I’m an author and I’m going to tell you my dirty
little secret—I don’t know what a misplaced modified is.
Yes, I took an English 101 in college where I
was supposed to learn all the correct rules of grammar, but I hated that class.
I think I got a B, but I’ve long since forgotten everything I shoveled into my
short term memory banks concerning participles, modifiers, and the like. I
think part of the reason I delayed becoming a writer for so long was because I
had this idea in my head of what a writer should be. And he/she was definitely
someone who knew all about grammar and punctuation and, well, the rules
of writing.
It took me a couple years of thinking about
writing before I actually did the writing, but one conversation stood out in my
mind that pointed me in the right direction. I was discussing breast cancer
with my cousin, Diana Megli (family members call her Sis) who was undergoing
her third relapse with the disgusting disease. The conversation was something
like this. She said, “Most people say, why me? I say, why not me?”
I had never thought of cancer or anything else
quite like that before. I harbored my secret desire, wondering if I could ever
write a young adult or adult romance novel. I kept chanting those same words to
myself, “Why not me?”
Why shouldn’t anyone pursue their dreams? I let
my ideas of not knowing every rule of grammar hold me back, but Sis made me
realize there was no reason to hold back, except my own insecurities. Who was
it who said, “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Oh, that would be Alfred Lord Tennyson.
I decided to adopt my cousin’s attitude, of why
not me and Lord Tennyson’s watered down version of love and said to myself, “Better
to have tried and failed, then never to have tried at all.” Or who knows, maybe
somebody famous already said that.
So now you know my dirty little secret and how I
overcame it. And here’s another secret: get a grammar queen critique partner.
Believe me, they are out there. Regardless, don’t let anything hold you back
from your goals, whether it be misplaced modifiers or simply not believing in
yourself.
Don’t say, why me? Say, why not me?
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