Review: THERE, THEIR, THEY'RE: A No-Tears Guide to Grammar From The Word Nerd by Annette Lyon

One of the best classes I went to while at LDStorymakers Conference 2013 was Annette Lyon's Master Class on Grammar. I kid you not, her advice made THE GAME PLAN so much better. For instance, one thing she suggested was to take a mid-level look at your novel and check scene by scene by 1) Coming up with a one-sentence description of the scene (If you can't do that, too much is happening), 2) Asking if there's action in the scene, and 3) identifying the conflict. By doing number three for every scene, I came to realize that the conflict in a majority of the scenes was the same, and I ended up adding a major sub-plot and nearly 22k words.

Annette just published the 2nd edition of her grammar guide and put the word out there on Twitter that she was looking for reviewers. Guess who's hand shot into the air? Yep, mine. (Figuritively and literally--and you will understand the difference after you've read it too.)

Audience: Adult (Fiction Writers)

Genre: Writing, Writing Advice, Grammar

Length: 158 pgs.

Rating: ***** (Really Liked It)

Review: The book was everything I expected it to be. Although I did already know many of the rules in the guide, it did exactly as it claimed to: presented them in an understandable way for the average person. I even learned a few things! Annette also presents it in a fun way as well, making a stuffy grammar book lighthearted. It's a quick read, and thanks to the sections, you can use it as a quick-reference guide while writing. I know I'll be using it to double check things I'm not sure about. My favorite advice from the book about why grammar and style are important? "You want the writing to be invisible and your ideas to take center stage." So. True. I think I could write a whole blog post on why that's important. I think I probably already have. The best thing is, this book is only $3.99 for Kindle. You now have no excuse not to go out and buy it.

Source: I was given a copy of this book by the author in exchange for my honest review. 

Follow Annette Lyon's blog for more advice on writing and grammar

Buy There, Their, They're: A No-Tears Guide on Amazon.

National Grammar Day Contest!

March 4th is National Grammar Day. And you all know that's one holiday that MUST be celebrated on this blog. What better way to celebrate than with a contest??

I picked my brain about what would be appropriate to give away on such a day. A grammar book? Hmmm, a possibility . . . but then I hit on it. Something that would benefit me {and} the winner. You'll get a chance to polish an manuscript and I'll get the chance to spread the word about editing to a lucky winner.
Yup, you guessed it.
**In honor of National Grammar Day I'll be giving away a FREE Line & Content Editing Combo **
What's that? You don't have an MS ready? This FREE edit will be good until December 31, 2012. And entering is SUPER easy. Just use the Rafflecopter entry form below!

And don't forget to stop by my favorite grammar link: Grammar Girl

Pronouns

This is a GREAT podcast that clears up why using proper pronouns in their proper place is important. I think you should all click right over and listen or read. :D

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/pronouns-and-antecedents.aspx

Grammar Tip: Should it be an ellipsis or a dash?

First off, let's talk about ellipsis. Most of the grammar sources I look at frequently (Grammar Girl, Chicago Manual of Style) don't spend a lot of time on using ellipsis in fiction. So let me clear up some things for you.

1. An ellipses in fiction writing is used to indicate a pause or a sentence trailing off.
Ex: I love to eat French fries . . . most of the time.
"She says she loves to eat French fries. . . ." <--That is not four ellipsis dots. Regular punctuation must be included (we'll talk about this later). It is the period at the end of the sentence and then the three ellipsis dots.
2. Ellipses should be formatted like this: word[space]dot[space]dot[space]dot[space]word
Or in less confusing terms it should like like this:
Jane loves . . . to run.
There is a space between the words and the ellipsis, as well as a space between each dot.
3. All regular punctuation should be included.
At the end of a sentence: I need to go to the store. . . . (period, followed by ellipsis)

Now on to the question of the day: Should you be using an ellipsis or a dash?
What's the difference between these two sentences?
"Stop right now or I'll shoot. . . ."
AND
"Stop right now or I'll shoot--"

The ellipsis at the end of the first sentence indicates the speaker is pausing or letting the sentence trail off. The dash at the end of the second sentence indicates that the speaker is being interrupted or making a dramatic stop in speech.

For more information, I suggest checking out the following two podcasts (or their transcripts) from Grammar Girl. Very helpful!
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ellipsis.aspx
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/dashes-parentheses-commas.aspx

(Actually, I would recommend listening to ALL of GG's podcasts. It's a great way to improve your writing.)

Grammar Tip: Double Quotation Marks

(DQm) Double Quotation Marks


Up until recently this happened to be one of my frequently made mistakes. Using 'single quotes' on anything outside of people talking.
Double quotations marks should be used for:
* titles
* direct quotations
* "scare quotes" or "sneer quotes"--meaning the author is not "buying into the meaning." (Grammar Girl)


Examples:
Ranee` asked, “How come everyone is going to the store?”
We read “Wuthering Heights” for book club.
She said she “loved” him.


Single Quotation Marks are most commonly used for:
*Quotations within a quote
*To save space in headlines


Example: Ranee` said, “I heard John say, ‘I hate going to the store.’ She’s right.”

(see http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/single-quotes-versus-double-quotes.aspx for more information)

Things You Need To Know Now: Let Me Formally Introduce You To Your Character

If you write regency romance, you are excused from this lecture.

It's happened to all of us. That witty comment sounded soooo good in our head. Then it came out of the mouth of a twenty-year old. And the eyebrows of your teen audience shot up, and they thought, "I would never say something like that..."

If you want to check out how truly hilarious regency-era speech can sound in a modern plot, check out Sarah M. Eden's blog post here: http://www.sarahmeden.com/2011/02/if-every-story-were-written-like-cliche.html.

The truth is, unless your twenty-something hero went to boarding school in England and was raised in strict, traditional, butler-and-all English manor house, he can't channel Mr. Darcy, Edward Ferrars, and heaven forbid, Mr. Rochester.

It just isn't done, my dear.

I know what you're thinking. You know how kids talk now, don't you? You have teens. Heck, you were a teen once, not so very long ago, right? Do you know what the word "besty" means? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Unfortunately, there's not a quick-fix for getting your character's speech down. Here's a few suggestions:
1. Sit down and write, in a bulleted list, your character's specifications. Age, looks, likes, dislikes. Better yet, take one of those chain emails where you tell everyone all about yourself and answer the questions for your characters. Just free-write. Don't worry about grammar (gasp!), or word choice, being repetitive, etc. Just write like you would in a diary. Get to know your character.
2. Use contractions. Unless your characters has some big reason for sounding snotty and over-educated (like they were born in 1809), use contractions.
3. Find someone who is the age of your character and have a long conversation with them. Note the words they use, the phrases, the lack of grammatical correctness, and the over-usage of the words awesome and totally.

One more thing, if you're saying right now, "Well my heroine is 32. She wouldn't say awesome. Or totally. She's so mature now." (I can't believe I'm admitting this...) I'm 28. I use those words on an hourly basis. And I consider myself very mature. :)

If you're not sure, post your paragraph below. We'll have a rousing discussion! :) And I will always edit 10 pages for free. Send me a big chunk of dialog. I'd love to hip-up your 25 year-old hero.  

Attributives! (Again...)

I love Grammar Girl. Let's just get that out there right now. I tend to turn to her more often than not when I have a grammar question. And today, while looking for some information on attributing to add to my Critiquing Guide, I found another great podcast from Grammar Girl on attributives:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/attributives.aspx

Check it out. It is SO worth your time. (Five minutes, max--if you read it. :)

Things You Need to Know NOW!: Grammar Is Not Optional

Grammar Is Not Optional: Punctuating Dialog and Other Common Grammar Mistakes

I’ve always had a fairly decent grip on grammar, but along with the critique came small mistakes I’d never known I was making. I dug out all the grammar books I could find, searched the internet, read all about commas so I could spot my mistakes and make my writing more polished and professional.

Punctuating Dialog

“Hello, Finna.” He said, hugging me tightly once I was inside. “How was school?”

“Mr. Walters let me retake the test.” I answered, dropping my bag into one of the big soft chairs that faced his desk and planted myself comfortably in the other, wondering how long we were going to have to wait for the visitor.

“Excellent.” Dad responded, leaning against his desk. “How did you do?”

“C-minus.” I answered, trying to look optimistic about this. “No books fell on him.” I added with a hopeful shrug and Dad grinned, easing my mind immediately.

“That’s comforting.” He replied. He cleared his throat and looked past me.

Dialog, also from the scary “final draft,” version five of “Bloom.” Cringe.

Here’s the correct way to punctuate:

“Hello, Finna,” He said, hugging me tightly once I was inside. “How was school?”

“Mr. Walters let me retake the test,” I answered, dropping my bag into one of the big soft chairs that faced his desk and planted myself comfortably in the other, wondering how long we were going to have to wait for the visitor. [And better: “Mr. Walters let me retake the rest.” I dropped my bag into one of the big soft chairs that faced his desk…]

“Excellent,” Dad responded, leaning against his desk. “How did you do?”

“C-minus,” I answered, trying to look optimistic about this. “No books fell on him,” I added with a hopeful shrug and Dad grinned, easing my mind immediately.

“That’s comforting,” he replied. He cleared his throat and looked past me.

It seemed so strange at first, all those commas and lower-case letters. I had to really work, do some soul-searching on the internet to convince myself my reviewers were telling me the truth. But I finally cleared it out in my mind. Take out the quotes and think of the dialog as a sentence.

Excellent. Dad responded, leaning against the desk. How did you do?
That’s comforting. He replied. He cleared his throat and looked past me.

It looks silly like that, doesn’t it? So here are the rules:

1.       When a dialog is attributed to a character using a word like said, asked, responded, replied, etc. it should be punctuated with a comma, and the words following the comma should be lower-case, except for proper nouns.
Examples:
“We’re going to the store,” she said.
“We’re going to the store?” he asked.
“We’re going to the store!” they shouted.
“We’re going to the store,” I said.

2.       Whenever possible, leave off an attribution like said, asked, responded, replied, etc. and attribute the speech with an action instead. When the attribution is marked by an action, use a period to punctuate the speech.
Examples:
She held open the door. “We’re going to the store.”
“We’re going to the store?” He raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“We’re going to the store!” They stomped up and down.

3.       Nine times out of 10 you should use the common words like said or asked, if you use an attribution word at all. According to many things I’ve read on the subject, readers basically just skip over said or asked. Words like shrieked, yelled, demanded stand out instead of flow. Here is an excellent article I found online on the subject: http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/said.shtml

Other Common Grammar Mistakes I Come Across

This is not, by any means, a comprehensive list of grammar mistakes. As the title suggests, these are the mistakes I see most often when critiquing the works of others, and prior to April 2010, my own writing. J

Comma Splice

Mae sobbed into Porter’s shoulder, the death of her mentor devastated her.

The biggest mistake I see are comma splices. According to Diane Hacker in “A Writers Reference,” a comma splice is “two or more independent clauses joined by a comma without a coordinating conjunction.”

The two phrases above, “Mae sobbed into Porter’s shoulder” and “the death of her mentor devastated her,” could stand alone. They each have a subject (Mae, her) and a verb (sobbed, devastated). Even though the two sentences are related, they either must be split into two sentences:

Mae sobbed into Porter’s shoulder. The death of her mentor devastated her.

Split by a semi-colon (not recommended. Semi-colons should be used sparingly.)

Mae sobbed into Porter’s shoulder; the death of her mentor devastated her.

Or joined by a conjunction:

Mae sobbed into Porter’s shoulder because the death of her mentor devastated her.

There are writers who claim they’re using a comma splice stylistically. Obviously that’s your call. I tend to follow the advice of Mignon Fogerty on this subject. She’s also known as Grammar Girl and has a website called Quick and Dirty tips. She has an amazing podcast on this subject: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/comma-splice.aspx

Commas between independent phrases with a coordinating conjunction

This is incorrect: Mae sobbed into Porter’s shoulder and he patted her reassuringly on the back.

Again, both phrases are independent and could stand alone. Place a comma before the coordinating conjunction (and).

Mae sobbed into Porter’s shoulder, and he patted her reassuringly on the back.

Don’t use a comma if one or both of the phrases are dependent—couldn’t stand alone.

Mae sobbed into Porter’s shoulder and blew her nose on his shirt. (Blew her nose on his shirt is not a complete sentence. It is dependent—so no comma.)

Introductory phrases

According to Diana Hacker and introductory word groups are “clauses and phrases functioning as adverbs.”

When her sobbing ended, Porter led Mae to the car.

They can also include “participal phrases describing a noun or pronoun immediately following them.” (Hacker, 236).

Blasting through the cave, Porter and Mae found the TimeGlass.

Hacker also notes: “Other introductory word groups include conjunctive adverbs, transitional expressions, and absolute phrases.” (237).

Next installment: Words I Repeatedly Overuse. Do you?