I am 100% unfamiliar with the work of US writer Joan Didion, whose writing is apparently permeated by a ‘sense of anxiety and dread’.

But here is a good short piece by Maria Popova about JD’s views on writing technique. I was struck by her (JD’s) fine explanation of why grammar matters:

Grammar is a piano I play by ear, since I seem to have been out of school the year the rules were mentioned. All I know about grammar is its infinite power.

To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed. Many people know about camera angles now, but not so many know about sentences.

The arrangement of the words matters, and the arrangement you want can be found in the picture in your mind. The picture dictates the arrangement. The picture dictates whether this will be a sentence with or without clauses, a sentence that ends hard or a dying-fall sentence, long or short, active or passive.

Piffle to what she says about (not) learning grammar at school. She obviously mastered it to the point of being able to write beautifully and precisely. You are best at breaking the rules of grammar or anything else when you really know what they are – and why they are important.

The greater your grasp of grammar, the greater the writing tools you have for conveying just as much precision as you need to, balancing it with just the right nuances, and using just the right number of words to do those things well.

I recently was given a 2400 word report and asked to propose ways in which it could be done better. I easily lopped off 700 words with no loss of meaning or substance at all. Part of that is getting rid of verbal fluff and stupid tautology (to further develop). But the main part was using good grammar to nail the key meaning with fewer words.

Let grammar be a load-bearing device in your writing work. Makes life a lot easier for your reader.