| |
| |
|
Writing Information |
|
|
|
Common Writing Mistakes
Most books aren't rejected because the stories are "bad." They're rejected because they're not "ready to read." In short, minor stuff like typos, grammar, spelling, etc. I don't mean places where we, as authors, deliberately break the rules. Those are fine. That's part of our job. Language always changes with use, and we can help it on its way. No, I'm referring to places where someone just plain didn't learn the rule or got confused or overlooked it during the self-edits. I started editing novels in 2001. Looking back at my experiences, I feel like sharing the most common mistakes I've seen. If you'll go through your manuscript and fix these before you submit it to a publisher, your odds of publication will increase dramatically. Once you've found a publisher who publishes what you write, you want to present yourself in the best way possible. Submitting an unedited manuscript is a bit like going to a job interview wearing a purple Mohawk, no shoes, torn jeans, and a dirty T-shirt. Your resume may be perfect, and your qualifications impeccable, but something tells me you won't get the job. The publisher is investing a lot in every book it accepts. E-publishers tend to invest loads of time, and print publishers tend to invest an advertising budget and the cost of carrying an inventory. Why ask them to invest hours and days of editing time as well? If the publisher gets two or three or ten nearly identical books, you want yours to be the one requiring the least editing. The first thing you need to do, and I hope you've already done it, is use the spelling and grammar checkers in your word processor. This will catch many of the "common mistakes" on my list. But I've been asked to edit many books where the author obviously didn't do this, and I confess that I may well have been lazy and let a couple of mine get to my editors unchecked. Bad Michael! Here's a list of the mistakes I see most often. * Dialogue where everyone speaks in perfect English and never violates any of the bullet points below. Okay, I made that up. That's not really a common problem at all. But I have seen it, and it's a terrible thing. * It's is a contraction for "it is" and its is possessive. * Who's is a contraction for "who is" and whose is possessive. * You're is a contraction for "you are" and your is possessive. * They're is a contraction for "they are," there is a place, their is possessive. * There's is a contraction for "there is" and theirs is possessive. * If you've been paying attention to the above examples, you've noticed that possessive pronouns never use apostrophes. Its, whose, your, yours, their, theirs... * Let's is a contraction for "let us." * When making a word plural by adding an s, don't use an apostrophe. (The cats are asleep.) * When making a word possessive by adding an s, use an apostrophe. (The cat's bowl is empty.) * A bath is a noun, what you take. Bathe is a verb, the action you do when taking or giving a bath. * A breath is a noun, what you take. Breathe is a verb, the action you do when taking a breath. * You wear clothes. When you put them on, you clothe yourself. They are made of cloth. * Whenever you read a sentence with the word "that," ask yourself if you can delete that word and still achieve clarity. If so, kill it. The same can be said of all sentences. If you can delete a word without changing the meaning or sacrificing clarity, do it. "And then" is a phrase worth using your word processor's search feature to look for. * Keep an eye on verb tenses. "He pulled the pin and throws the grenade" is not a good sentence. * Keep an eye on making everything agree regarding singular and plural. "My cat and my wife is sleeping," "My cat sleep on the sofa," and "My wife is a beautiful women" are not good sentences. (I exaggerate in these examples, but you know what I mean.) * I and me, he and him, etc. I hope no editor is rejecting any novels for this one, because I suspect that most people get confused at times. In dialogue, do whatever the heck you want because it sounds more "natural." But for the sake of your narrative, I'll try to explain the rule and the cheat. The rule involves knowing whether your pronoun is the subject or object. When Jim Morrison of The Doors sings, "til the stars fall from the sky for you and I," he's making a good rhyme but he's using bad grammar. According to the rule, "you and I" is the object of the preposition "for," thus it should be "for you and me." The cheat involves pretending "you and" isn't there, and just instinctively knowing "for I" just doesn't sound right. (I think only native English speakers can use my cheat. For the record, I have great admiration for authors writing in languages that aren't their native tongues.) * Should of, would of, could of. This one can make me throw things. It's wrong! What you mean is should have, would have, could have. Or maybe you mean the contractions. Should've, would've, could've. And maybe 've sounds a bit like of. But it's not! Of is not a verb. Not now, not ever. * More, shorter sentences are better. Always. Don't ask a single sentence to do too much work or advance the action too much, because then you've got lots of words scattered about like "that" and "however" and "because" and "or" and "as" and "and" and "while," much like this rather pathetic excuse for a sentence right here. * On a similar (exaggerated) note: "He laughed a wicked laugh as he kicked Ralphie in the face while he aimed the gun at Lerod and pulled the trigger and then laughed maniacally as Lerod twisted in agony because of the bullet that burned through his face and splattered his brains against the wall and made the wall look like an overcooked lasagne or an abstract painting." Now tell me this sentence isn't trying to do too much. * Too means also, two is a number, to is a preposition. * He said/she said. Use those only when necessary to establish who's speaking. They distract the reader, pulling him out of the story and saying, "Hey look, you're reading a book." Ideally, within the context of the dialogue, we know who's talking just by the style or the ideas. When a new speaker arrives on the scene, identify him or her immediately. Beyond that, keep it to a minimum. Oh yeah, and give every speaker his/her own paragraph. * Billy-Bob smiled his most winning smile and said, "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" I don't like this. Use two shorter sentences in the same paragraph. Billy-Bob smiled his most winning smile. "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" Same effect, fewer words, no dialogue tag (he said). * In the previous example, I don't like "smiled his most winning smile," because it's redundant and also cliched. Please, if you find yourself writing something like that, try to find a better way to express it before you just give up and leave it like it is. During the self-edit, I mean, not during the initial writing. * "The glow-in-the-dark poster of Jesus glowed in the dark." This editor won't let that one go. Much too redundant, and it appeared in a published novel. * Lie is what you do when you lie down on the bed, lay is what you do to another object that you lay on the table. Just to confuse matters, the past tense of lie is lay. Whenever I hit a lay/lie word in reading, I stop and think. Do that when you self-edit. (Note: Don't fix this one in dialogue unless your character is quite well-educated, because most people say it wrong. I do.) * Beware of the dangling modifier. "Rushing into the room, the exploding bombs dropped seven of the soldiers." Wait a minute! The bombs didn't rush into the room. The soldiers did. To get all technical about it, the first part is the "dependent clause," and it must have the same subject as the "independent clause" which follows. Otherwise it's amateur, distracting, and a real pain for your poor overworked editor. * If you are able (many readers are not), keep an eye out for missing periods, weird commas, closing quotes, opening quotes, etc. When I read a book, be it an ebook or a printed book, I can't help but spot every single one that's missing. They slap me upside the head, which makes me a great editor but a lousy reader. If you're like me, use that to your advantage. If not, that's what editors are for! Copyright 2005, Michael LaRocca Michael LaRocca's website at http://www.chinarice.org was chosen by WRITER'S DIGEST as one of The 101 Best Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. His response was to throw it out and start over again because he's insane. He teaches English at a university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, and publishes the free weekly newsletter WHO MOVED MY RICE?
MORE RESOURCES:
Writing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Stimulate Your Sensebuds...and Wave Goodbye To Writers Cramp! When you get stuck for ideas, and the words won't flow, invariably it's because one, more or all of your senses aren't being stimulated.Staring at a blank screen or sheet of paper really doesn't help. Freelance Writing: How Many Regular Clients Should You Have? This is a tough question for every freelance writer. For me, the worst working scenario is when a few weeks go by and all my work comprises one-off jobs for small clients who never become repeat customers. Writing Made Them Rich #4: Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelho was born on August 24th 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.At age 17 he announced his intention to be a writer. Realize Your Book Dream In 2005! If you haven't realized the success you wanted last year, here's a way to reap the harvest with 86% improvement!Use the power of visualization.When you see, hear, and feel your book project already manifested through specific outcomes, you'll be in the 86% success group. How to Write Articles, Reports, and Books Quickly Do you have trouble getting your thoughts and ideas down into an article? Do you find it difficult to put 'pen to paper' to get your book started? Do you sit facing a blank screen struggling to find the words to write? If so, here are some tips and strategies you can use to get your material written quickly.1. Business Writing Tip: Question & Answer Format Traditionally, business writing uses the "one thing after another" format, which usually means a plain recitation of the facts, circumstances, or whatever else needs to be said.But, we have a number of other options, and some of them may provide more responses or better responses. Write a Letter, Make a Difference Today I took the dog for a walk and realized that there is a letter that I must write. Near our house, we walk up a once paved road that is now mostly rock and mud. Where to Look for Your Next Project when You're Writing for Profit When my first book "Starting Your Own Business" was published way back in 1995, I thought that was it. I reckoned I'd never write another one. The Unwritten World Of The Reality Of Letterwriting You may wonder why I have chosen this title of this post. Well from my experience is that it is really hard to put the feeling into words about what letter writing means to me. Becoming A Successful Author: The Price! So you want to be a successful author? You want to be up there with Brown, Archer, King, but what price are you prepared to pay? You might be lucky and your first book could be an overnight success but the chances are you'll be hacking it for years before success knocks.If you decided to become a lawyer, an accountant, a bricklayer, or even to start an 'ordinary' business then you would be prepared to make sacrifices, to invest in the future. Pages: Your Book of Life Many of us dream of writing a book. Why not. Extreme Research: 10 Snappy Rules For Success So you want to learn to research well, and not waste any time. Let's do it. Power Writing 101: Tips and Tricks to Get You Taken Seriously! In my ten years as an advertiser, I've encountered plenty of folks with a flair for writing. They were born having some idea of where to put the words within the sentence, and the sentences within the paragraph. 3 Quick and Easy Ways to Generate Story Ideas There are many ways you can generate ideas you can use for your stories, articles and other creative pieces. Start with the three ways given below:1. How to Write Headlines for How-to Articles Want to write a how-to article but can't come up with a topic?Start by naming the three biggest problems your customers or clients face. You've just come up with three ideas for three different articles. Keeping a Love Journal Do you love someone very deeply? A spouse, son, daughter, or maybe a group of people. February 14 is Valentine??s Day. Imagine The Imagination Imagine a three hundred page book was in the author's mind before it was poured out onto the pages of the book.Imagine all those words are words we all know and use but one person takes those words and arranges them in a certain way in the mind; the person fuses these words to form a story. Mission Possible: Get Published with Goals, Guidance, and Persistance You send me an e-mail. You tell me you've written over three hundred poems since you were 16 (in your teenage angst stage). New York Code Orange Jaisini New Art Series The creativity of Jaisini is not designed to be preaching or too critical. Paul Jaisini reached his level of mastership to know exactly that life is worth living to look in the future having no regrets about the past. Turbo Charge Your Career! Write And Produce Your Own Stage Play! Have you ever wondered how you can adapt your screenplay or novel into a stage play? Do you have a story that you yearn to see on stage? Or, maybe you're an actor frustrated by the barrage of fruitless auditions and dream of performing before a live audience. If so, writing and producing your own stage play just may be the ticket to turbo charging your career.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
