Monthly Archives: May 2019

Today’s Writing Tip

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Typos are an integral part of using a keyboard. I remember when I was at the peak of my typing performance and managed to do 96 wpm (words per minutes) with 3 errors on an IBM Selectric typewriter a long, long time ago. Correcting mistakes back then was a real pain, requiring in the REALLY old day, erasing them and hoping not to create a hole in the paper in the process, or white-out, which looked pretty tacky. Thank heaven those days are over! I remember having to retype pages and pages of manuscript due to some minor edits that changed the pagination. Yuck!

Since the advent of word processors, correcting errors has become a piece of cake. That makes it even more inexcusable not to do so. Typos really annoy readers, but they’re even more inevitable than they were in the old days because now there is less incentive to be precise than that funny, pink, circular eraser with the brush on one end or that little bottle.

Be aware of the ones you repeat most often. Transposing letters is tough to catch, but everyone probably has words they repeatedly misspell. I wish I have $1 for every time I typed “you” instead of “your”. I also tend to type “the” instead of “that” or “then”. When you’re aware of which ones you tend to mess up, you can usually make a quick check as you write or finish a given sentence to make sure it’s correct. These type of typos that a spellchecker won’t catch can really be a challenge, but trust me when I say your readers will indeed catch them. Hopefully your proofreader or editor will.

Today’s Writing Tip

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A good grammar checker should pick up various mistakes a spellchecker doesn’t, including subject-verb agreement and using the wrong homonym. However, this is no guarantee, especially if you tend to write complex sentences.

Homonyms are seldom if ever picked up otherwise, so it’s best if you memorize them. The following meme is handy for their, there, and they’re.

homonym

One homonym I’ve seen used incorrectly numerous times by different authors is shutter instead of shudder. A shutter is a panel to cover a window; shudder is what you do when you’re scared and can be either a noun or a verb. There are various lists of the most common ones available if you google “homonyms.”

Today’s Writing Tip

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Always spellcheck your work before sending it to beta readers or especially before uploading it to publish. Be sure to do so after completing each edit as well.  It’s really easy to get distracted and either not eliminate words or perhaps delete too many as you reword, streamline, and refine your sentences.

I don’t know about you, but my fingers have a mind of their own on the keyboard and don’t always do what my brain thinks. I will even catch myself from time to time typing a word phonetically for some reason.

In most cases, a grammar checker should find missing or misused words. But nothing beats a good proofreader or editor to make sure nothing was missed. And, believe me, it always is, no matter how many times you’ve been through it.

Today’s Writing Tip

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It’s as important to know when to end a story as it is to known where to begin it. Sometimes there are important ramifications that don’t show up in “story time” for a considerable length of time, such as years or even generations. However, it presents the final closure that makes it complete.

One way to wrap things up is with an epilogue. They well to cover “the rest of the story”, i.e, that which relates to the plot, but occurs a long time after the story officially ends. They can even involve minor characters, or in some cases, someone who wasn’t in the story at all.

Of course if you think you have enough story material to fill the gap, then you may have a potential series on your hands. Otherwise, epilogues offer an easy way out to tie up any loose ends.

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Here are a few more notes on prologues. In some cases, even if it involves your main character, but it occurred a long time ago, then you might want to use a prologue.  Another way to handle past events is through flashbacks. A flashback can vary in length, but if it’s too long, the reader may get lost in space and time. Then again, some background information may be too comprehensive to cover in snippets.

If you’re unclear on such a situation, this is where your beta readers and author friends with whom you share your work can be of tremendous help. It may even send you back to the drawing board as far as your story is concerned. Are you starting it too late? Or is it something that could be covered later as a prequel?

The good news is that any plot with that much context or character with that much history is probably a great one. It may even become a series instead of a single book. I know first hand how that goes. My Star Trails Tetralogy didn’t start out as a four book series with a prequel and full-length side story, but that’s how it wound up. My current WIP was supposed to be a cozy mystery, but it quickly evolved into a not-so-cozy conspiracy thriller that will be long enough upon completion to split into a trilogy.

Once your characters come to life and start writing the story for you, there’s no telling where you might wind up.

Today’s Writing Tip

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Sometimes your story may begin years or even centuries before Chapter One. In other words, if it reflects the ramifications or aftereffects of some previous event, it may require some background information to put it into context.

More than likely, this won’t involve the main character. If it does, then it’s really not a problem to start with Chapter One then skip ahead. Another way to handle it is by using a prologue. I’m sure you’ve read prologues before that made no sense. In some cases it may remain a mystery even when you finish the story. In other words, they should tie into the story, even if it takes a while before the reader makes the connection.

The main thing is that you should start Chapter 1 with your protagonist. Essential background information can be easily included as a prologue.

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I’ve harped on this numerous times, but I believe it’s important enough to bear repeating. Know the different types of editing, especially if you hire an editor. Otherwise, you may be disappointed or not get your money’s worth. Here’s an outstanding blog on the subject.

If you think that one person is going to entirely rewrite your story into Best Seller material think again. Maybe some will, but that’s something you need to have a clear understanding of from the start. Otherwise, they may do no more than correct your typos and misspellings. If you’re really lucky, maybe they’ll fix those misused homonyms as well.

Rewording sentences may not be part of the deal, much less paragraph designation, or any number of other things.

There are too many people out there who think they’re editors when all they are is someone who knows how to read and, if you’re lucky, spell. It’s best to only hire an editor who has been recommended by someone you trust. It isn’t a guarantee to ask an author of a well-written book who their editor was, either. Perhaps the author is so skillful that their editor had little if anything to do!

As so many parts of being an author, choosing a competent editor is not simple. Make sure you know what you’re getting and that the person knows what they’re doing. Furthermore, some editors may entirely rewrite your story when that is not what you wanted, either! I’ve had editors completely change the meaning of a sentence with their supposed “editing” when I was a technical writer at NASA.

I’m afraid this turned into a bit of a rant. LOL! Obviously it’s something about which I have strong feelings. It’s all about communications, folks. As a writer, that should be your forte. Comprendez-vous?

Today’s Writing Tip

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I’ve posted blogs here before about the many different ways you can say “he said.” There are literally dozens of them, many of which help convey emotion and imagery that avoids dreaded adverbs. This is all well and good, but today I’m going in an entirely different direction and that is a way to avoid it entirely.

There are many ways to indicate who’s speaking without saying “he said” or one of its many synonyms. Describing a facial expression or gesture clearly associated with the speaker is often effective. This can integrate action with the conversation and make it come alive as opposed to sounding like your reading a screenplay.

Here’s a short example from my WIP:

When the echoes of his booming baritone faded, a tense silence remained. Someone rang the doorbell, all of them jumping in startled response. Sara exhaled hard through her nose, turned on her heel, and opened the door, finding herself face to face with Gretchen.

“Excuse me,” she muttered, and stomped down the steps to the driveway where she stared helplessly at Liz’s car. She rolled her eyes, wishing she’d listened to that prompting to drive her own.

Moments later, Liz was beside her, arm around her shoulders. “Are you alright, honey?” Sara nodded. “My goodness, you sure hit a nerve! Angela had mentioned that Bob can have an ugly temper, but I’ve never seen anything like that before!”

“Yeah. Sure wasn’t what I’d call Texas friendly, was it?”

Liz laughed. “I’ll say not! C’mon, I’ll take you home.”

See what I mean? In that entire scene I only used a “said” synonym (muttered) once.

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I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to stop reading in the middle of a chapter. Thus, I will often press on, even when I’m ready to quit. However, if the chapter is inordinately long, I may make an exception. Readers who often read in short sessions, perhaps while waiting for a bus or in the dentist’s office, are likely to appreciate short chapters. On the other hand, marathon readers may not mind those that go one for a substantial number of pages.

I think it’s a good general rule to maintain comfortable chapter lengths. If you find a chapter has multiple section breaks, maybe you should start a new chapter instead. Readers like myself prefer to stop at a chapter’s end. If it drags on and on, it can be frustrating.

This is not to say that ending a chapter with a cliffhanger is verboten. Quite the opposite, you want your reader to keep turning the pages. The trick is to find the sweet spot between them. If the chapters are relatively short, it’s more likely your reader will go ahead and plunge into the next one than if its length looms over their head like a major commitment.

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Yesterday I mentioned how understanding what constitutes a point of view character can be difficult for a new writer to grasp. A story that has one primary protagonist often does well with the story being told through their eyes, whether it’s told in first person or third person.

Omniscient viewpoint gets into all the characters’s heads simultaneously. This can confuse the reader if not done skillfully. Before resorting to this, make sure it’s really necessary and the most effective before using it. If you need to get inside other characters’s heads to describe their motivation and/or show their contribution to the plot, this can be done with separate chapters and/or sections. That way the reader can keep it straight more easily.

One way to get a handle on describing what other characters are thinking or feeling is to pay attention to what you see on television, whether it’s a drama or a sit-com. Very few get into their actual thoughts through voice overs. However, unless the actors are entirely incompetent, their expressions and body language tell you exactly what’s going on in their head. The next time you watch your favorite show, think about how you would describe in words the various ways the actors portray the character’s emotions. This is what you want your reader to visualize, what they would see if your novel were a movie or TV show.