Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Three sets of words that are easily confused

Our language is in constant flux. Today’s I’m discussing three sets of words that are easily confuse:  All together: (as two words). Altogether”(single word). All ready (as two words).  Already (single word). All right” (as two words). Alright” (single word). I’ll explain why one of the six is not a real word. All Together, and Altogether, let’s tackle the easy stuff first, words that really are words.

All Together and  AltogetherReal words. The first pair is, All together, and Altogether. The two-word phrase, all together,  means “collectively”, Everyone is doing something all in one place all or at once, i.e., “We sang the Christmas carols all together.”

If you like, you can break up this two-word saying, as in “We all sang the Christmas carols together.” “Altogether,” spelled as one word, means entirely, as in “She’s altogether too tired to continue.” You certainly can’t do the separation trick here. “She’s all too tired together. Again, it doesn’t make sense.

All Ready and Already 

Real words. The second pair of often-confused words is, All ready, and  Already”. “All ready” used as two words means connotes preparedness i.e., “The pies are all ready to be eaten.” You can separate the two words and the sentence still makes sense: “All the pies are ready to be eaten.”  Already, used as a single word is concerned with time; it means, previously, i.e. “I can’t believe you ate the pies already.” As with altogether, as a single word, you cannot do the separation trick, and say, “I can’t believe you ate all the pies ready.” That doesn’t make sense.

All Right and Alright
One of these is not like the other. We’ve come to the third pair of words. At the beginning, I said one of the words isn’t a real word. Is it “all right” as two words or “alright” as a single word? In his book Lapsing Into a Comma, grammarian Bill Walsh puts it this way. “We word nerds have known since second grade that alright is not all right. He’s talking about Alright being used as one word, and it’s not okay. Another style guide agrees, saying that “alright” (as a single word) is a misspelling of all right, which means, satisfactory, permissible, or adequate.”

 You might hear the two-word phrase in sentences such as these: “His cooking was just all right” or “Is it all right if I wait in the car?” It seems pretty simple: go ahead and use “all right” as two words, and stay away from “alright” the one word.”

 As always you’ll find other opinions and contradictions. The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style is one book that seems to contradict itself. It states that “alright” as one word “has never been accepted as standard. It  goes on to explain that “all right” as two words and “alright” as one word have two distinct meanings. It gives the example of the sentence “The totals are all right.” When you use “all right” as two words, the sentence means “the figures are all accurate.” When you write, “The totals are alright.”,  this source explains that the sentence means  “the figures are satisfactory.” I’m not sure what to make of this contradiction, but Bryan Garner, the esteemed
lawyer, lexicographer, and teacher notes this,  “alright” as one word, may be gaining a shadowy acceptance in British English. (As in the word Toward and Towards. Toward is the accepted usage in American English. Towards is the British usage.) I checked other grammar sources, including a large dictionary and they all reject “alright” as one word.


 Summary
 As I stated earlier, language is always in flux, so perhaps “alright” as one word is gaining a small footing. Some of you may get confused about how to use each of the. It’s just a matter of remembering what each phrase or word means. If you tend to forget, just use the dictionary to check the spelling, and remember at the present time, “alright” as one word is currently not acceptable English, though it may become so in the future

Friday, October 18, 2013

Omniscient Point of View

Omniscient Point of View

The omniscient POV is most closely associated with nineteenth century novels. Simply put is the author saying to the reader, Let me tell you a story.” Omniscience, means "all knowing,". The authors of these novels allow a third person narrator to assume godlike powers.
  
1) They know everything about the characters and can enter the minds of any one of them, whenever they choose.

2) They can enter the minds of the cat on the windowsill and the spider in the barn also.

3) They know everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen, and they have complete freedom to move through time in any direction.

4) They also have complete freedom to move through space - and so they can move from one room to another (and back again) in the middle of a scene, or to the other side of town, or even to the other side of the world one hundred years ago.

When using an Omniscient POV, new writers believe anything goes, it doesn’t. Some writer assume (wrongly so) that head jumping is an omniscient viewpoint. While I agree with Science fiction author Nancy Kress’ statement: "Writers are gods. We get to create entire worlds, populate them, and even...destroy them. Of course, writers can do this in any viewpoint, but omniscient point of view adds another layer to the process." The omniscient POV can be annoying, especially when it’s mishandled.  

Head Hopping Verses Omniscient POV

As stated before some writers head hop (jumping from character to character in a scene) and try to pass it off as Third Person Omniscient.

In my post on Third Person Multi, I uses the detective in the interrogation room. Let take that and turn it into a Third Person Omniscient. 

Detective Fay laced her fingers together, propped her elbows on the silver table and leaned forward. Tapping her lower lip with her thumbs, she eyed the emaciated man across from her. The interview room, set up only for interrogations, had no paintings on the walls and nothing adorning the tabletop between the Detective and her suspect. The new, enlarged two-way mirror, sat in the wall directly behind her head. She'd been chasing this jackal for months and all Fay wanted now was his confession.

"So Charlie, let’s go over this again. Where were you on the evening of November 26th?"

Charlie’s eyed widened for brief second before he dropped his stone mask in place. He opened his mouth then clamped it shut again. Detective Fay’s stared bored into the man and caused Charlie’s fear level to shoot up like the temperature on an August afternoon in Phoenix.

Charlie baulked. He didn't know what Detective Fay had on him, but a sudden claustrophobic feeling tightened the knot in his gut. Fay had him cornered and he knew wasn’t leaving here without a brand new, shiny set of bracelets decorating his wrists.

The narrator’s telling the story, it may be Fay’s boss, her husband, or a reported close to the police department. The narrator is telling us what going on and the only time we hear from the characters is in their dialogue. 

Now take head hopping.

Detective Fay laced her fingers together, propped her elbows on the silver table and leaned forward. Tapping her lower lip with her thumbs, she eyed the emaciated man across from her. I’ve been chasing this jackal for months. The interview room, set up for interrogations, had no paintings on the walls and nothing adorning the tabletop between them. I know he did it. The new, enlarged two-way mirror, sat directly behind her head. All I need is this cold bastard’s confession. "So Charlie, let’s go over this again. Where were you on the evening of November 26th?"

Charlie opened his mouth then clamped it shut again. What  could she have found? His eye widened for brief second. I cleaned up real good. I never miss anything. His stone mask settled into place as Detective Fay’s stared bored into him. In spite his best efforts, Charlie could feel his fear level shooting up like the temperature on an August afternoon in Phoenix. What-the-hell has she got? A sudden claustrophobic feeling tightened the knot in his gut. I can get out of this, she hasn't got me cornered. I’m leaving here without that shiny set of bracelets she’s been wanting to decorate my wrists with.

That’s a simple scene, but from who’s POV. It’s neither Charlie’s nor is it Detective Fay’s, and there is no narrator. We jump from head to head and never really know who is telling the story. If it’s Charlie, do I really what to read a book where the cold blooded murder is the protagonist. If Detective Fay’s is the protagonist then I want to remain in her POV and let interaction and reactions to Charlie fill in his character for me.

Does Omniscient Point of View Have a Place Today? 

Yes, but not much of one. It has all but disappeared, due to readers' changing tastes. As readers have grown more sophisticate they demand stories told from a First Person POV or a Third Person Multiple POV. The want to be drawn into the story and try to imagine the characters and setting in their own minds, not have a narrator lay out the characters and the story for them. 

However, if nineteenth century omniscient point of view novels are your thing and you think you can write a twenty-first century version, go for it. Just be aware of two things:

1.Technically, it is a most demanding viewpoint to use. You will really have to know what you’re doing to write a third person omniscient novel and not look amateurish. It’s the sign of a novice, or a lazy amateur when they claim to understand the POV and then you read their story and realize just how badly they've mishandle the entire manuscript. The irony is that most of the time, the author, he or she is unaware they've has done so.

2.Giving omniscience a modern twist is imperative. And the way to do that is to use your narrator’s more subtly than did our nineteenth century counterparts. A very similar effect to omniscience can be achieved with a more conventional Third Person Multiple Viewpoint novel.

As I stated earlier, the neutral narrator of such a novel is, "godlike" - and this neutral, godlike narrator had the ability to slip in and out of the bodies and minds of any number of viewpoint characters as they tell the story.

So the question is this.

What Sets a Third Person "Omniscient" Narrator Apart?

The omniscient narrator's voice will be far from neutral. The Omniscient Narrator can be as visible and as in-your-face to the readers as the author wants.

In H.G. Wells, ‘The Time Machine’, the narrator thought about the Time Traveller so along these lines. 

“I think at the time none of us quite believed in the time machine. The fact is, the Time Traveller was one of those men to clever to be believed: you never felt that you saw all around him, you always suspected some subtle reserve, some ingenuity in ambush, behind his lucid frankness.”

As you can tell the narrator isn't exactly holding back with an attitude and the opinion. The neutral narrator of a standard third person novel could never write a sentence like that. It’s just not acceptable

Not only can omniscient narrators share their attitudes and opinions and comments with the readers, they can actually address the readers directly. I have made up the following lines, but they are typical of what you would find in a nineteenth century novel.

So you see, dear reader, had Filby shown us the model and explained the matter in the Time Traveller’s words, we should have shown him far less scepticism.

In case you were wondering, as late as the 1920 & 1930 this POV was still in use in Science Fiction and Early Fantasy Fiction novels. I've read a few when I was a young, bored sailor on duty or stuck on ship with the duty weekend and found them engrossing. If I try reading them now, I can’t get passed the first chapter

Why would anyone want to write a novel in this way, or why would any reader want to read it? Simply put, a well written, opinionated narrator's telling of the story can be as entertaining as the story itself.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Third Person Multiple POV

Writers have different styles. Some write in the past tense while others in the present tense. A few use adverbs in abundance, while others may cringe at the use of even one. However, one of the biggest factors in identifying a writer's style is your choice of point-of-view (POV).

First, second, and third person views are different POVs at a writers disposal. But it goes a little further than that, POVs can be subdivided even further. This includes third person, multiple views, omniscient, subjective, and objective. I’d like to focus on the use of the third person POV with multiple characters views—Third Person Multiple POV.

As a writer you’ll find there are advantage and disadvantages in using the third person multiple POV. One benefit is the ability of the author to move the reader into each of your characters' heads. You give your readers an in-depth look at those who normally may not have the chance to give their input and move your camera so the scene(s) is(are) viewed through their eyes. Third person multiple POV provides the opportunity to grow a character every time you get in their head. The reader learns first-hand not just why the character is doing something, but what they're motivation is for acting a certain way. Your reader gets very intimate with the characters as they are privy to their thoughts.

Author Raymond E Fiest uses multiple third person POV with great success in his Fantasy Fiction series, The Rift War Saga. His readers are able to follow the lives of multiple protagonist. They follow Pug and Thomas as their lives unfold and watch what drives them both to make the decisions they do. The reader will be in the head Thomas as he grows to fulfill his childish brag of marrying the Queen of the Elves. They also follow Pug from orphan to inept magician’s apprentice, to capture slave, and finally to an all powerful, master magician. As a skilled author Fiest lets he readers get to know them as an individuals, and they learn about the character on a level different from they would have had he not used this POV. As a matter-of-fact, due to the characters separation at times by great distances it is the only way that this story could be handled

I’m not a big reader of romance novels, but third person multiple is frequently used in this writing genre. You can quickly recognize the style by the author’s use of the pronouns she and he. Romance authors like to use this POV as it's extremely helpful in watching the relationship building between both the heroine and the hero unfold. Romances are intimate by nature, and the use of third person multiple POV allows the reader to get intimately involved with each character as the attraction grows between them.

The skill to mastering third person multiple POV is not complicated, but there is a trick. A lot of novice writers sometimes try and use this technique, get confused, break POV rules, and wind up losing their readers. Head-hopping and multiple third person POV often get mixed up when they are in-fact two entirely separate matters.

Multiple third person POV rules require the author to stay in the one characters' head for an entire scene to maintain the proper POV. The rules involve writing a separate scenes from the viewpoints of each of the characters. Thus we cannot relay to the reader the thoughts of suspect Charlie while in the head of detective Fay.

The following passage, I hope will make this clear. The antagonist Charlie is the prime suspect in the murderer and the protagonist is Police Detective Johanna Fay:

Detective Fay laced her fingers together, propped her elbows on the silver table and leaned forward. Tapping her lower lip with her thumbs, she eyed the emaciated man across the table from her. The interview room, set up for interrogations, had no paintings on the walls and nothing adorning the tabletop between them. The new, enlarged two-way mirror, sat directly behind her head. She'd been chasing this jackal for months and all Fay wanted now was his confession.

"So Charlie, let’s go over this again. Where were you on the evening of November 26th?"

Charlie’s eyes widened for brief second before his stone mask dropped back in place. He opened his mouth the promptly clamped it shut again. Detective Fay’s stare bored into the man and Charlie’s fear levels spiked.

Charlie balked. He didn't know what Detective Fay had on him, but a sudden claustrophobic feeling tightened the knot in his gut. He realized he might not make it out of here without a brand new, shiny set of bracelets decorating his wrists.

Did you spot the POV shifts? There's two:
1) "Charlie’s fear levels spiked."
2) Charlie balked. He didn't know what Detective Fay had on him, but a sudden claustrophobic feeling tightened the knot in his gut. He realized he might not make it out of here without a brand new, shiny set of bracelets decorating his wrists.

I've spoken with new writers who can’t see the problem. They’ll say, “I’m telling this story and I need the reader to see what’s Charlie’s feeling and thinking.” Even when you explain that because Detective Fay is the POV character for scene, she can't tell what Charlie is thinking or feeling unless Charlie tell her, it doesn't hit home. This is a common POV error and one novice writers make time and again. (Myself included when I set out to write.)

Another common error writers make when using multiple third person is switching POV characters too often within a chapter. Some writers use Third Person Multiple POV as an excuse to enter the heads of several different characters in one scene. My co-author and I have a hard and fast rule, one POV character per chapter or scene. In Tyranny’s Outpost we have five viewpoint characters, Elise, Russ, Alex, Callin and Marga.

Our hierarchy for character priority has turned out like this. Elise our primary protagonist and the POV character for any scene she’s in. If Elise isn't in a chapter  Russ becomes the POV character. Alex has a scene that could only be written from his POV, since he’s alone on a hospital room. As our primary antagonist, scenes feature Callin’s POV. In our second book Tyranny’s Prisoner, when Alex and Callin or Alex and Marga are in a scene it falls to Alex’s POV. This is where show don’t tell becomes vital. Elise knows Russ very well so she can intrepid his looks and actions and we keep Russ cocky nature in the readers mind by showing what Elise sees and by her own internal thought. Most of the time we change chapters to shift POV characters, but on several occasions we've used scene breaks to alert our readers to a change.

There's no set rule about how long any particular scene should be for any of your characters, but switching back and forth too quickly can confuse your readers. If you find yourself shifting heads more than two or three times in a scene, there might be a problem, and you might want to take a step back to see which character will benefit the scene the most, and then rewrite the scene to hold that one person's POV. An easy rule of thumb is, One POV Character for One Scene. Any more marks you as a beginner or novice.

An important part of maintaining third person multiple POV is to make sure each of your characters is different enough so that the reader doesn't confuse him or her with a different character. This falls under the authors first responsibility, character building, than POV, but it's a very important point to keep in mind. Make sure all your characters have original and distinct traits. Giving each of them very different backgrounds, jobs, ages, and personalities is a beginning.

Why use multiple third person POV?

1) You give your readers the opportunity to learn what drives your characters. To see what makes they do things they may do.

2) You don't want your readers getting bored. This POV keeps up the tension, and lets you shift heads to keep your  reader on their toes.

3) From main characters to secondary ones, you the author broadens the scope of who should be included in the story.

4) Keeps the story’s pace moving. Your plot has to move along at a pace that keeps  your reader wanting to turn the page to the scene or the next chapter. Changing POV character gives your story momentum.

3) You offer your readers the diverseness of watching you antagonist plot his/her crimes while still letting them see what drives the hero or heroine.

How can you make third person multiple POV work for you?

1) Watch the amount of POV shifts you make. Make sure you stay with the character that give your scene the most impact and stay in their POV. Using Character priority will help.

2) Limit the number of  POV characters in your book. Too many POVs characters can end up confusing your readers. Your story can include many different characters, but limit the number of head changes in your manuscript. Quirks, habits and personalities of minor characters can be seen through you POV characters.

3) Make your scene changes clear. If you have to change POVs characters in the middle of the scene, make it clear that you've changed. Continuity when changing scenes is vital. Your story must pick up where the last scene left off. If I had placed a scene cut after Detective Fay asked Charlie her question, I would have written it to pick up immediately with Bill thinking of a clever answer to get him out of his predicament.

•If you're a beginning author who is trying out multiple third person POV for the first time, choose which characters are most important to your story. Stick to their heads and switch only when there's a need. Don't switch characters just to add their thoughts!  The result will be confusion for your reader.

•Keep your story focused. Just because you're giving the view of multiple characters doesn't take away your need to maintain a good pace. Character priority will give each character the weight they need to move the story while keeping them separate in your readers mind.

An author who can master third person multiple POV will wind up with a compelling story. Getting your readers into the heads of your characters can help your readers love them almost as much as you, the author who created them does. Remember to keep a strong grasp on how you’ve paced your novel and discipline yourself to the number of different views you use. I believe you’ll find that third person multiple can be a great tool for any author's toolbox.

Is Using First Person a Bad Idea?

Sometimes, writing in first person will be exactly the right choice for a novel. Whatever your reasons for choosing first person point of view might be, if you truly believe it is the best way to tell your story, than by all means follow your instincts. So long as you are aware of the limitations of the voice, and you are happy to work within those limitations, you will be fine.

“With whatever viewpoint and voice you choose, you should exploit the possibilities of the viewpoint and voice you have chosen rather than feel constrained by its limitations.”
- James N. Frey author of internationally best selling books on the craft of fiction writing.

•If your viewpoint character has a quirky and compelling voice, for example, and a unique (and subjective) way of looking at the world - like Huckleberry Finn and Forrest Gump - 1st person point of view is the viewpoint for you.

Perhaps you really don't get all this, “moving the camera around business.” You simply want to tell an intimate story through one character’s eyes (First Person).

Are you still unsure at this point which viewpoint to use? A question then. Can you see your novel working equally well in both first and third person? Then my advice would be to go with the third person point of view. Whereas a large majority of novels written by beginners use the first person viewpoint, a large majority of published novels are written in third person point of view.

Of course, a very similar effect to omniscience can be achieved with a more conventional 3rd person Multiple Viewpoint Novel.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

First Person Versus Third Person POV

The entire Third Person versus First Person debate can present any beginning novel writers with what may seem like insurmountable problems.

An author could write two versions of his or her novel - First in third person POV, and then in first person- and either would be acceptable, though they would be unique stories. The irony of fiction writing is that you can always change your mind. John Irving, the American novelist (I'm not a fan of him or his novels, but this is the case in point) wrote his early drafts of Until I Find You in the first person. Not until a much later draft did he shift the thousand-page novel to third-person point of view,  pare it down to eight hundred and twenty-one pages, and release it. Changing the POV in a novel that large is a lot of work.

If you have read any comprehensive information looking for advantages of the first person over the third person, you’ve probably more or less concluded about which viewpoint is right for your own novel. If you’re a movie buff like me, writing a novel is like having a camera you point for the reader and display your story. The reason for this summary is to help you make up your mind about how you want to direct your novel.

What Is The Best Viewpoint? 

You are far from wrong if you believe I’m writing this, to convince any writer straddling the line between the two POV’s, to jump to one side or the other. I like both, though I write from the third person side, I’m experimenting with a Science Fiction mystery in first person POV.

Taking into consideration all pros and cons, they seem to come out overwhelmingly in favor of using third-person point of view for most novels.

I generally consider that a first-person POV is an easier viewpoint to handle, but, as the old song goes, ‘It ain’t necessarily so’. Once you’ve master the theory behind each viewpoint, there’s nothing really difficult about either of them.

First-person is noticeably more intimate than the third person. Sue Grafton handles Kinsey Millhone  character masterfully using the first person POV Likewise, John D. MacDonald steered Travis McGee through his troubled waters in the first person. (I like the fact that both authors stuck to themes for their titles. Sue uses the alphabet for her titles: A is for Alibi,  B is for Burglar, etc. John D.. McDonald (1916-1986) used colors in his Travis McGee titles: Nightmare in Pink, The Empty Copper Sea, One Fearful Yellow Eye. I know I've pointed these out before.)

It is possible to replicate first-person intimacy while writing in third person. Third-person is more imminent than first-person - even using past tense, a well written third person POV doesn't destroy the illusion of the story taking place in the here and now. This shouldn't be a deterrent if you’re dead-set on writing your novel in first person. Third-person isn't as confining as first person can be. Using third-person point of view gives you the greatest freedom as a storyteller, in the sense that you can move your "viewpoint camera" around a lot more than in a first-person POV story. In first-person, your fix the camera behind the viewpoint character's eyes throughout your entire story. Third person and it is more objective, also, giving any writer the ability to present a more rounded portrait of their central character.

Monday, October 7, 2013

LOSE THE ADVERBS AND GAIN THE READER

This post is about using (overusing) adverbs in narrative not in dialogue.
While adverbs have their place, (even in narrative) beginners tend to use them to far to often, and established authors use them because they know they can get away with it. When it comes to adverb usage, the rules doe all should be:

1.) Omit the adverb if it doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence.

2.) Adverb usage means you’re not using a strong enough verb.

3.) If the adverb passes these two tests, you should keep it

Fast food employees need rules to do their job, but we're writers, we aren’t flipping burgers. We need to know the "Why?" or we get cooked (Rejected).

 
Before you send those hard worked pages of your novel to an agent or publisher for consideration, follow the adverb rules listed above. If you do some soul searching and honest reflection you'll find 99% of adverbs (even the most judiciously (lol) place ones), to an editor sound like nails on a chalkboard. You've played by the rules, yet in all honesty your adverbs failed the test. There has to be more to this adverb thing.

Why, you ask? Why this unnecessary prejudice against the lowly adverb? After your adverb-soul-searching I just spoke of, you'll find these three reasons to avoid adverbs helpful.

Reason 1
The use of any adverb may be a strong indicator of some contextual problems surrounding it, so it becomes a form of telling, not showing. Whether you’re writing in 1st person or 3rd person, at some point in your story you provide the reader with descriptive narrative. One example is in describing a setting the character is in, entering , or going to enter. Even if you have an adverb in the scene that passes all the rules, pull out from the sentence and ask yourself  "Am I doing a good enough job with the narration."  It’s possible you’re not painting the picture you want. What you need is a brush stroke, not a touch up. The adverb is a bandage for bad exposition.

Reason 2
The adverb may be an indicator of a point of view issue. This was a problem for many scenes for my co-author me. Our first book, written twenty years ago and recently pick up by a publisher, had many weak passages. We were confused until we realized we needed a tighter POV. (Pounded into our head by our publisher Show - Don't tell.) Twenty years ago we felt the adverbs conveyed the feelings of the scenes central character. Once we understood the problem, the adverbs disappeared and our scenes are much better.

Reason 3 Once you see the difference you'll understand how adverbs distance the connection between the reader and your characters, not enhance it. As writers there's a tendency to use adverbs because we feel we're heightening the reader experience, but in fact, once you take an honest look, most of the time the opposite is true.

(True Story) Take this excerpt from the first scene in a novel. The widower's young son wakes from a terrifying nightmare. The father enter the room and quiets him.

He hugged his weeping son, kissed his forehead, then gently rocked him back to sleep.

The adverb "gently" sounds like a good adverb. You would think so. The editor struck down. Your first thought is, that would remove the meaning. But in fact, the loss of the adverb enhances the scene.

He hugged his weeping son, kissed his forehead, then rocked him back to sleep.

By omitting the adverb "gently", it forces the reader to imagine the scene. And this, my dear writer, is what you want the reader to do. You want them to engage, to empathize and imagine. You want them to become your character. If you modify your verbs to tell the reader exactly what is going on, you keep them arms length and they never become invested in the character or your story.

At the Las Vegas writers conference an agent told us "If I find more then three adverbs in three hundred words I stop and send it back".

LOSE THE ADVERBS AND GAIN THE READER

Four Types of Sentences

In the English language when people form sentences, they do one of four things. They,

1)  ask questions.
2) make requests.
3) make a statement.
4) exclaim a powerful feeling or emotion.

 
Because sentences convey statements, requests, strong emotion, and questions we can categorized them into  four different types:

1) Declarative.
2) Interrogative?
3) Imperative.
4) Exclamatory!


Declarative sentences form a statement;

 Tomorrow I'll go to the shore.
 Yesterday I left work early.
 I told her wear her blue formal gown.
 She didn't want to drink the soda I gave her.
 We walked along the shore together.


Interrogative sentences form a question;

 What do you think I should wear my black shoes or my white sneakers?
 What did the teacher say to you yesterday?
 Didn't you go to the movies yesterday?


Imperative sentences make a command or request;

 Get me some water.
 Leave that cat alone.
 Go to the store for me.
 Bring me some ice cream.


Some people assume an imperative sentences has no subject when they do, the subject of imperative sentences is always you. In these type of sentences, the person that is making the command or request is always asking you to do something. For this reason, the subject in an imperative sentence is called you (understood). All though the subject may not be visible in the sentence, it is understood that the subject is always you.

To get a clearer understanding of imperative sentences, see the ones that follow;

 (You) get me a glass a beer.
 (You) leave the man alone.
 (You) ride to the store for me.
 (You) Bring me pitched of ice tea.


Exclamatory sentences are the sentences that attempt to powerful feelings, or emotions;

 I'm leaving!
 I can't wait to graduate!
 I love her (him) so much!
 We beat the opposing team!
 I can't believe he did that, I'm so upset!


The best way to distinguish one sentence from the other is to memorize what each type of sentence does. Declarative sentences are sentences that make a statement. Interrogative sentences are sentences that ask question. Imperative sentences are  request and command sentences, or sentences that give orders.  And the exclamatory sentences show a strong feeling or emotion.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Proofreading IV

More things to look at during a proof read.


Parallelism


Look through your manuscript  for series of items and make sure these items are in parallel form.

Example:
Being a good friend involves good listening skills, to be considerate, and that you know how to have fun.

Edited version:
Being a good friend involves knowing how to listen, being considerate, and having fun.

Pronoun Reference/Agreement

•During a proof read of any work, stop at each pronoun. Search for the noun that the pronoun replaces.  If you can't find any noun, insert one beforehand or change the pronoun to a noun. If you can find a noun, be sure it agrees in number and person with your pronoun.


Apostrophes

•Stop at only at any  words ending in "s." If you're using the "s" to indicate possession, there should be an apostrophe, as in Mary's book.

•Check every contractions, like you're for you are, it's for it is, etc. Each of these should include an apostrophe.

•Remember that apostrophes are not used to make words plural. When making a word plural, only an "s" is added, not an apostrophe and an "s."


Summary:
 


Proofreading is primarily all about searching your writing for errors, before submitting for your reading audience, a teacher, or a publisher, to see. I offer these resource to help you find and fix common errors.

Suggestions for Proofreading Your Paper.

One of the most difficult parts of the writing process is proofreading. It is easy for us to see what we think we wrote, not necessarily what our readers will read. These suggestions were offered to me and they should help you take a step back and view your writing more objectively.

Read your Paper Aloud

Any time your text is awkward or confusing, or any time you have to pause or reread your text, revise this section. If it is at all awkward for you, you can bet it will be awkward for your reader.

Examine your Paragraphs

Examine your overall paragraph construction. Look specifically at the length, supporting sentence(s), and topic sentence. Individual paragraphs that are significantly lacking length or sufficient supporting information as well as those missing a topic sentence may be a sign of a premature or under-developed thought.

Track Frequent Errors

Keep track of errors that you make frequently. once you can spot these you'll stop making them

Two principles

•Begin sentences with short, simple words and phrases that (a) communicate information that appeared in previous sentences, or (b) build on knowledge that you share with your reader.

•In a paragraph, keep your topics short and reasonably consistent.


Exercise: Diagnosis, Analysis, Revision

Diagnosis
1.Underline the first few words of every sentence in a paragraph, ignoring short introductory phrases such as "In the beginning," or "For the most part."


2.If you can, underline the first few words of every clause.

Analyze your Writing 

1.Read your underlined words. Is there a consistent series of related topics?
2.Will your reader see these connections among the topics?


3.Decide what you will focus on in each paragraph.

4.Imagine that the passage has a title. The words in the title should identify what should be the topics of most of the sentences.


Revision

1.In most of your sentences, make the topics the subject of verbs.

2.Avoid hiding your topic by opening sentences with long introductory clauses or phrases. Put most of the subjects at the beginning of your sentences.

Questions to ask yourself as you revise sentences

Do your sentences "hang together"?

1.Readers must feel that they move easily from one sentence to the next, that each sentence "coheres" with the one before and after it.

2.Readers must feel that sentences in a paragraph are not just individually clear, but are unified with each other.
 
 Have fun and do go through life with your story(s) stuck inside you.
  

Proofreading III

Reading your work aloud  slowly to yourself can help you see and hear miss, misplaced or repeated words. Look for the following.

Fragment Sentences

Make sure each sentence has a subject. This might seem basic, like Duh how else would I write a sentence. Sometimes during a rewrite/edit we can rework or break up a sentence and leave behind a sentence fragment that lack a subject.

Before edit:
Kalen cringed at the wounded sound of the child’s voice. Setting the computer aside he waved the boys in. "Of course I do, Caesar."

After edit:
Kalen cringed at the wounded sound of the child’s voice. Set the computer aside and waved the boys in. "Of course I do, Caesar."

Corrected
Kalen cringed at the wounded sound of the child’s voice. He set his computer aside and waved the boys in. "Of course I do, Caesar."

Make sure each sentence has a complete verb. In the following sentence, "were" is required to make a complete verb; "trying" alone would be incomplete: The boys were trying to coax Kalen into leaving his room.

See that each sentence has an independent clause. Remember an independent clause cannot stand on its own. The following sentence is a dependent clause that would qualify as a fragment sentence: Set the computer aside and waved the boys in.
 

Run-on Sentences

Review each sentence. Make sure it contains more than one independent clause.

•If there is more than one independent clause, check to make sure the clauses are separated by the appropriate punctuation.

•Sometimes, it is just as effective (or even more so) to simply break the sentence into separate sentences instead of including punctuation to separate the clauses.
 
Run-on example sentence:
I have to write a report for my class about rock climbing all I know about the subject is I'm interested in it as a  sport.

Edited version:
I have to write a report  for my class about rock climbing, and all I know about the subject is that I'm interested in it as a  sport.

Another option:
I have to write a report for my class about rock climbing. All I know about the subject is I'm interested in it as a  sport.

Comma Splices
•Look at the sentences that have commas.


•Check to see if the sentence contains two main clauses.

•If there are two main clauses, they should be connected with a comma and a conjunction like and, but, for, or, so, yet.

•Another option is to take out the comma and insert a semicolon instead.

Example:
I would like to write my write my report about rock climbing , it's a topic I can talk about at length.

Edited version:
I would like to write my report about rock climbing because it's a topic I can talk about at length.

Edited version, using a semicolon:
I would like to write my paper about basketball; it's a topic I can talk about at length.

(Many editors and publishers consider semi colons inappropriate in fiction writing. They will tell you they're for technical works. 

Subject/Verb Agreement

•Find the subject of each sentence.

•Find the verb that goes with the subject.

•The subject and verb should match in number, meaning that if the subject is singular, the verb should be as well. If the subject is plural the verb needs to be plural also. 

Example:
Authors on a deadline is usually very busy.

Edited version:
Authors on a deadline are usually very busy.

Mixed construction

Read through your sentences carefully to make sure that they do not start with one sentence structure and shift to another. A sentence that does this is called a mixed construction.

Example:
Since I have an important edit to complete is why I can't go out tonight.

Edited version:
Since I have an important edit to complete, I can't go out tonight.

Proofreading II

Personalizing Proofreading

In addition to following general guidelines from my last post, individualizing your proofreading process to your style will help you proofread more efficiently and effectively.

You won't be able to check for everything , but you should find out what your typical problem areas are and look for each type of error individually. Here's how:

Find out what typical errors you make. Comments from other readers or a writers group about your writing is a useful way to find out your weak areas and what mistakes you make regularly.

Learn how to fix those errors. In every good writer's group I've found there's always one person who as a mastery of the English language and it proper use. In our group it's Dwayne. Listen to their critiques of other writers work. If you listen you learn what not to do and will help you avoid errors in your writing. These writers can help you understand why you make the errors you do so you can learn to avoid them.

Approach proofreading with specific strategies. Use the strategies detailed on the following posts to find and correct your particular errors in usage, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation.

Proofreading is primarily searching your writing for errors, in grammar and typographical, before submitting your paper for your audience's consumption. Use these resource to help you find and fix common errors.

Finding Common Errors

Proofreading can be much easier when you know what you are looking for. Although everyone will have different error patterns, the following are issues that come up for many writers. When proofreading your paper, be on the lookout for these errors. Always remember to make note of what errors you make frequently—this will help you proofread more efficiently in the future!

Spelling

DO NOT rely on your computer's spell-checker—it will never get everything! (Their & There for insistence.)

Examine each word in the paper individually by reading carefully. Moving a pencil under each line of text helps you to see each word.

Check the Dictionary. If necessary, check a dictionary to see that each word is spelled correctly.

Spelling Nightmares. Be especially careful of words that are typical spelling nightmares, like "ei/ie" words and homonyms like your/you're, to/too/two, and there/their/they're.

 Double and or left Out words. Need I Say more?

Reading the paper slowly aloud to yourself can help you make sure you haven't missed or repeated any words.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Proofreading

The primary purpose for both grammatical and typographical proofreading is about searching your writing for errors. In this series of articles will help in the process before you submit your paper, or manuscript for an audience to view. Whether you submitting your work to a teacher, a publisher, etc,  the next couple of articled will serve as a resource to help you find and fix common errors.

Where to Begin

Every author, writer, or person will find a unique proofreading process that works for them. Here are some general strategies most writers find helpful. Begin to improve your proofreading skills by using the guidelines listed below.

General Strategies

Time. Allow yourself sometime between writing and proofing. Take a break!  Some say just five minutes is productive because it will help you get some distance from what you've written. The goal is to return with a fresh eye and mind. That’s why I have two manuscripts open at the same time. Leaving your work sit for a few hours while you work on something else is a good way to pull you mind away from the story. When you go back to read, you’ll see mistakes you might have missed if you hadn't waited.

Slow Down. Many errors are made or missed by speeding through writing and proofreading. Leave yourself plenty of time to look over your writing carefully. This will help you catch errors you might otherwise miss. Always read slowly. Reading at your normal speed, won't give your eyes sufficient time to spot errors. (You read what you think you wrote.)

Read aloud. Reading your work aloud, slowly, encourages you to read every word on the page. All of them. Even the ones you forgot to remove while editing.

Role play. Playing the role of you readers encourages you to see the book as your audience will. So while you read aloud, put yourself in your audience's shoes.


Get others involved. A second, third, or even a fourth pairs of eyes is always good. (Not your mother, sister, brother, favorite aunt, or girl friend etc isn't going to help.) Asking a friend or a writers group  to read your paper, gets other perspectives on your writing. A fresh reader(s) will be able to help you catch mistakes you've overlooked, and YOU WILL overlook mistakes, extra words, and typos, etc. 

Friday, October 4, 2013

G.Skill RAM

I've been really neglecting my blog. I thought I share this with you Last May I replaced my PC with parts I purchased from Newegg. Among those parts was a 16 Gig RAM kit from G.Skill. http://www.gskill.com/en/ .

The Kit I purchased is their G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231545.

I have used their RAM in an number of Client PC with great success. When my system started giving me the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) the last thing I suspected was defective RAM.
After eliminating all other hardware at the reason for the BSOD, I discovered the RAM was defective. This is a first in all the RAM I've purchased from G. Skill

I went to their website and fired off an email explained the problem and my diagnosis  to come to this conclusion. In two days I received  instruction to fill out the online RMA and submit it. The RAM has a lifetime warranty. A short time later I received the RMA # and shipped the RAM off. Within a couple of day I opened my mailbox and there was a complete new RAM kit. No Hassle, No arguments. A refreshing change from the hassles I gotten from other hardware suppliers.

If you're looking for good, reliable RAM,  G.Skill RAM is the place to look. It's available at different price levels to cove a wide range of users. http://www.gskill.com/en/series/desktop-memory 

From basis desktop RAM, their (Value Series), to their best their (TridentX Series). I recommend looking into their RAM. First for reliability and second for product backing. That's all I'm using from now on.

Monday, June 10, 2013

For you writers. Forget the editors and grammar


The hoax that backfired.
Everyone knows the adage, "You can’t judge a book by its cover." In 1969 that aphorism got an extra dose of validity when Penelope Ashe, a bored housewife from Long Island, NY, wrote the trashy sensation Naked Came the Stranger.

As part of her book tour, Ashe appeared on talk shows and made the bookstore rounds. But the Long Island housewife was anything but. She certainly wasn't what her book jacket claimed. Penelope Ashe was as fictional as the novel she supposedly wrote. In reality, both were the work of Mike McGrady, a Newsday columnist disgusted with the lurid state of the modern bestseller. Instead of complaining, he decided to expose the problem by writing a book of zero redeeming social value and even less literary merit.

He enlisted the help of 24 Newsday colleagues, tasking each with a chapter, and instructed them that there should be “an unremitting emphasis on sex.” He also warned that “true excellence in writing will be quickly blue-penciled into oblivion.” Once McGrady had the smutty chapters in hand (which included acrobatic trysts in tollbooths, encounters with progressive rabbis, and cameos by Shetland ponies), he painstakingly edited the prose to make it worse. In 1969, an independent publisher released the first edition of Naked Came the Stranger, with the part of Penelope Ashe played by McGrady’s sister-in-law.

To the McGrady's dismay, his cynical ploy worked. The media was all too fascinated with the salacious daydreams of the “demure housewife” turned author. And though The New York Times wrote, “In the category of erotic fantasy, this one rates about a C,” the public didn't mind. By the time the journalist revealed his hoax a few months later, the novel had already moved 20,000 copies. Far from sinking the book’s prospects, the negative press pushed sales even higher. By the end of the year, there were more than 100,000 copies in print, and the novel had spent 13 weeks on the Times’s bestseller list. As of 2012, the tome had sold nearly 400,000 copies, mostly to readers who were in on the joke. But in 1990, McGrady told Newsday he couldn't stop thinking about those first sales: “What has always worried me are the 20,000 people who bought it before the hoax was exposed.”


Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/49674/14-greatest-hoaxes-all-time#ixzz2VkhJIaoN
--brought to you by mental floss.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Past & Passed

Once upon a time I had a problem with these two words. Found this one on the web, thought I'd share it with you.

Past – relates to location

The word past locates something in time, and sometimes in space. It can be used as an adjective, noun, or adverb.
“Past” as an adjective
The first definition which the OED gives for past as an adjective is “Gone by in time; elapsed; done with; over.” For example: “The days for mourning are now past.”
When attributed to a group of people, past can also mean “Having served one’s term of office; former.” (OED)
  • “All past presidents of the United States were male.”
And in grammar, we have more examples of past being used as an adjective, such as in “past tense” and “past participle”.
“Past” as a noun
The main meaning for the noun form of past, given by the OED, is “The time that has gone by; a time, or all of the time, before the present.”
  • “In the past, standards were higher.”
  • “We cannot live in the past.”
“Past” as a preposition
As a preposition, past can mean: “Beyond in time; after; beyond the age for or time of; (in stating the time of day) so many minutes, or a quarter or half of an hour, after a particular hour.” (OED)
  • “It is almost half past five.”
It can also be used for location: “Beyond in place; further on than; at or on the further side of; to a point beyond.” (OED)
  • “My house is the one just past the turning.”
“Past” as an adverb
The first meaning the OED cites for past being used as an adverb is “So as to pass or go by; by.” For example:
  • “The ball sped past the goalkeeper.”

Passed – a verb in the past tense

Passed is the past participle of the verb “to pass”. It can be an intransitive verb (one which doesn’t require an object) or a transitive verb (one which requires both a subject and one or more objects).
“To pass” means “To proceed, move forward, depart; to cause to do this.” (OED) This can refer to movement forwards in time, in space, or in life (such as “to pass an examination”).
For example:
  • “The weeks passed quickly.” (Intransitive: subject “the weeks” and no object).
  • “I passed all my exams!” (Transitive: subject “I” and object “my exams”.)
  • “He passed the ball well during the match earlier.” (Transitive: subject “He” and object “the ball”.)

When do “past” and “passed” get confused?

Often, writers muddle the words past and passed in sentences such as:
  • “The heroes passed a village on their way towards the mountains.”
It’s common to see this written as:
  • “The heroes past a village on their way towards the mountains.”
But the word should be passed, as (in this sentence) it’s the past participle of the verb “to pass”. An easy way to tell is to rewrite the sentence in the present tense, as though you’re describing something which is happening currently:
  • “The heroes pass a village on their way towards the mountains.”
  • or “The heroes are passing a village on their way towards the mountains.”
However, if you wrote:
  • “The heroes walked past a village on their way towards the mountains.”
It’s correct to use past. The verb in this sentence is “walked”, and the “past” is acting as an adverb.

Unusual uses of the word “passed”

Most of the time, passed is a verb, as described above. There are a few occasions when it can be used as a noun or an adjective, though. For example:
  • “Don’t speak ill of the passed.” (noun)
    - This comes from the phrase “passed-away”.
  • “A passed pawn” (adjective)
    - Term used in chess.
  • “A passed ball” (adjective)
    - Term used in baseball.
  • “A passed midshipman/fireman/surgeon” (adjective)
    - Someone who has passed a period of instruction and qualified through examination – apparently this usage arose in the navy.
Have you come across any other unusual uses? Are there still any cases where you’re not sure whether to use passed or past? Share your examples with us in the comments below!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Show, Don't Tell

Speech and Thought Through Personality .

The fiction-writing dictum for both publisher & editor is, “Show, don’t tell.”
How do you apply that in practical terms when it comes to communicating characterization without exposition?

People in different eras have unique speech and speech patterns, but restrain yourself from indulging in periodization in your historical novel; if your Elizabethan-era characters talk like Shakespeare’s, people:
1) won’t understand much of what they say and
2) will be distracted by your forced — and fatally flawed — attempt at authenticity.

Do immerse yourself in that period’s society: What did people know about history and sociology and psychology and spirituality (even if they never used those terms to identify them)? What were prevailing political and social and religious viewpoints? How open were the people of then day, about expressing themselves? Do not to let modern sensibilities intrude on the way your characters speak and think. Do, however, permit them and their speeches and thoughts to be accessible to modern readers.

The extent to which characters will express their ideas and opinions, or ruminate about them, and the language with which they will do so, depends on a few other factors:
People of different generations and different social backgrounds generally speak differently. Geriatric characters should exhibit speech and speech patterns distinct from juvenile ones and consistent with norms unless an exception is a deliberate dramatic point — for instance, if a teenager who has switched bodies with an elderly person is trying to pass vocally as well as visually as a senior citizen.

Likewise, the speech and thoughts of well-educated characters will usually be distinguishable from that of those of others with less formal schooling. Of course, no one should assume that a person with only a high school education is less intelligent than a college graduate, or the reverse, but their vocabulary and the level of sophistication of their thoughts will, unless they are self-educated, likely differ.

Further individualization of characters makes fiction writing more vivid. How does one’s personality affect words and thoughts? A repressed person’s speech patterns will differ significantly from an extrovert’s. A tense, angry character will exhibit different rhythms of speech and thought than a carefree individual.

Length of speeches and thoughts is also a consideration: Philosophically minded people do not tend to make snap judgments. Children do not soliloquize. Match the extent to which people speak and think to their personalities. Keep in mind that various sentence lengths and paragraph lengths have differing dramatic values, too — long passages tend to be soothing (but, when too long, are sleep-inducing), while short bursts create or maintain tension (though,done to excess, can be as wearying as extensive paragraphs).

In essence, capitalize on your knowledge of individual characters to establish vocabulary and modes of speech and thought, as well as on familiarity with societal norms for speaking and thinking appropriate to the era in which your characters live.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Writing Prompts

Writing Prompts, what are they?

If you’re a fiction writer, you may want to consider the use writing prompts to kick-start your creativity. A writing prompt is a topic around which you start jotting down ideas. The prompt can be a single word, a short phrase, a complete paragraph or even a picture. The idea being, to give you something to focus upon while you write. You may stick closely to the original prompt or you may, as many do, wander off at a tangent.
The point is to start writing, without being held back by inhibitions or doubts. Your first notes will be rough, disjointed, but the more you refine your idea the closer you’ll to something polished and complete. Maybe a scene or even a complete story.

Here are four good reasons for writing to prompts:

1.When faced with a blank page, many times it’s hard to start writing. Focusing on your unrelated prompt for a while, helps get the creative juices flowing. Writing for  for just ten minutes on a prompt, you should find it easier to return to the piece you intended to write. You may also find that if you stop trying to think so hard about what you wanted to write and switch you attention to the prompt instead, the words and ideas for your original piece start to come to you after all.

2.The things you write, responding to inspiration of your chosen prompt may end up as worthwhile material in their own right. Your prompt may give you ideas from which a complete story can grow. You may get a fresh idea for another piece you’re already working on. It’s often surprising how much material you come up with once you get started.

3.Working to a prompt regularly, helps to get you into the habit of writing. It can act as an exercise regime, helping to build up your “mental muscles” so that you start to find your writing sessions get longer and longer, while the effort gets easier.

4.Prompts can be a great way to get involved in a writing community. Some writing groups offer a prompt for everyone to write about, with the intention being for everyone to come up with something they can then share. The leader of one such group handed out a 3 x 5 card. Each member wrote down two nouns, two verbs, two adjectives, and one color. The twist to the exercise came when we passed the cards two places to the left. The card we received, became the basis of a 300-500 word piece. This can be a source of great encouragement, although knowing others will read what you have written can inhibit your creativity.


Examples of Writing Prompts

Here are twenty writing prompts that you could use to spark your imagination. If you want to use one, don’t worry about where the ideas take you or whether what you’ve written is “good”. The point is just to get into the flow of writing. You can come back later and polish if you wish to.
 01. It was the first hard snowfall of the year.
 02. She woke, shivering, in the dark of the night.
 03. His feet were already numb. He should have listened.
 04. Silk lace.
 05. She studied her swollen face in the mirror.
 06. Red eyes.
 07. This time her boss had gone too far.
 08. She’d have to hitch a ride home.
 09. The streets are deserted. Where is everyone? Where had they all gone?
 10. The city burned, fire lighting up the night sky
 11. They came back every year to lay flowers on the side of the road.
 12. Stars blazed in the night sky.
 13. He woke to the song of birds in the meadow.
 14. The garden was overgrown now.
 15. The smell of freshly-cut grass.
 16. He hadn’t seen her since the day they left High School
 17. ‘Shh! Hear that?’ ‘I didn’t hear anything.’
 18. He’d never noticed a door there before.
 19. Where does this corridor led?
 20. ‘I told her not to go there!’
 21. He’d always hated speaking in public.

Where To Find Writing Prompts Online.
The internet is a wonderful source of writing prompts. There are sites dedicated to providing them which a quick search will turn up. Examples include:

 •Creative-Writing-Solutions.com
 •WritersDigest.com
 •CreativeWritingPrompts.com

I also came across numerous blogs offering a regular writing prompt to inspire you and where you can, if you wish, post what you’ve written.

 •DragonWritingPrompts.blogspot.com
 •OneMinuteWriter.blogspot.com
 •SundayScribblings.blogspot.com


There are also many other sites that can, inadvertently, provide a rich seam of material for writing prompts – for example news sites with their intriguing headlines or pictorial sites such as Flickr.com that give you access to a vast range of photographs that can prompt your writing.
Have a Twitter account, there are users you can follow and receive a stream of prompts Three examples:
 •twitter.com/writingprompt
 •twitter.com/NoTelling
 •twitter.com/writingink

Another idea is just to keep an eye on all the tweets being written by people all over the world, some of which can, inadvertently, be used as writing prompts.

How To Make Your Own Writing Prompts

You can find ideas for writing prompts of your own from all sorts of places. Get used to keeping your eyes open for words and phrases that fire your imagination. Sometimes snatches of overheard conversation, headlines, signs, words picked from a book and so on. Jot them down any and all, then use them as writing prompts to spark your creativity. You never know what road they may take you down..

Seven useful websites writers


From grammar guides to usage resources. From usual suspects to obscure gems, here are seven web sites writers of all genres will find of great value:

1. Amazon.com
You may have heard of this website — a good place, I understand, to find books (or anything else manufactured). But what I appreciate even more is the “Search inside this book” link under the image of the book cover on most pages in the Books section. No longer do you need to own a book, drive out to the bookstore, or thumb through it at library in search of a name, that clever remark or expression you can’t quite remember. And even if you do have access to the book in question, it’s easier to search online than to try to remember on what part of what page in what part of the book you remember seeing something last week or last month or years ago. The book search can be a writer’s salvation.
 
2. The Chicago Manual of Style Online
A review on this site, The Chicago Manual of Style, notes that despite its abundance of useful information, buying the bulky book is overkill for writers (but it is an editors best friend). Editorial professionals of all kinds will benefit from the CMOS, Style Q&A feature, which responds authoritatively, sensibly, and often humorously to visitors’ queries.

3. Banned for Life
Newspaper editor Tom Mangan’s site lists reader contributions of clichés and redundancies.
4. GrammarBook.com
Jane Straus, (May 1954 - Feb 2011) author of The Blue Book on Grammar and Punctuation, created this site to promote her book. It also features simple grammar lessons (and quizzes), as well as video lessons, an e-newsletter, and blog entries that discuss various grammar topics.

5. The Word Detective
Words and Language in a Humorous Vein on the Web Since 1995
 This online version of Evan Morris’s newspaper column of the same name (some were also published in the book The Word Detective) features humorous Q&A entries about word origins.

6. The Phrase Finder
A useful way to find proverbs, phrases from the Bible and Shakespeare, nautical expressions, and American idiom (the site originates in the United Kingdom), plus a feature called “Famous Last Words” and, for about $50 a year, subscription to a phrase thesaurus. (Subscribers include many well-known media companies and other businesses as well as universities.)

7. The Vocabula Review
The Principal Web Destination for Anyone Interested in Words and Language
 Essays about language and usage; $25 per year by email, $35 for the print version.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Grammatical Errors That Aren’t

Just finished running my manuscript through the WordPerfect Grammatik. I ran into so frustrating, if not down right maddening rules that drove me crazy. Rules that can, in dialogue screw up you character’s way off speaking, if you adhere to them, Here are seven I found and I will ignore.

There are two types of grammar: Prescriptive grammar, which prescribes what should be, and descriptive, which describes what is customary. Tension between the two systems is
foreseeable and healthy; it keeps us thinking about what we’re writing and how we're saying it.

Allowing mob rule at the expense of some governing of composition is madness, but articulate  absolutism is dangerous, also. As with any prescription, overdosing is contraindicated. Here are seven hard pills to swallow for the language storm troopers who insist on a strict attachment to rigid syntactic patterns at the expense of, well for lack of a better word, language:

1. Never begin a sentence with a conjunction. WHAT! WHY!
And why not? For an honorable tradition of doing just that exists. But many people persist in prohibiting this technique. Yet as writers defy them. Or we ignore or laugh at them, neither of which they appreciate. Nor do they understand our attitude, though we try to convince them, and will continue to do so. So there.

The words beginning each of these sentences are conjunctions, easily recalled with the mnemonic FANBOYS. Every one is perfectly acceptable at the head of a sentence. As is obvious from the previous paragraph, however, a little goes a long way.

In case you don’t know,

For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So
  
2. Distinguish between, While and Though
Petty prescriptivists would have us reserve while for temporal usage only: "While I agree, I resist," they say, should be revised to "Though I do agree, I resist." I will admit I often change while to though, and while I understand, I’m sorry, I can not stop myself , and though I understand that it may seem bookish, but I think though reads better.

3. Use Data only in the plural sense. (Huh!)
Who came up with this data? The alternative is to use the word datum in the singular sense, which makes you sound like a propeller head. (Look it up, kids.) People who say "datum" get data, but they don’t get dates.

4. Never split an infinitive.
It isn’t wise to always ignore this fallacious rule against dividing the elements of the verb phrase "to (verb)" with an adverb, but to blindly follow it is to prohibit pleasing turns of phrase — one of the best known of which is from the introductory voice-over from all the Star Trek television series: "to boldly go where no one has gone before." (The original series, produced before the more recent sensitivity to gender bias, put it "no man.")

5. Use none only in the singular sense. (What!)
None of these rules, followed strictly, allow for a vernacular ease with language.

Did Earth stop spinning? Did that sentence hurt? Did the waves stop crashing to shore? If you Want to replace none with "not one" or "no one" ("Not one person admitted guilt"; "No one saw that coming"), by all means, do so, but fear not none in a plural sense.
 

 

7. Distinguish between Since and Because.
Ditto. And ditto. I agree that indiscriminate replacement of since with because may seem finicky, but since — ahem — because I find the latter word more pleasing, I reserve the right to prefer it.

6. Never end a sentence with a preposition.
This rule is ridiculous, to start with. If you believe it, please tell me what planet you are from. Give it up. What are you striving for? Do I get my point across
The stricture against closing sentences with words that describe position stems from an eighteen-century fetish for the supposed perfection of classical Latin, which allowed no split infinitives — for the excellent reason that Latin infinitives consist of single words. English, however, being a distant relative of that language, should be allowed to form its own customs.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

17 Tips for Stranded Manuscript Submission

  1. If you are submitting your manuscript on paper, type the document. Do not submit a hand written version. (Rejected)
    2.Use a single, clear font, 12 point size. The best to use is Courier or Courier New. At the very least, ensure you use a 12 point, serif font. Something like Arial with be Rejected.
    3.Black print on white paper. The only acceptable choice.
    4.When printing out your submission (rather than submitting it electronically), agood quality plain white paper is a must. Print only on one side of each sheet.
    5.Include your name and contact information at the top left of the first page. Put an accurate word count at the top right. Put the title half-way down the page, centered, with "by Your Name" underneath. Start the story beneath that.
    6.If you chosen to write under a pseudonym, put that beneath the title but your real name in the top left of the first page.
    7.Put your name, story title and the page number as a right-justified header on every subsequent page, in the format Name/Title/Page Number. You can also just use a key word from your title and not repeat the whole thing on each page.
    8.Left-justify your paragraphs. Right margins should be "ragged".
    9.Ensure there is at least a 1 inch (2 centimeters) margin top, bottom, and left, right, around your text. This is to allow annotation to be written onto a printed copy.
    10.Use double spacing for all your text.
    11.Don’t insert extra lines between your paragraphs.
    12.Leave the first line in the chapter start out a the left margin.
    13.Indent the first line of each proceeding paragraph by about 1/2 inch (1 centimeter). Usually one (1) tab keystroke,
    14.If you want to indicate a blank line, (Scene Break) place a blank line, then a line with the # character in the middle of it, then another blank line.
    15.Don’t use bold or italic fonts or any other unusual formatting. To emphases a piece of text you should underline it.
    16.Put the word "End" after your text, centered on its own line.
    17.If you are submitting on paper, don’t staple your pages together. Package them up well so that they won’t get damaged and send them off.