Re-post: Writing Right

Its so easy to right the wrong word, to use the wrong spelling and to expect our readers to except what we said. Time and time again writer’s make alot of mistakes and even thought they wrote a grate story, its rejected because they failed to edit properly.

Ooh, were you cringing as much as I was from all the mistakes in the short paragraph above? Yikes. It’s true, many queries and manuscripts get rejected merely because of the errors on the page. Unless you are self-publishing there will be an editor, but contrary to popular belief, the editor should not have to do much with spelling and grammar. Choosing the wrong word, even if it sounds alike, can be a complete turn-off for a publisher.

Remember that “its” means belonging to, whereas “it’s” is a contraction of it is. Writing is the right word for what writers do. “A lot” is two words, not one. While there are always exceptions to the rule, “accept” is what we hope a publisher will do with our manuscript. And though you may have thought the “t” was silent, it’s not. Great writing takes thought.

I am a firm believer in getting those words down on paper and doing your editing, and necessary corrections, after-wards. Don’t stop the flow of your thoughts and words, get that story told. Then put the manuscript down and walk away for an hour, a day or a week – however long it takes to refresh yourself and get ready to look at what you wrote with a critical eye.

By all means use spell check, but don’t rely on it. (Trust me, I once had a family name in a newsletter I edited turn to “Penis” because it was too similar for the computer to understand.) Start with a good self-edit – from the back. You wrote the story, you know what you meant to say; by editing the story out of context, you will look see glaring mistakes a little easier. Ideally after the self-edit have someone else look the manuscript over, challenge them to find mistakes if need be.

Self-edit again. Look for more than spelling and grammatical mistakes, but also check for inconsistencies in names and dates. Too often a writer will start out calling a character by one name and change it slightly through the book such as Brandon to Brendan or Cathy to Kathy. Make sure that you have kept elements of the story consistent as well such as the number of siblings or a painting hanging in a room. Be sure that you used the right word for the meaning you meant no matter how similar they may sound.

Dialogue falls under a different set of guidelines. Most people do not speak perfect “Queen’s English”. If someone is asked if they would like a piece of ice cream cake they will usually answer “Yeah” instead of “Yes I would like a piece of ice-cream cake”. A character’s dialogue should be commensurate with the age, education, social standing, time period and familiarity with whom they are speaking to. Spelling, unless it is to reflect an accent, is still important, grammar can be slightly skewed.

I recently heard that there aren’t any published books without at least one typo, but when the mistakes are frequent, blatant and almost painful you will lose your reader’s desire to read. No publisher wants to invest in that.


Writing exercise: Fill in the blanks (you can use one or more words) – Dear Diary, Today I woke up feeling ____. I didn’t eat breakfast because I was _____. I planned to go _____ but decided not to because I _____. I was surprised though by _____ and _____. *** Now write a brief news bulletin about the “night before” that explains why you felt the way you did and all of the other blanks you filled in.

Writing prompt: Take your street address, make as many 3 to 5 letter words as you can. Try it with your city or state name.