Im sure we all have horror storys. I find correct grammer use to be a complete mine field. (this is after having extra tuition for my whole school life, writing to try and combat my dyslexia, having software that is supposed to highlight these silly mistakes) Problem is I know im going wrong, but im not sure where or why. Reading aloud is supposed to highlight most of the flaws. but sometimes the intonation of ones own voice hides them even more. I have been saying to myself get the content reading well and then buy an editor, but its hard to get constructive reviews when you have a colon in the wrong place... and even harder for a reader to keep in the plot if they are spotting gramatical errors. So what im after here, from the community, are hints and tips for your own gramatical editing. How do you spot a sentence that is not working; how do you know when a comer should be a full stop? It would be great to hear other horror storys too.
Sorry, one more thing to add - don't always take what the grammar check on your computer tells you as the truth. If yours is anything like mine (ie. rubbish) it will often tell you something that is correct, isn't - and then attempt to correct it in the wrong way. I appreciate that it's not always easy to tell (everyone gets confused, even if they don't suffer from dyslexia) so my advice would be to treat it with caution at all times!
I've had bad experiences with incorrect grammar in the past ... I won a competition for flash fiction and my masterpiece was put onto the website of the organisation. Unfortunately, I did read the warning that 'stories will be uploaded exactly as they were sent to us' (ie. any mistakes you make will not be corrected) but not usually finding grammar/spelling problematic I didn't pay much heed. I proudly showed the story to my family when it was put up onto the website, and the first thing my mum noticed was that I'd written 'whose' instead of 'who's'. I know it's forgivable but my story is still up there and it annoys me every time I think about it! On the plus side, I guess it shows that certain judges won't discard work if they find an error of that nature.
Regarding advice, I'm afraid I can't offer much beyond what has already been said - but I wouldn't let it get you down. There's a huge difference between being able to write correctly, for the purposes of formalities such as letters, articles etc, and being able to write creatively. If your stories/poetry/whatever it is you're working on are well-worded, interesting and full of nice ideas then my advice would be not to let the grammar issue worry you too much. There's a wide range of grammar guides available on Amazon - I've just checked - so maybe investing in one of those would be useful. You could keep it at hand when writing and use it as a reference book if you're unsure of what punctuation to use in a certain instance, though without getting bogged down or paranoid, and interrupting the flow of writing. There are some things, as you say, that are impossible to highlight just from reading (evidenced perfectly by my whose/who's blunder!).
Sometimes (sorry, this is rather a long answer) grammar that could be seen as technically incorrect can be used to great effect in creative writing. I personally use semi colons in places where I'm not entirely sure if they're allowed just because they seem to allow for the right length of pause, and long sentences consisting of a load of clauses separated by commas can be great for tension/stream of consciousness/mimicking realistic thought processes. So sometimes, if a piece of punctuation feels right, but strictly speaking isn't, it doesn't much matter. At least that's what I tell myself ...
And finally - a nice inspirational story. A few years ago I had an English teacher who was quite severely dyslexic. She spent a lesson teaching us how to use the colon and it turned out that she hadn't got it quite right ... but she was such a brilliant teacher. People in my class nominated her for a teaching award and she got through to the semi-finals, as I recall. She was so exciting and inspiring that it didn't matter if we had to help her spell words on the white board. Similarly, I'm sure that a sympathetic reader will excuse any grammatical mistakes in your writing if the story and writing has otherwise grabbed them. It might be different with a professional editor, but at least if you found a secondary reader to do the above they could sort out most sticky areas for you in preparation for submission.
Hope that you could glean something useful from that rather rambly reply - and I wish you luck with your writing.
S. A. Barlow, it looks good but there is a monthly fee after the trial.