Spelling and Writing

To quote my favorite storyteller: I ain’t no grammarian.

I have long marveled at the gaping trench that sometimes opens between the mysterious art of storytelling and the craft of writing.

Why are some writers competent technicians but lackluster storytellers? Why are some storytellers grammatically challenged?

Must the great ones be stellar in both aspects? Why?

{I suspect there are too many WHYs up there^.}
 

Back to my favorite storyteller, Ms., Fannie Flagg. (Yes, the Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café and Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven Fannie Flagg.) There’s a quotation from her that has been a flag-post of sorts for me: “I can’t spell worth a nickel, but no one can tell my stories the way I can.” Fannie used a saltier word for ‘nickel,’ but I’m not so pungent.

As it turns out, Ms. Flagg is dyslexic. She’s also a genius and a national treasure.
 

Maybe my point is that great writing is much more than technique. My father used to say that editors were invented to place the commas, but writing was vision first.
 

Like the old dilemma of whether to start from plot or character, both vision and technique matter. Try drinking nectar without a cup! But if it must be weighted, I’d tilt toward vision. A vision-less great technician is like an empty cup. Nice, sturdy, and leaves you thirsty.
 

This may be my excuse or justification of daring to write even though I’m grammatically challenged.

Fair enough. Now tell that to Fannie Flagg.