Writing Tips
SEMICOLON SPECIFICS
Submitted by Nancy Thatcher Cerny
From notes in Writer’s Digest Feb 2009
The semicolon is a tricky beast, but it serves specific purposes in sentence structure. It (;) is a hybrid of a period and comma. Its intention is to be stronger than a comma, but not as final as a period. The semicolon has four main uses:
1. to join independent clauses:
Dancing is for the birds; the Chicken Dance is for weddings.
2. to shift a mood:
Stop goofing around; or should I tell your mother?
3. to separate clauses with conjunctive adverb:
I enjoy soccer; however, my favorite sport is baseball.
Little trick: substitute a period where you think the semicolon should go and if both elements are correct as sentences, they can be joined by a semicolon.
4. to separate a series of clauses that contain internal punctuation (like commas):
My favorite places to hang out include baseball, football and soccer fields; restaurants and coffeehouses and Las Vegas.
Personally, I like semicolons; I stick them in to add hesitations, longer pauses, confusion and fun. ~nktc\\
HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL
A couple years ago I was at a writers’ conference waiting in line to get a seat as two women in front of me were having a discussion. I couldn’t help but hear them as one lady said to the other: "I’ve always wanted to write a Western, but don’t know how to go about it."
A part of me wanted to grab her by the shoulder, spin her around and say: "First do this, then this and once you’ve got that . . ."
I left it to the pros who were giving the conference to answer her questions that day, but for anyone else who’s interested in writing a novel, I would recommend the following ten steps.
Step 1. Create a parking lot for ideas. At some point in your writing you’re undoubtedly going to come to a place in a story where you need a smart piece of dialog or an idea for a scene.
To help in this situation, keep a pad of Post-it Notes handy at all times, and when you hear a person say something funny and original, write the word "Dialog" on top of a Post-it and copy down what the person said.
When you hear someone tell a funny story, write "Scene" on top of a Post-it and write a sentence or two that will remind you later of that story.
Keep tossing all the Post-it Notes in a vase where your write, and once a month type the dialog and scenes into a computer file, then print out the file and keep the pages in a notebook.
Keep adding each month and before long you’ll have a notebook of ideas that will help you when you get stuck and need a good bit of dialog or a scene idea. (Note: I write remarks all the time on back of my business cards when I’m out in public and I hear something, then toss them in my vase when I get home.)
Step 2. Read as many books in the genre you plan to write in as you can. At the same time make sure your grammar and punctuation are at least at a first-year college level. If you only have a high-school education like me, you can pick up a great little book called Write Right by Jan Venolia, the book’s written in easy to understand terms. You must have a very good understanding of proper grammar and punctuation to keep from being marked as unprofessional. Reading in the genre you enjoy will aid in recognizing good grammar and punctuation.
Step 3. Know how many words make up a novel. Generally novels are between 80 and 100 thousand words. If you have less than 80 it may not seem big enough, and if you have over 100, the publisher is taking a bigger chance on wasting a whole lot of ink and paper, which he might not do. But you must have enough words.
A lot of new authors have difficulty reaching 80,000; they may have a great story idea, but it fizzles out. To keep this from happening, always consider how your main character’s story affects his "Three Ps": Private life, Personal life, and Professional life. Looking into the Three Ps is a great way to grow a story, and if that isn’t enough, always keep in mind using a subplot.
Try to look at the book you’re going to write as a series of 30 connected short stories—chapters—each one about 3,000 words in length. That will give you 90,000 words. (Note: If you have a full-time job, try writing 3,000 words a week, in less than a year you’ll have a book.)
Step 4. Plan your novel from beginning to end. Anything big requires planning; building a house; starting a new business; restoring an old car. Some famous authors have said that writers who plan stories are dullards or have no talent. That’s garbage, don’t listen to them.
When you plan a story, it allows you to focus your creativity in one specific place at a time—not across a whole book. Define the playing field for your characters. Be God to your characters. There’s nothing wrong with that, by page fifty they’ll be running the story anyway.
But how do you plan a novel? A great way is to look at stage plays. Typically, they have three acts. The first act sets up who the characters are and where the story’s taking place. The second act is the "meat" of the story, where all the critical decisions and a lot of the action takes place. And the third act is the end or resolution of the story. Looking at your story in three acts is a great way to see how it might flow.
Step 5. Always know four things before you begin your story. This relates to the three-act structure explained above. The first thing you should know is how your story begins; the where and when? The second thing you should know is, what event is going to catapult my story into the second act where the meat of the story lies? The third thing you want to know is, what event will catapult my story towards its resolution? And four, how does my story end?
Here’s an example of the four answers in a simple bank robbery story: 1. My story begins in present day Los Angeles with criminals planning a bank robbery. 2. They rob the bank. 3. A member of the gang rats out the others. 4. The gang is caught by the police. Now answer these four things for your own story.
Step 6. Determine the point of view and lead character. I don’t recommend writing in the first person, because a lot of agents and editors don’t give it the respect they do other writing. It takes more creativity to turn loose of yourself and create a new character—but of course you could always say that you are the third person you’re writing about.
The majority of agents and publishers are looking for writers who create one central character for a story and follow that character through the entire book. The logic being, that this gives the reader a clear-cut point of view, and it also helps the reader become attached to the character and care more about him or her.
Keep in mind you don’t always have to create lovable characters—consider Dracula and Jack the Ripper—but we do, as readers, have to understand their motivation.
Step 7. Creating good scenes. A scene can take up a whole chapter if it’s big, or several scenes can make up one chapter, that’s up to the author. Keep in mind that every scene should do one of two things: move the story forward or reveal character. If the scene doesn't do one of these two, you need to ask yourself why it’s there?
Here are two pieces of advice that can help any scene: One. Get into the scene "late" and "out early." This means don’t write anything in a scene that doesn’t absolutely have to be there.
Imagine you’re writing a scene that takes place in a Western saloon. Resist the urge to always write the obvious, like: They rode up the dusty street, their horses dripping sweat. They tied up the horses and swaggered into the saloon.
Be economical with words and get to the meat of the scene as quickly as possible. Start the above scene by having the cowboys tossing back shots at the bar and let them dive right into their conversation or fight or whatever.
"Getting out of the scene early" is the opposite of getting in late, instead of showing our cowboys walking out and getting on their horses, simply have them end the scene on a bit of dialog or wiping a bloody lip.
The second thing to consider about scenes is location. Avoid obvious locations like dining rooms and living rooms. Try and set your scenes in the most original and offbeat locations possible. This will make your writing fresher, more original, and you’ll be surprised at what your creativity can draw from when you put your characters outside the typical locations.
Step 8. Writing good dialog. (Remember to save the best pieces of dialog you hear on Post-it Notes for reference.) There are two things most writers don’t get when it comes to dialog. One. Each character should always have his or her own agenda. Even though one character is listening to another character speak, he should care more about how the news affects himself than the speaker.
Consider these two pieces of dialog:
"I just got a new car."
"Oh really, what kind?"
That’s on-the-nose and obvious. Here’s a more creative way that shows the second character’s own agenda:
"I just got a new car."
"I remember my first new car, and so do half the police in town."
The second bit of dialog shows the other character is more concerned with events that affect him. For better or worse, that’s the way real life is, and it pays to give each character his or her own agenda and let them grow with it.
The other thing about dialog is real simple, but often overlooked. People seldom speak in complete sentences. We fracture a big part of what we say and it’s amazing how many authors have trouble with this. Whenever you can cut short a character’s dialog to make it sound more authentic, do it. Then read it back aloud until it sounds natural. In dialog, never use five words when two will do.
Step 9. Facets and emotions. Good stories have facets, just like gemstones. You can look at them and see many different things at once. A good author’s voice is a facet. A smart sense of humor is a facet. Realistic dialog. Good pacing. Originality. But the greatest facet to any story is emotion; if you can make the reader feel, then you’ve done your job. The ultimate goal is to create a story where your reader feels emotions; laughs, cries, feels empathy—or even hate—for the characters.
Step 10. Style and execution. Don’t always listen to the critics. Far too many writers criticize one another for the wrong reasons. The only thing we can really critique about one another’s work is to ask, "Did the writer accomplish his or her goal in moving the story from point A to point B?" If the answer is yes, then the author succeeded. The style with which the author got us from A to B is completely up to him or her.
To be a professional author you have to get out all the bad writing first, so don’t be surprised if you write two or more books before one is picked up by a publisher. Being an author is like being a tennis pro. A tennis player has 10,000 bad shots in him that he needs to get out, before his skill level reaches a professional level. And it’s the same with writers, typically we have at least 100,000 words we need to get out before we reach a professional level.
But don’t let that discourage you. If you’re like most authors, the first five thousand words you write will be the greatest thing you’ve ever read.
THE END
Writing What You Think You Know,
When it Comes to Punctuation,
Can be Dangerous
I recently read a novel where the ellipsis dots were incorrectly used almost throughout the entire work. I was surprised that the writer didn’t know what he was doing. But not so surprised that the mistake got past his editor, since they seldom "edit" writers with multiple books in print.
In this case the writer used four ellipsis dots to indicate trailing-off speech or thoughts 90 percent of the time. The correct place to use four dots is when quoting someone and indicating that what the person said is a grammatically complete sentence, but he or she did in fact say more.
Example: John Grisham visited our writers group. He said, "Success in writing depends on determination. . . ." The dot immediately after the word ‘determination’ indicates that what he said was a grammatically complete statement. The other three dots indicate that he said more. What Mr. Grisham really said was, "Success in writing depends on determination and a good bit of natural talent and luck." The use of four ellipsis dots is extremely rare in fiction and is something you’re more likely to see in a newspaper.
Also, keep in mind that when a dialog tag follows three ellipsis dots a comma follows the last dot. Example: "I tried telling ’em . . . ," he said.
As with every question about punctuation, if you don’t know the answer, look it up in the Chicago Manual of Style. This particular explanation is found in section 10:55 (Keep in mind the manual is updated each year so the number may change.)
ELLIPSES . . .
Submitted by Nancy Thatcher Cerny 22 February 2010
The question of ellipsis was brought up again at the January 2010 TLW meeting. It appears all members expressing an opinion were right – to some extent, anyway. Ellipses are Functional, Fun and Frightening. They are used in different ways depending on what business you work in, which university you attended, your age and text-ability. Let me explain:
Ellipsis (plural ellipses) is a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word or phrase from the original text. It can also indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, the end of a sentence, or a sentence trailing off into silence.
The most common form of an ellipsis is a row of three periods or full stops (…), ( . . . ), dot-dot-dot, or (….)
The style and use of an ellipsis varies. For legal writing in the United States, Rule 5.3 in the Bluebook Citation Guide governs the use of ellipsis and requires a space before the first dot and between the two subsequent dots ( . . . ). If an ellipsis ends the sentence, then there are three dots, each separated by a space, followed by the final punctuation ( . . . . )
The Chicago Manual of Style suggests the use of an ellipsis for any omitted word, phrase, line or paragraph from within a quoted passage. An ellipsis at the end of a sentence with no sentence following should be followed by a period (for a total of four dots).
The Modern Language Association (MLA) used to indicate that an ellipsis must include spaces before and after each dot in all uses: ( . . . ). If an ellipsis is meant to represent an omission, square brackets surround the ellipsis [ . . . ]. Currently, the MLA has removed the requirements of brackets (however, the use of brackets is still correct as it clears confusion).
According to Robert Bringhurst’s Elements of Typographic Style, the details of typesetting ellipsis depend on the character and size of the font being set and the typographer’s preference. He writes that a full space between each dot is "another Victorian eccentricity." In most context (for typesetting), the Chicago ellipsis is much too wide – he recommends using flush dots, or the typesetters’ prefabricated ellipsis character. He also suggests that an ellipsis should be spaced fore-and-aft to separate it from the text (but when it combines with other punctuation, the leading space disappears and the other punctuation follows).
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, uses ellipses at least nine times in the 3rd Edition while it does not address rules of usage of ellipses in the handbook. It is interesting to note, on the back cover, Greensboro (N.C.) Daily News’ acclaim of the manual reads: ". . . should be the daily companion of anyone who writes for a living and, for that matter, anyone who writes at all.
On the Internet and in Text Messaging, the ellipsis is one of the favorite constructions of internet chat rooms and has evolved over the past ten years into a staple of text-messaging. Though an ellipsis is technically complete with three periods, its rise in popularity as a "trailing-off" or "silence" indicator, as in comic strips, has led to expanded uses online. Sometimes it is used at the end of a message "to signal that the rest of the message is forthcoming."
Today, extended ellipsis of two, seven, ten or a dozen dots/periods have become common constructions in internet chat rooms and text messages. Often the extended ellipses indicate an awkward silence or a "no comment" response to the previous statement made by the other party. They are sometimes used jokingly or for emphatic confusion about what the other person has said. "Elliptical commas" or commas used in plurality for effect have also grown in popularity online—though no style journal or manual has yet embraced them. @ Wikipedia 2/22/2010….ntc \\
I
t’s a Matter of StyleIf I could give advice to a beginning author, it would be to tell him or her that there’s no set way to begin a story. You don’t have to start your work with action. You don’t have to start it with dialog. And you don’t have to start it by setting the scene to let the reader know where he is.
Whenever we pick up a book or manuscript, we’re undoubtedly putting our trust in the author to take us somewhere. Only at the conclusion of the work can we look back and say "yes or no," as far as if the author got us there.
Whether you’re writing a novel, novella or short story, do this: look at each scene and ask yourself "what was the purpose of that scene?" It probably did one of two things: revealed something about a character or moved the story forward. That’s what stories do 90% of the time; reveal character and move plots forward toward resolution. If the scene or chapter doesn’t do one of these things, your story might have a problem.
Beware of critics, writers who whenever they see an unpublished manuscript, get it into their heads that there must be something wrong with it. "There has to be, otherwise it would’ve been published." Their solution, "You need to soup-up the beginning! Bring in the action!" The problem is, you may not be writing an action story!
Often times, the above happens when a beginning author shows his or her work to an established writer. Keep in mind, authors and writers are different. Writers often work in genres. Their stories are very similar, because the same formula gets used over and over; only the locations, costumes and accents change.
The next time a writer tells you to do this or that, ask him if he understood the purpose of the scene or chapter he’d just read. If he tells you yes, then it’s a matter of style. If he tells you "no," then explain it, and maybe you do have a problem with your story.
The definition of a hack is a writer who turns out generic, formulaic work for money. The definition of an author is a creator of a specific work. It’s funny, but writers often have a difficult time understanding authors—of any level—because they’re just that; originators of unique and imaginative material. So don’t give up on your style too easily.
Quick Tip . . .
Want to give your eyes a break while writing? Try switching your computer monitor to "blue screen with white letters" (draft mode) and close window shades to keep ambient sunlight off the screen. Your eyes will feel the difference.
A Sneaky Little Word
One day while proofreading some pages I noticed how much I was using the word of.
I researched and discovered the word "of" is a preposition used to show a relationship between a verb and a noun (or two nouns or an adjective).
An easy way to find out if you need a word, is to simply read the sentence aloud and see if it sounds right.
Example:
A couple of dogs sat under the oak tree.
A couple dogs sat under the oak tree.
The second example sounds stronger because an unnecessary word was eliminated.
And technically, the words couple and dogs don't need a preposition because no relationship is trying to be shown.
Here’s an example where the word of fits: The stairs of the house were old and rickety.
The preceding sentence shows the relationship the stairs have to the house and the preposition is used correctly. Of is a sneaky word; one would do well to be aware of it.
More Sneaky Little Words
Or
How the Words Set, Sets, Setting, and Sat, Sit, Sits, Sitting
Almost Drove Me Crazy
The above words can be confusing; the purpose here is to explain the difference in them.
There are two types of verbs: Transitive and Intransitive.
A transitive verb expresses an action that is carried from the subject to the object and requires a direct object to complete.
An intransitive verb is used in a sentence construction that does not require, or cannot take, a direct object.
Consider the prefix trans. It means to move, change, or transfer to. So a transitive verb is carrying the action from subject to object, and an intransitive verb is not.
Set, Sets, and Setting are transitive verbs and mean to put in a specified position; to put in a specified state; to put in a stable position. Note the words "to put"; something is actually happening between the subject and object.
Examples:
"He set the book on the desk."
"She was busy setting plates on the table."
Sat, Sit, Sits, and Sitting are intransitive verbs and mean to be situated with the hindquarters lowered to a surface; to be located at a specific place; to be at rest. Note the words "to be"; nothing is actually happening, there is no direct action between the subject and object.
Examples:
"The book sat on the desk."
"The plates were sitting on the table."
(Note: one’s butt is not considered a direct object, or the word "sit" would be considered a transitive verb.)
