power point, and has a rudimentary grasp on the English language, will thank you.  (All right, the last one may just be for me. Stop driving me crazy!) I’m sharing this information as a public service in the interests of clarity in communication, and not because I’m a grumpy old Grammar Nazi.

1. Your/you’re:  (a) Your = belonging to you.  (b) You’re = you are.
(a) Is that your bike? = Is that the bike belonging to you? /  Leave your plate there. = Leave the plate belonging to you, there.
(b) Tell me why you’re here. = Tell me why you are here. /  Lord, you’re beautiful. = Lord, you are beautiful.
“Lord your beautiful” is an unfinished sentence. When I read that my brain screams: “Your beautiful…what… is/did/should what?” Please, stop the torture.

2. Its/it’s: (a) Its = belonging to it. (b) It’s = it is.
Now this is a little tricky because we all know (nod your head and smile knowingly) that we usually require an apostrophe to imply ownership; eg: Mary’s bike; people’s opinions. However, in this case we must make an exception to the rule. Why? Well, if we used the “ownership apostrophe” we’d end up with the other word!
(a) Its cave is nice. = The cave it lives in is nice. / Its time is up. = The time it had is over.
(b) It’s a nice cave. = It is a nice cave. / It’s time. = It is time.
You can see how a simple apostrophe can change the meaning of the sentence. Isn’t this fun?

3. Who’s/whose. (a) Who’s = who is   (b) Whose – belonging to who.
This is a variation on the problem raised by the its/it’s dilemma. In this case the solution is provided by a different spelling. What a shame no one could think of anything similar for poor old “it”.
(a) Who’s going to the dance? = Who is going to the dance? / I don’t know who’s dancing. = I don’t know who is dancing.
(b) Whose party is this? = Who does this party belong to? (Or> To whom does this party belong?)

Get these right and you’ll communicate clearly, impress your peers and make a grumpy old bag happy. In a later posting I’ll attempt to tackle those tricky little suckers: commas. I bet you can’t wait for that!
Hahahahaaaa haaaa hahahaaaa… Get over it, Wendy. In this world of tweets and texts, no one cares.

Is it true that we rarely rise higher than our self-doubt? This week I’ve been pondering a statement I found in the manuscript I’m currently editing. The actual wording is: “Few people rise higher than their self-doubt”. When I first read that I thought: That’s so true! That’s deep, man. How often do our fears, our lack of confidence, our doubt, hold us back from achieving our heart’s desire?

I can remember, back in ye olde school days, desperately wanting to sing in the school concert but I was too afraid of not being good enough, so I didn’t audition and missed out. Now don’t feel too sad; in later years I participated in numerous musicals and theatre productions. I even sang in a “folk club” in a hotel for a short while! But I confess, any situation in which I’m being “assessed” (I translate as: judged) I break out into a cold sweat, get an attack of the runny-bums and will go out of my way to avoid it. I truly admire those brave souls who try out for televised talent shows and face possible public humiliation.

One of the reasons I’m such a late-starter as a writer is that when (back in my early twenties) I screwed up the nerve, hoiked up my loins and finally sent off a submission to a magazine, it was returned with a page-long rejection letter. I took that as the universe telling me: You really aren’t good enough. So I retreated into my cave and merely wrote for my own pleasure. I lived in a country town and had no real contact with any other writer, so I had no idea that a page-long rejection letter was not only unusual, it was downright fabulous. Talk about the “if-only-what-if-why-didn’t-what-could-have-been” blues!

However, I did finally take the plunge, signed up for a workshop or two and put myself out there once more. Many of my friends, especially the creative types, have done the same thing. They’ve decided that their passion for what they do is stronger than their fear of failure and the pain of rejection, and they keep on keeping on. And well done, everyone!

Back to the statement: Few people rise higher than their self-doubt. I understand the sentiment but I think it’s not correct. Many people do rise higher…etc. Perhaps it would be better to say: If you want to achieve your heart’s desire/your life’s purpose/your raison d’etre, you must overcome your self-doubt. You must choose to ignore that nasty, nagging, negative little voice in your head until it becomes no more than a nuisance, and a whispering one at that.

Hearty congratulations to all of you who choose to face your fears and soldier on. Good on, ya! Well done. Give yourself a big pat on the back (if you can reach – you lucky ducks) and say: I think – no – I know I can!

(Okay Wendy, preaching to yourself here so, bum down, head down and get on with it.)