Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Spelling and grammar
Quicken and polish
Tweak

This book is about the FAST System. It’s about the approach to writing — not the rules of the English language.

So I’m not going to cover the details of good spelling and grammar. There are hundreds of excellent resources out there already (and plenty of free resources on the internet, too).

What I want to do instead is give you some insight into what you’re looking for. What you must look for!

Correct spelling is crucial. A misspelled word either has a different meaning to what you thought, or it conveys a different idea to what you’re intending.

So forget spellcheck on your computer. It’s a start, but it’s not foolproof. It misses a ton of words.

For example, if you say “accept” instead of “except,” your spellcheck won’t notice. But your meaning just changed entirely.

Always manually check your spelling. And if you’re not good with that sort of thing, get someone else to do it for you.

Same goes for grammar — the rules of writing. Nouns and verbs need to be in the right places, or else you kill the flow.

If you know anything about grammar, you know I break some of the rules. Often. (Like that!)

Here’s my rule of thumb: You can only break a rule if a) you know the rule, and b) you’ve got a good reason for breaking it.

I use sentence fragments. Intentionally. Because I want my writing to feel like I’m talking to you. In person.

But aside from those fragments (and sentences beginning with conjunctions), I obey most of the rules of grammar. Why? It’s efficient! Good grammar tends to be smooth, fluid writing.

As you Tweak your work, scour it for spelling and grammar mistakes. And if you don’t know the rules, learn them!