I once witnessed two people in the professional writing industry have a full-scale discussion with bbq dripping from their cheeks. Yeah…pros loving that grilled and sauced chicken, chewing with mouths wide open, discussing their latest writing/editing projects.

Eewwww. Normally, a quick comment with a bit of lunch in between the molars bothers me not, but bbq slipping between teeth and out the front door—no.

How could I concentrate? Am I a manners snob? I don’t think so, I mean I do the elbows-on-the-table move all the time, but let’s edit the meal, shall we?

But being unable to get passed a pet peeve born of pretension is often more annoying than the peeve itself. I’ve heard more than a few peeve experts say that if they see a sentence fragment or a typo on the first page of a book, they quit reading the story on principle. I’m not sure which principle they’re referring too, I’m mean one of my favorite books had messed up formatting in a few pages of the book (not due to author error), but the story was AwEsOme–and a skilled author can pull off a sentence fragment like it’s a work of art. Formatting blips forgiven. I say if the peeved aren’t reading for the story, what are they reading for (this is not to say that writers shouldn’t strive for excellence)? Jesus chose fisherman to teach the world, after all, he didn’t choose the teachers of the time…maybe because they focused on the rules rather than Jesus.

What a difference that would have made in their lives. That’s okay, though, we got a great world-changing story out of twelve unexperts, grammar errors and all.

What do you think? Where do you draw the line?

Note to storytellers: Do you have a great faith story? Consider submitting here.