The Greatest Sin

What is the greatest sin? No I’m not going to pretend to know the answer to theological questions that have befuddled religious leaders for millennia. I don’t know if failing to donate a large enough amount constitutes a sin, or if not adopting the correct posture while talking to your god is a flagrant misdeed that will cause you to loose points. Here I propose to write about the sins of writers.

Now there are those who would say that a writer should pray or beseech Calliope the muse of poetry or writing, to learn what to write. Others might say that writers should pray to Saint Francis de Sales for guidance. I won’t dismiss such efforts. Anyone who has picked up pencil or pen and attempted to put their thoughts down on paper, or whatever else you might have to scribble on, knows that you need all the help you can get in the process.

What then would be a sin for those who would write their stories? I’ve read many scholarly articles that say a writer who abuses the rules of grammar, has no right to be called an author. Others say that a writer who misspells words in his, or her, attempt to place their stories before the reader has brought shame down upon their heads. I personally have always had a problem with spelling. I don’t suffer from dyslexia, I just happen to fall into that group of folks who have difficulty spelling a word. As for following the rules of grammar, I have had a running battle with commas for years now. Should there be one before a quote with in a sentence? Is there one needed before the last place in a listing? Personally I like to put them wherever I feel the need for a pause.

All of the above has probably given you the ability to guess that I don’t view infractions of grammar or spelling as sins. Well at least not major sins. Were I speaking from a catholic position I might refer to them as “venial” sins and not “mortal” sins. I don’t think that errors such as those could cause a writer to lose his life as a writer and doom him to a life of doodling and writing awful puns.

I think that a writer’s greatest sin is not to write. By that I mean to give up writing, not just to miss a day in their daily journal. [Is there such a thing as the “occasional” journal?] I know of folks who believe that if you intend to be called a writer you must write something every day. I also have met persons who speak of suffering from a “writer’s block” that stops them from putting words down on paper.

I don’t think that if you miss a day or so in developing your story, your hands will turn to stone and you will never be able to write again. I do believe that if you have a story inside of you waiting to come out, you have a duty to that story to bring it out to the light of day and the eyes of your readers.

I have gone for days without getting back to a story I was writing. The computer mocks me as I check the daily stock reports. The words on the news stories start to blur, and I have trouble reading even the simplest story about a lost puppy. If I pick up a pencil to do a Sudoku I find my hand scratching out the name of a character in the margin when I’m not looking. Eventually I give up and go back to the story, lest I live in “sin.”