Well, it has been several months - and loads of new people in the level, havn't managed to read you all yet, but did enjoy tessa meeting red! So easy to read.
I have decided to come up with a slightly different take on the idea of writing another story using the grammar/spell checker.
Recently, I have been trying to make contacts in France (where I have moved), with the principle aim of finding myself a real-life, real love, real-time Dom. This is my first use of the internet to meet people: I have obviously met people through this forum, and a little bit in the chat room, but it has not been my purpose here. I have not dated or tried to make any acquaintance with a partner in English. (By the way: the colons are just for AG!).
So, I have dived into a dangerous and unfamiliar environment, in a foreign language that I have not used in anger, and certainly have not written in, for thirty odd years.
I lack vocabulary: what do you say if someone asks you whether you like wearing a 'baillon'? Exactly what is a 'martinet' - one cannot ever assume that the same word used in both languages means exactly the same thing! How do you say 'bondage' as opposed to just being tied up?
I lack style: here, the use of capital letters as in Dom/sub; Y/you etc. is limited, and generally seems to be used only to describe a Master or Mistress, or Domina (but, strangely, not a Dom). On the other hand, I am having to learn the niceties of when to say 'tu' ('thou', familiar, friendly form of address), and when to say 'vous' ('you', polite, respectful form of address). Almost all doms here will automatically address a sub as 'tu'. Only one so far has addressed me as 'vous' on initial contact. Yet if it were a vanilla contact, they would all most certainly address me as 'vous', because they don't know me and I'm not a child. Subs will address doms as 'tu' when not in a scene, or when they don't belong to them, but have got to know them a bit; or may address doms as 'tu' initially to keep on a level with them, and not permit excessive familiarity at the outset. When you start playing, when a dom moves out of friendly day-to-day mode and starts being a Dom: as a sub, switching from 'tu' to 'vous' is such a thrill!
Personally, I refer to the gentlemen with whom I am corresponding as Messieurs and address them as Monsieur, and use 'vous'; I will only address them as 'tu' once we are already fairly well acquainted. I think they find this rather quaint. Hmmm: I should use a thesaurus at this point to find something other than 'acquainted' and 'quaint'. But I won't, so nah.
Anyway, to get back to the theme of the assignment, use of spell and grammar-checker. ABSOLUTELY and completely a necessity for me in French! When entering further into discussions with a Monsieur recently, I decided to translate one of the narratives I had posted on this forum into French, to try to explain myself, my likes, my level of knowledge and so on, to him. Now, as any professional translator knows, you never translate from mother to foreign tongue, but obviously I was not in a situation where I could ask anyone I know to assist!
In these circumstances, I greatly, greatly appreciated Word's ability to know that I was working on two documents in two languages at once; and the fact that it automatically detected that I was writing in French was marvellous. I was also extremely grateful for the auto-correct, since it would put accents on for me whenever it could (because I write on a laptop, and have a UK keyboard setup, putting accents in is a serious bind: normally, I use Alt+number combinations, but I simply have not been able to make this work on my laptop. So instead I have to Insert, Symbol).
On the other hand, it was not able to detect enough for my liking, and often did not highlight lacks as errors, since the word entered without an accent was linguistically possible, whilst being entirely incorrect for the meaning. Also, it would auto-detect and change things for me wrongly, because I had not got the accents in, and this again would change the meaning. So I really had to keep my eyes open as to what the program was up to, because it worked against me as much as for me.
The upshot was, however clever Word was, however good its grammar and spell-checker, I had to go over every single word, indeed every single letter, with extreme visual care and great thought. I had to check and double-check against dictionaries and thesauri. I had to dredge my memory for grammar and conjugations (and just to make life harder, the French use conjugations in the written language that they never use in the spoken language; since my French has been almost entirely verbal since I left school, and since the written conjugations are archaic and difficult, it really is an intense challenge!). I had to think and look and check and double- and triple-check, just to make sure that a common-or-garden phrase was correct.
Nevertheless, whilst it was much harder for me to do in French, I do not believe that any of checking, concentration and attention I paid to the language, spelling and grammar was more than I should pay to my writing in English. I try to watch what my tools are doing, and I try to get it right without them. For example, I typed this in direct, and then I pasted it all into Word to check it and word-count: I did this several times (adding this paragraph, for example). Initially, I had made three spelling errors due to typos. I might very well not have spotted those errors myself, and for that, these tools are great. But I had only made three, and they were specifically typos, not errors due to lack of knowledge.
The upshot of all this is: spell and grammar checkers are wonderful as supporting tools, but they cannot, ever, replace personal knowledge or the eagle-eye. You need to consider every single tiny black mark on that white screen: we are sensitive creatures, the difference between a millimetre long diagonal line facing one way or facing the other can entirely change the meaning of a word.
Use tools, but try to be knowledgeable enough so that you know whether what the tool does or tells you is right. Make your own decisions, and be capable of making them: you are a writer and a creator, therefore you do not necessarily have to slavishly follow a pre-defined set of rules! If you are writing dialogue or are purposefully writing to express slang or relaxed language, then the tool's rules are probably incorrect for how you specifically wish to express yourself. For example: I have ignored various warnings or presumed errors that Word still thinks I have in this piece (in the first paragraph especially), because it was written in precisely the way that I wished to express it. Of course, AG might disapprove... and I will listen to her, I promise! but I may choose not to take her advice. Much the same attitude as I take to the grammar-checker in Word.
I still think my best advice on self-proofing is to go away, leave it for a day or two or more (I prefer a month or so), and then re-read it: having fresh eyes is the best way to spot problems.
