Editing advice
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DeeZire
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I am probably one of the least qualified people around here to be giving you advice, but until someone else jumps in - I refer to a small paperback book called 'The Elements of Style' by Strunk and White. It lays out the basics of grammar in a very concise, easy to understand format, with examples of the right way and the wrong way.
There are 'How To' articles here at LIT, and there are stickies at the top of some of the forums with info and info-links for writers. One very helpful How To article is in the 2008 How To contest, written by Ogg, explaining how to write flash fiction. What you learn from his piece is economy of words - in other words, getting the most meaning out of the least number of words. Why spend a whole paragraph explaining something that can be laid out in one well-written sentence?
You might also look for 'exposition' on the forums. The need for exposition has been discussed at length - whether to start your story with exposition or work it in as needed.
Common mistakes: Stilted dialogue, repetitious dialogue slugs: he said...she said.... Check out this story, which is #6 (post #7) of this flashfic thread in the AH subforum 'Writer's Challenges'. This story is a virtual encyclopedia of dialogue slugs, ('dialogue slug' being the word that attributes the dialogue line to the speaker.)
http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=606453
Many writers prefer not to use dialogue slugs unless absolutely necessary, since they can slow down a story. Conversely, many times I get confused when reading a story with no dialogue slugs, but I'm easily confused, so that's probably my fault.
Another common mistake is the lack of tension or conflict in a story. If a story is nothing but a scene, and the end of the scene is a forgone conclusion (They're going to screw! How utterly profound!) then your chances of holding the reader won't be very good. However, if they're going to screw and the reader knows that his wife or her husband is going to walk in on them at any moment, the reader will probably stick around to see what happens.
There are 'How To' articles here at LIT, and there are stickies at the top of some of the forums with info and info-links for writers. One very helpful How To article is in the 2008 How To contest, written by Ogg, explaining how to write flash fiction. What you learn from his piece is economy of words - in other words, getting the most meaning out of the least number of words. Why spend a whole paragraph explaining something that can be laid out in one well-written sentence?
You might also look for 'exposition' on the forums. The need for exposition has been discussed at length - whether to start your story with exposition or work it in as needed.
Common mistakes: Stilted dialogue, repetitious dialogue slugs: he said...she said.... Check out this story, which is #6 (post #7) of this flashfic thread in the AH subforum 'Writer's Challenges'. This story is a virtual encyclopedia of dialogue slugs, ('dialogue slug' being the word that attributes the dialogue line to the speaker.)
http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=606453
Many writers prefer not to use dialogue slugs unless absolutely necessary, since they can slow down a story. Conversely, many times I get confused when reading a story with no dialogue slugs, but I'm easily confused, so that's probably my fault.
Another common mistake is the lack of tension or conflict in a story. If a story is nothing but a scene, and the end of the scene is a forgone conclusion (They're going to screw! How utterly profound!) then your chances of holding the reader won't be very good. However, if they're going to screw and the reader knows that his wife or her husband is going to walk in on them at any moment, the reader will probably stick around to see what happens.
sr71plt
Literotica Guru
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Here are some common stylistic errors (in alphabetical order) to keep in mind (and to try to avoid) while you are writing. There’s a whole different set of content issues to watch for as well, for example, consistent spelling of character names and consistency in chronology. (If you kill off cousin Frank on page two, don’t have him show up in your kitchen on page five). There also are common formatting mistakes, like improper use of quotes for dialogue, dropping the apostrophe (or misplacing it) in possessives, not having close quotes when there are open quotes), and not putting end punctuation at the end of paragraphs.
Affect, effect: “Affect” is usually used as a verb, meaning “having an influence on.” Its less-used noun form means “an emotion.” “Effect” is most commonly used as a noun meaning “a result.” Its verb form means, “to bring about or execute.” If you “affect” something, you are likely to have an “effect” on it. When you use the word, you usually will be using the “affect” version.
Appositives: Novelists may be the world’s biggest promoters of bigamy through the habitual use of the construction “Tom’s wife Mildred went to market.” If Tom only has one wife, the sentence should read, “Tom’s wife, Mildred, went to market.” The sentence in this instance is nonrestrictive, meaning the name could be dropped and the meaning would still be clear. The sentence should read “Tom’s wife Mildred went to market” only if Tom has more than one wife and “Mildred” has to be included (ergo a restrictive sentence) for the meaning of the sentence (specifying which wife) to be clear.
Compound Sentence Clauses: Independent clauses with subjects and verbs are usually set off by commas, while dependent clauses (ones with only verbs) usually aren’t. It is precisely the presence or absence of such commas that unconsciously signals to the reader what sort of clause to expect next (and thus to smoothen their journey through your work).
Comprise, compose: Careful writers don’t use these terms as synonyms, because doing so will cause picky readers and editors apoplexy. The whole “comprises” the parts and the parts “compose” the whole. If you really want to see such readers and editors choke, use the verbose phrases “are comprised of” or “are composed of.”
Daddy/daddy; Mother/mother: When these are substituted for names, they are capitalized; when they are not, they aren't [Examples: "I hate Daddy." "I hate my mother."]
Direct address: When a character is directly addressed in dialogue, the name is set off with a comma. [Example: "Take a hike, Saddie."]
Due to: The only legitimate uses of “due to” are in the contexts of loan-sharking or the date you are supposed to turn in your term paper. In most cases in which you have the urge to use that phrase, you should be using “caused by,” “because of,” or “as a result of.”
Exclamation points and FULL CAPS: Resist the urge. It's a mark of an amateur writer to use these rather than the well-crafted context to show emotion.
Farther, further: “Farther” and “further” are actually interchangeable as adjectives, but so many people have come to think that they aren’t that you might as well make a distinction in your writing, so that people don’t point mockingly at you in their ignorance. “Farther” is thought to be restricted to meanings connected to distance, while “further” is thought to be restricted to meanings connected with addition.
Fewer, lesser: “Fewer” is used with countable units (e.g., people and distinct items: “fewer than five ballerinas and fewer than four kumquats”); “less” is used for spans of things (like time: “less than five nanoseconds.”)
Impact: If your car has hit a brick wall, you can use “impact” as a verb to describe your experience. If you use “impact” as anything but a noun in any other context, you have been writing memos for the Pentagon too long.
Insure, Ensure, Assure: When writers reach for one of these words, they almost always use “insure,” and they almost always should have made another choice. “Insure” is only used for taking out an insurance policy. “Ensure,” the most commonly meant variation of the words, means, “to make secure or certain.” “Assure” is usually used in reference to a person, as in “setting the mind at rest.”
Its, it’s: One of the most frequent habitual mistakes found in writing. “Its” is possessive; “it’s” is a contraction for “it is.”
Hopefully: Most word experts, which would include most editors in publishing, insist that “hopefully” cannot be used as it almost always is used: “Hopefully, we will survive until spring.” They do not offer up very good substitutes for all instances where the writer would be encouraged to use the word, however. Whether or not they are right, if you use it, they will mark it out—so it’s best to try to write without using it.
“Ly” endings and hyphenation: No combined adjective ending in “ly” takes a hyphen (Example: “grossly big whatever”). No rhyme or reason; that’s just the way it is in the English language.
Most Importantly: Whenever a book editor sees this phrase, the “ly” will be excised in one swift stroke. You might save editors (and readers) from being distracted by this by writing it “most important” in the first place.
Not Only/But Also: This is a “complete set” combination. Writers often leave out the “also,” but the book editor won’t let it go without the “also.”
Noun/verb agreement: A singular noun takes a singular verb; a plural noun takes a plural verb. Don’t be fooled by a noun in a prepositional phrase that intervenes between the subject and the verb—it’s the subject that determines whether the verb is singular or plural, not the noun in the intervening prepositional phrase. If what results sounds awkward, rewrite the sentence to get rid of the problem.
Numbers: Rendering numbers in fiction writing follows the Chicago Manual of Style system--for most applications numbers under 100 are written out. (Exceptions for such things as percentages and temperature.) General numbers above 100 are also written out. (Example: "More than five hundred kumquats fell out of the tree")
On the Other Hand: The “On the one hand/on the other hand” construction is another complete set. Writers often use just the “on the other hand” part and send intelligent readers running back up the page looking for an “on the one hand” they missed. The isolated “on the other hand” should really be something else, such as “however,” “conversely,” or “in contrast.”
Parallelism: Much editing time is spent in making clauses in series and such things as subheadings parallel (e.g., if you use a verb in one element of a series, every element of the series should use a verb, or vice versa). These also are among the hardest errors to see before the book is published, but the easiest for snickering readers to see afterward. Time spent going over your manuscript, checking on parallelism, is time well spent.
Personal Titles: Personal titles in apposition (e.g., U.S. president George Bush) are more often rendered incorrectly than they are rendered correctly. That’s because proper usage looks like it can’t be proper. This is the proper progression (and I’m using the U.S. president’s title to make a point that, if it’s right for this position, it’s right for all other positions, even—in U.S. publishing, at least—for British queen Elizabeth, or “the queen”): the president; U.S. president George Bush; president of the United States, George Bush; former president George Bush; President George Bush; President Bush.
Serial Comma: Use of a serial comma, or the comma before the “and” or “or” in a series (e.g., blue, green, and purple cows) has become optional in U.S. market word usage, and the trend is toward not using it. Conversely, the majority of U.S. publishers do use it. So, if you don’t know your publisher doesn’t use it, you’d best do so.
Spelling: Computer programs are really, really bad at spell check (although you should always run spell check, as it will pick up a lot of problems you overlooked). When even half in doubt, look the word up in the dictionary. If there are multiple acceptable spellings, use the first one listed.
That/Which: There are convoluted rules on when “that” and “which” can be used for independent clauses (thus set off with a comma) and dependent clauses (thus not set off with a comma). Most publishers make it quite simple. If it’s a dependent clause, use “that”; if it’s an independent clause, use “which.” Therefore, if you’ve written a “which” clause and not put a comma in front of it, you may have been grammatically correct, but most publishers will insert a comma or change the word to “that” (and they’ll also be grammatically correct in doing so).
There/their These are frequently used incorrectly in writing. Habitual mistakes that are easy to make and hard for anyone but all of the readers to catch.
To/too/two Another set of words often screwed up in writing. Everyone knows which is which, but they habitually misuse them and then read right through them in review.
Trademarked Names: Some company and product names are trademarked (e.g., Coca-Cola, Kleenex, Styrofoam, Band-Aid, Barnes & Noble, Kool-Aid). The myths have become established either that trademarked names can’t be legally used at all in creative writing or that they have to be rendered with a trademark sign on them. Neither of these assertions is true, but they do legally have to be rendered exactly as trademarked.
Unclear Antecedents: In following up a reference to a formal noun (e.g., “Gertrude”) with a pronoun (e.g., “she”), writers will often let another formal noun intrude between the antecedent and the pronoun (e.g., “Hector”) that can be confused as intended as the antecedent. This is anathema for the writer, because the reader invariably will stop reading and backtrack to figure out where they went off track. Do what you can to keep your antecedents clear.
Word Capitalization: Writers are habitually cap happy and publishers aren’t. When in doubt, don’t.
Word Hyphenation: The rules for word hyphenation are very complex, and authors can be forgiven for not being experts on this. However, it’s hard to forgive them when whether or not the word they are using is hyphenated is very clearly explained in black and white in the dictionary and they still render it incorrectly. This happens an astonishingly percentage of the time. If you don’t find it hyphenated in the dictionary, just don’t hyphenate it—leave it as two words.
Affect, effect: “Affect” is usually used as a verb, meaning “having an influence on.” Its less-used noun form means “an emotion.” “Effect” is most commonly used as a noun meaning “a result.” Its verb form means, “to bring about or execute.” If you “affect” something, you are likely to have an “effect” on it. When you use the word, you usually will be using the “affect” version.
Appositives: Novelists may be the world’s biggest promoters of bigamy through the habitual use of the construction “Tom’s wife Mildred went to market.” If Tom only has one wife, the sentence should read, “Tom’s wife, Mildred, went to market.” The sentence in this instance is nonrestrictive, meaning the name could be dropped and the meaning would still be clear. The sentence should read “Tom’s wife Mildred went to market” only if Tom has more than one wife and “Mildred” has to be included (ergo a restrictive sentence) for the meaning of the sentence (specifying which wife) to be clear.
Compound Sentence Clauses: Independent clauses with subjects and verbs are usually set off by commas, while dependent clauses (ones with only verbs) usually aren’t. It is precisely the presence or absence of such commas that unconsciously signals to the reader what sort of clause to expect next (and thus to smoothen their journey through your work).
Comprise, compose: Careful writers don’t use these terms as synonyms, because doing so will cause picky readers and editors apoplexy. The whole “comprises” the parts and the parts “compose” the whole. If you really want to see such readers and editors choke, use the verbose phrases “are comprised of” or “are composed of.”
Daddy/daddy; Mother/mother: When these are substituted for names, they are capitalized; when they are not, they aren't [Examples: "I hate Daddy." "I hate my mother."]
Direct address: When a character is directly addressed in dialogue, the name is set off with a comma. [Example: "Take a hike, Saddie."]
Due to: The only legitimate uses of “due to” are in the contexts of loan-sharking or the date you are supposed to turn in your term paper. In most cases in which you have the urge to use that phrase, you should be using “caused by,” “because of,” or “as a result of.”
Exclamation points and FULL CAPS: Resist the urge. It's a mark of an amateur writer to use these rather than the well-crafted context to show emotion.
Farther, further: “Farther” and “further” are actually interchangeable as adjectives, but so many people have come to think that they aren’t that you might as well make a distinction in your writing, so that people don’t point mockingly at you in their ignorance. “Farther” is thought to be restricted to meanings connected to distance, while “further” is thought to be restricted to meanings connected with addition.
Fewer, lesser: “Fewer” is used with countable units (e.g., people and distinct items: “fewer than five ballerinas and fewer than four kumquats”); “less” is used for spans of things (like time: “less than five nanoseconds.”)
Impact: If your car has hit a brick wall, you can use “impact” as a verb to describe your experience. If you use “impact” as anything but a noun in any other context, you have been writing memos for the Pentagon too long.
Insure, Ensure, Assure: When writers reach for one of these words, they almost always use “insure,” and they almost always should have made another choice. “Insure” is only used for taking out an insurance policy. “Ensure,” the most commonly meant variation of the words, means, “to make secure or certain.” “Assure” is usually used in reference to a person, as in “setting the mind at rest.”
Its, it’s: One of the most frequent habitual mistakes found in writing. “Its” is possessive; “it’s” is a contraction for “it is.”
Hopefully: Most word experts, which would include most editors in publishing, insist that “hopefully” cannot be used as it almost always is used: “Hopefully, we will survive until spring.” They do not offer up very good substitutes for all instances where the writer would be encouraged to use the word, however. Whether or not they are right, if you use it, they will mark it out—so it’s best to try to write without using it.
“Ly” endings and hyphenation: No combined adjective ending in “ly” takes a hyphen (Example: “grossly big whatever”). No rhyme or reason; that’s just the way it is in the English language.
Most Importantly: Whenever a book editor sees this phrase, the “ly” will be excised in one swift stroke. You might save editors (and readers) from being distracted by this by writing it “most important” in the first place.
Not Only/But Also: This is a “complete set” combination. Writers often leave out the “also,” but the book editor won’t let it go without the “also.”
Noun/verb agreement: A singular noun takes a singular verb; a plural noun takes a plural verb. Don’t be fooled by a noun in a prepositional phrase that intervenes between the subject and the verb—it’s the subject that determines whether the verb is singular or plural, not the noun in the intervening prepositional phrase. If what results sounds awkward, rewrite the sentence to get rid of the problem.
Numbers: Rendering numbers in fiction writing follows the Chicago Manual of Style system--for most applications numbers under 100 are written out. (Exceptions for such things as percentages and temperature.) General numbers above 100 are also written out. (Example: "More than five hundred kumquats fell out of the tree")
On the Other Hand: The “On the one hand/on the other hand” construction is another complete set. Writers often use just the “on the other hand” part and send intelligent readers running back up the page looking for an “on the one hand” they missed. The isolated “on the other hand” should really be something else, such as “however,” “conversely,” or “in contrast.”
Parallelism: Much editing time is spent in making clauses in series and such things as subheadings parallel (e.g., if you use a verb in one element of a series, every element of the series should use a verb, or vice versa). These also are among the hardest errors to see before the book is published, but the easiest for snickering readers to see afterward. Time spent going over your manuscript, checking on parallelism, is time well spent.
Personal Titles: Personal titles in apposition (e.g., U.S. president George Bush) are more often rendered incorrectly than they are rendered correctly. That’s because proper usage looks like it can’t be proper. This is the proper progression (and I’m using the U.S. president’s title to make a point that, if it’s right for this position, it’s right for all other positions, even—in U.S. publishing, at least—for British queen Elizabeth, or “the queen”): the president; U.S. president George Bush; president of the United States, George Bush; former president George Bush; President George Bush; President Bush.
Serial Comma: Use of a serial comma, or the comma before the “and” or “or” in a series (e.g., blue, green, and purple cows) has become optional in U.S. market word usage, and the trend is toward not using it. Conversely, the majority of U.S. publishers do use it. So, if you don’t know your publisher doesn’t use it, you’d best do so.
Spelling: Computer programs are really, really bad at spell check (although you should always run spell check, as it will pick up a lot of problems you overlooked). When even half in doubt, look the word up in the dictionary. If there are multiple acceptable spellings, use the first one listed.
That/Which: There are convoluted rules on when “that” and “which” can be used for independent clauses (thus set off with a comma) and dependent clauses (thus not set off with a comma). Most publishers make it quite simple. If it’s a dependent clause, use “that”; if it’s an independent clause, use “which.” Therefore, if you’ve written a “which” clause and not put a comma in front of it, you may have been grammatically correct, but most publishers will insert a comma or change the word to “that” (and they’ll also be grammatically correct in doing so).
There/their These are frequently used incorrectly in writing. Habitual mistakes that are easy to make and hard for anyone but all of the readers to catch.
To/too/two Another set of words often screwed up in writing. Everyone knows which is which, but they habitually misuse them and then read right through them in review.
Trademarked Names: Some company and product names are trademarked (e.g., Coca-Cola, Kleenex, Styrofoam, Band-Aid, Barnes & Noble, Kool-Aid). The myths have become established either that trademarked names can’t be legally used at all in creative writing or that they have to be rendered with a trademark sign on them. Neither of these assertions is true, but they do legally have to be rendered exactly as trademarked.
Unclear Antecedents: In following up a reference to a formal noun (e.g., “Gertrude”) with a pronoun (e.g., “she”), writers will often let another formal noun intrude between the antecedent and the pronoun (e.g., “Hector”) that can be confused as intended as the antecedent. This is anathema for the writer, because the reader invariably will stop reading and backtrack to figure out where they went off track. Do what you can to keep your antecedents clear.
Word Capitalization: Writers are habitually cap happy and publishers aren’t. When in doubt, don’t.
Word Hyphenation: The rules for word hyphenation are very complex, and authors can be forgiven for not being experts on this. However, it’s hard to forgive them when whether or not the word they are using is hyphenated is very clearly explained in black and white in the dictionary and they still render it incorrectly. This happens an astonishingly percentage of the time. If you don’t find it hyphenated in the dictionary, just don’t hyphenate it—leave it as two words.
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snoopercharmbrights
Was charmbrights, snooper
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Bad punctuation, homophone errors (there/their), apostrophe errors (plural vs. possessive), continuity (he is fair-haired in chapter 1 and blond in chapter 5), use of US English in stories set in UK/Australia/India where the Queen's English is correct (and vice versa), misunderstandings about other countries' customs, titles, laws, etc. (especially education systems), use of abstruse technical terms only specialists can understand, use v txt msg lngaj in a piece of literature.
Er ... don't make them? That aside, have one, or preferably more, people proof read for you. The volunteer editors here can be very useful, but none of them (not even I) are infallible. The author is probably the worst person in the world to proof-read his/her own work.
Punctuation of direct speech is very contentious. There are many, varied standards. If you look at: http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/doc/punctuation/node30.html#SECTION00091000000000000000
http://www.correctpunctuation.co.uk/punctuation-quotation.htm
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/qmarks.html
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/jargonbuster/q-r/quotationmark?view=uk
you will see that what one authority says is compulsory, another says is bad style, and a third (at least) implies is wrong - so take your pick, but STICK TO ONE STANDARD.
Personally, being UK English based, I use the last of the four standards quoted
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A
AsylumSeeker
Guest
Don't Mean To Diminish Their Comments
I feel your need, I think. Thanks SR and Snooper for your very helpful input.
I am an editor, not one as precise as the others and may offer a different perspective.
Here's what I have noticed. Some have a tendency to use "and then" a lot, or more incorrectly "then". Many writers write passively and begin successive sentences with "He" or "She". I have seen paragraphs with five or six sentences in a row that start with "He" or "She" so I help to rewrite those.
I could go on but won't, those are a few examples. I have no "degree" and have never professed to having one, I have no formal "English" training and will admit to being a bit undereducated.
But I write quite well and managed to CLEP 6 hours of English by knowing what "sounds" right. Must make me a "clepto-maniac?"
<Drum roll please>
Okay, I'll go away now...
Oh, yes, and if you are writing this for Lit. or an American publisher, be careful the authorities you use are American style, not British style. There are differences.
I feel your need, I think. Thanks SR and Snooper for your very helpful input.
I am an editor, not one as precise as the others and may offer a different perspective.
Here's what I have noticed. Some have a tendency to use "and then" a lot, or more incorrectly "then". Many writers write passively and begin successive sentences with "He" or "She". I have seen paragraphs with five or six sentences in a row that start with "He" or "She" so I help to rewrite those.
I could go on but won't, those are a few examples. I have no "degree" and have never professed to having one, I have no formal "English" training and will admit to being a bit undereducated.
But I write quite well and managed to CLEP 6 hours of English by knowing what "sounds" right. Must make me a "clepto-maniac?"
<Drum roll please>
Okay, I'll go away now...
snoopercharmbrights
Was charmbrights, snooper
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2008
- Posts
- 2,131
AS: You quote SR71 as saying "if you are writing this for Lit. or an American publisher, be careful the authorities you use are American style, not British style".
That may be good advice for some US Publishers (though I have never been asked to translate anything into US English) but it is definitely wrong as to Literotica. Lit accepts UK English if that is submitted and leaves the author to worry about the large number of US Citizens who need to read erotica.
That may be good advice for some US Publishers (though I have never been asked to translate anything into US English) but it is definitely wrong as to Literotica. Lit accepts UK English if that is submitted and leaves the author to worry about the large number of US Citizens who need to read erotica.
sr71plt
Literotica Guru
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This is an American-based Web site. Some submitters have indicated that their submission was questioned when they used British-style quotes and British spellings. So, if you are writing in the States, at least, there seems no reason that you wouldn't want to learn the way it's done in the States on this U.S.-based Web site. Just common sense, I'd think.
But at the base, Snooper is recommending British style authorities without including the proviso that they are not American system. That seems just confusing to a writer here--because there are, in fact, differences in the two markets, with the U.S. market being much the greater one.
But at the base, Snooper is recommending British style authorities without including the proviso that they are not American system. That seems just confusing to a writer here--because there are, in fact, differences in the two markets, with the U.S. market being much the greater one.
