The Language of The Harrisons

In A Year with the Harrisons, I didn't care overly much about correct speech, going at all times for a very natural-sounding flow of language. The way people really speak isn't correct whatsoever, and I don't get a thing out of stiff fictional dialogue. Having characters with perfect speech patterns, never an error of grammar, syntax, or word usage, is like having characters with all their flaws ironed out. I don't think I'd like to marry a perfect man. I wouldn't know what to talk to him about. And characters with perfect speech are like perfect anything else-not real. 

I actually don't care much about language overall. When anyone mentions "editing" I know it's only a veiled way of saying they thought the story was boring and they didn't overly like it. Books that interest readers never, ever get the dreaded editing conversation, no matter how flawed they are. (Or how filled with actual errors.) I was amazed by how many typos were in the old Facebook document of A Year with the Harrisons, typos that were never mentioned, whereas even a few tiny errors were discussed seriously in other stories. That's because, whatever its weaknesses, people did think Harrisons was interesting. And being interesting makes so many, many things in a book suddenly forgivable. 

Language communicates what we care about. If we care about it, we don't care how it is said--as everyone with a small child overlooks that their little gifts to Mom are clumsy, crayon-drawn, and illegible. She sees only the most lovely thing and just exactly what she wanted. But since no one is allowed to say a book is boring these days (because that conversation, once started, would never end) we notice their "errors," "editing," and "typos." 

And there will be more updates.