Grammar is the study of how sentences are constructed. Within the study of grammar, we find “subject-verb agreement” and “verb tense” and “syntax;” in short, words and phrases that explain the logic behind language. But grammar is not just about creating sentences that make sense. It holds the language together, so that we may better communicate with one another the beauty in our existence. Just as simple algebra leads to the complex physics that explains the universe, so do grammar and its usage lead to the prose that expresses everything. Using advanced grammar helps to convey reality rather than just writing about reality.
Novels help us better understand the many facets of the human condition. In chapter two of How Proust Can Change Your Life, Alain de Botton insinuates that novels actually heal us by allowing insight into humanity. In reading, we learn about ourselves; de Botton states, “In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self.” We also learn about other people—“we are repeatedly able to read about people we know.” Novels expand our horizons, letting “worlds that had seemed threateningly alien reveal themselves to be essentially much like our own, expanding the range of places in which we feel at home.” A reader cannot read himself or his friends into poorly written prose, nor can he feel at home in simple syntax. In order to effectively display something complex, we must use complex means; nothing short of an advanced use of language could adequately display characters complex enough to allow a deeper understanding of mankind.
Great writing is not just the result of intense character development. A story is not a story without plot, and plot does not come out of inexperience. Experience gives us something to write about. In chapter one, de Botton gives us this directive: love life today, not tomorrow or the next day. Learn how to appreciate a morning cup of coffee as the delicious deep brown and bitter liquid that it is. View a cold walk to wherever as refreshingly crisp. Or choose to see a particularly fierce argument as enlightening. He implores us to take note of everything we do and what is around us instead of blindly going through the motions. When we begin to experience life—both the good and the bad—we then discover “a host of untried possibilities lurking beneath the surface of an apparently undesirable, apparently eternal existence.” When we are active in our lives we can write in a way that is believable and subsequently relatable. And when we write about our experiences, just as we pay attention to the details in our everyday business, so should we pay attention to the details in our writing.
