Monday, April 22, 2019

15 Groovy, Awesome, Swell and Cool Words

cool-words

What’s your favorite word of compliment or admiration? How do you express approval? These are important questions for each generation of young people, who want their vocabulary to distinguish them from previous generations. It’s not fool-proof: a slang expression of approval is often fashionable in one place or time but not another, and may even coming back into fashion later. A word that is fashionable in one school might be considered outdated in another.

Perhaps the longest reigning compliment is “Cool!” – after an unusual run of popularity among several generations of young people, it remains fashionable in 2019. But in the last century, dozens of similar words have come in and out of fashion.

ace – Meant “top quality,” as in the highest playing card in a standard deck. A “flying ace” in World War I meant a pilot who had shot down five or more planes in combat. A student who gets an A on a test can say, “I aced it!” But once upon a time, it was used as a positive exclamation: “Ace!” meant “Great!”
awesome – typical of GenX youth (those born roughly between 1961 and 1981), but also used by American preteens in 2019. Example: “This popcorn is awesome!” One of several contemporary uses of a stronger word in a weaker sense, awesome originally means “producing terror,” then “full of awe” or “awe-inspiring.” Example: “The volcano erupted in an awesome shower of fire.” More recently, it has been used for anything that’s moderately interesting (such as rocks, socks and clocks in the Lego Movie song “Everything is Awesome.”) Perhaps this usage expresses a hope for a life that’s more than moderately interesting, or else, youthful enthusiasm.
bad – An example of contrarianism in youth slang (bad means good), but still with the original connotation of “rough” or “evil.” That is, a girl would not say, “Oooh, that’s a bad bouquet of flowers! Thank you! I’ll put them in a vase right now.”
bully – One of the favorite adjectives of U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt, meaning “grand” or “excellent.” Used in this sense in Great Britain by 1680 and revived in popularity America around 1844 (“Bully for you!”). Its meaning changed from the Middle Dutch boele, meaning “lover” or “boyfriend,” later probably used similarly to “Ooh, your boele is really bad! I like him!” to the current sense of someone who is cruel to those weaker than himself. But when Roosevelt was President (1901 to 1909), it was probably as popular as cool is today, and meant approximately the same thing.
cool – This word has also kept its Old English meaning of “low temperature.” Someone with a cool head is not hot-headed or easily angered – he has control of his passions. But a dispassionate person might also lack compassion for others, an implication of cool in the 1957 musical West Side Story. In the 1940s, tenor saxophonist Lester Young popularized the word as an expression of calm approval and satisfaction. If you ask teens in the Teens if they need anything, maybe something to eat or drink, they may respond, “No, I’m cool” or “No, I’m good.” It has been spelled “kewl,” but that’s now dated or ironic.
crack – Used in the phrase “crack shot,” an accurate marksman, but it means good or skilled in general. Samuel Johnson’s dictionary definition involved “quickness or smartness.”
epic – Frequently used by young gamers but common among many young male Americans, meaning “very cool and exciting,” Originally used for important events or great objects worthy of long works of heroic poetry such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, Beowulf, and Paradise Lost. Political campaigners like to refer to the “epic accomplishments” of their candidate, if any, the last time her or she was in office, if ever.
groovy – Popular in the 1960s among surfers and hippies. It even became the title of a Los Angeles television show in 1967, live from the beach in Santa Monica. But it originated in the Jazz Era of the 1920s, from the phrase “in the groove,” referring to the groove on vinyl records. If you were in the groove, you were part of the latest music scene.
gucci – From the high-quality clothing line, used by YouTuber Matt Smith to mean “high quality” or “good.” When a former enemy becomes your friend, you can say about your relationship, “It’s all gucci.” In a 1999 magazine interview in Harper’s Bazaar, singer Lenny Kravitz calls his bedroom “very Gucci.”
hep – According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word “hep” was first used in 1862 to mark the cadence of a march, like this: “HEP 2 – 3 – 4… HEP 2 – 3 – 4…” The words “Left… left… left-right-left” served the same purpose and also made it clear which foot you should put forward when. By 1900, it had already begun to mean “trendy.” decades before it was adopted by beatniks and hippies.
hip – Originally spelled “hep,” this word referred to the most current-conscious residents of the 1960s. Someone who was hip knew all the latest jargon, wore the latest fashions, and understood the latest ideas. To say “I’m hip with that” meant “I know what you’re talking about and I agree.” So a hippie at the time was someone who was very hip. Of course, being trendy is a moving target – the word was first used in this sense in 1904, and trends have changed substantially since then.
mod – Beginning about 1958, the mod youth culture was typified by young sharp-dressing, scooter-riding working class Londoners, but spread around the world. So in the early 1960s, if something was mod, it was trendy. Long after mod stopped being a common compliment, an American TV series called The Mod Squad debuted in 1968 and ran until 1973. Its young undercover detective stars were more hip than mod, using solid and groovy as their compliments. The word was revived effectively later – according to a middle-aged GenXer, “That word was so 80s.”
sick – Another example of contrarianism in youth slang. Being ill is disagreeable, but something that is sick is attractive. In other words, calling a skateboard sick is an expression of admiration. On Mark McCrindle’s list of the most annoying youth phrases in Australia, “fully sick” is number 2.
swell – By 1786, a swell was a dandy, a fashionable person with a swollen sense of self-importance. But it became an exclamation of admiration. In the musical The Music Man, set in 1912, Professor Harold Hill warns parents against sinister influences on their sons: “Are certain words… creeping into his conversation? Words like… like swell!” But it was too late: by 1930, expressions such as “That’s just swell!” had become common in the United States.
wild – The theme song of The Patty Duke Show (1963-1966) says about the two main characters (both played by Patty Duke) “What a wild duet!” Perhaps a 1960s reaction to the staid 1950s, where wild behavior was not acceptable.

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Original post: 15 Groovy, Awesome, Swell and Cool Words
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Wednesday, April 17, 2019

What Does [sic] Mean?

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Samm [sic] asks “What does [sic] mean?”

Sic in square brackets is an editing term used with quotations or excerpts. It means “that’s really how it appears in the original.”

It is used to point out a grammatical error, misspelling, misstatement of fact, or, as above, the unconventional spelling of a name.

For example, you might want to quote the printed introduction to a college catalog:

Maple Leaf College is well-known for it’s [sic] high academic standards.

Sic is the Latin word for “thus,” or “such.”

When John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln and jumped from the balcony to the stage of Ford’s Theatre, he is said to have shouted “Sic semper tyrannis!” He meant “that’s what tyrants get;” literally, “Thus always to tyrants.”

Another common Latin expression you might come across is sic transit gloria mundi. It means “thus passes the glory of the world.” It’s a thought that might occur as one stands by a crumbling pyramid or where the Twin Towers once stood in New York City.

Where I grew up, people who wanted a dog to attack said “sic ’em!” I’ve seen it in a dictionary spelled “sick,” as in “sick him!” This use is first recorded in 1845 and may come from a dialectal version of seek, “to look for” or “to pursue.”

[sic] in newspapers

Bernheimer wrote: “Salonen isn’t one of those conductors who pretends ( sic ) not to read criticism.” And “Salonen is not one of those lofty musicians who believes ( sic ) that art can survive in a vacuum.” — LA Times

Remembr speling?

Neither does our president. In his first tweet as POTUS — posted at 11:57 a.m. on Jan. 21 — @realDonaldTrump tweeted, “I am honered [sic] to serve you, the great American People, as your 45th President of the United States!” (He later deleted the message.) — LA Times

In the handwritten letter, Corbett writes to Bullock: “You could of (sic) had me today however you choose other people over me. I’ll be around as you know. I love you.” — USA Today

Video Recap

Should You Use [sic] in Your Piece of Writing?

Since [sic] is designed to draw attention to something that may be misspelled, incorrect, or at the very least unusual, it may not always be appropriate to use it when you’re quoting someone. It depends on what you’re writing and on your relationship with the person being quoted.

If you’re writing an academic paper, then [sic] is almost always appropriate where necessary: it makes it clear that any error or mistake is not your own, or it highlights an unusual spelling that readers might otherwise assume is incorrect.

If you’re quoting someone in a newspaper report, you might consider it necessary to use [sic] to ensure that you preserve the accuracy of the quote whilst also making it clear to readers that you do, in fact, know that “would of” is ungrammatical.

In other contexts, though, you might seek an alternative to using [sic]. Perhaps you’re quoting someone you admire in a blog post, and you don’t want to inadvertently make them look or feel bad.

Another common situation where you might use quotations is in testimonials from customers or clients. Again, you’re unlikely to want to make these people feel that you’re pointing out their mistakes.

If you’re writing something that’s fairly informal, like a chatty opinion column for a website, you might also find that the use of [sic] could come across as a little formal and stilted.

Finally, if you want to introduce a quick, brief quote that doesn’t draw attention away from your own writing, you may feel that using [sic] is a little distracting for the reader.

Alternatives to Using [sic]

In any of the above situations, or in any other instance when you’d prefer not to use [sic], good alternatives include:

Ignoring the problem altogether, and using the quotation as-is – even if something is not entirely grammatical or correct.
Omitting the problematic part of the quotation (especially if it’s relatively unimportant) by using […] to signify an omission.
Lightly editing the quotation to fix the issue, if it’s a simple spelling mistake or obvious grammatical error.
Contacting the person you’re quoting to let them know that there’s a small mistake in a piece of their writing (if you’re quoting from a website, ebook, or something else that’s easy for them to fix). You could do this in conjunction with any of the above methods, if you want to use the quotation immediately.

Ultimately, there is no rule that you must use [sic] – so consider whether it’s appropriate for your context and purposes.

Also, of course, if you are going to use [sic] when quoting someone or sharing an excerpt of a piece of writing, do be very careful that you have the correct facts (or correct spelling). If you use [sic] because you’ve misunderstood an unusual word or a point of grammar, then that could look a little silly.

Using [sic] Correctly

Select the appropriate place for [sic] to go in each of these (fictitious) quotations:

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Original post: What Does [sic] Mean?
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Monday, April 15, 2019

When to Use a Comma: 10 Rules and Examples

comma-use

Commas can be a particularly tricky punctuation mark. There are some cases where you know you should use a comma – such as when separating items in a list – but there are other times when you might be unsure whether or not a comma is needed.

While there’s some degree of flexibility in how commas are used, it’s important to have a clear grasp of the rules.

Seven Places Where You SHOULD Use Commas

Rule #1: Use Commas to Separate Items in a List

This probably the first use of commas you learned in school: separating items in a list of three or more things.

Here’s an example:

The cake mix requires flour, sugar, eggs, and butter.

Note that some style guides would not add the comma after the word “eggs”. For more on this, see Rule #8.

Rule #2: Use a Comma After an Introductory Word or Phrase

When a word or phrase forms an introduction to a sentence, you should follow it with a comma, as recommended by Purdue OWL.

Here are some examples:

However, she didn’t love him back.

On the other hand, it might be best to wait until next week.

Rule #3: Use a Comma Before a Quotation

You should always put a comma immediately before a quotation:

He said, “It’s warm today.”

John Smith told us, “You can’t come in after ten o’clock.”

Rule #4: Use a Comma to Separate a Dependent Clause That Comes BEFORE the Independent Clause

A dependent clause, or subordinate clause, is one that can’t stand alone as a whole sentence. It should be separated from the independent clause that follows it using a comma:

If you can’t make it, please call me.

After the race, John was exhausted.

However, it’s normally not necessary to use a comma if the independent clause comes first:

Please call me if you can’t make it.

John was exhausted after the race.

For more on this, plus an example of an instance where a comma is required after the independent clause, take a look at Subordinate Clauses and Commas.

Rule #5: Use a Comma to Join Two Long Independent Clauses

Normally, you should put a comma between two complete sentences that are joined with a coordinating conjunction (and, or, but, for, nor, so, yet) that creates a single sentence with two independent clauses:

Sue didn’t know whether she had enough money in her account to pay for the groceries, so she went to an ATM to check her balance.

John was determined to get the unicorn slime his daughter wanted, but all the shops had sold out.

You don’t need a comma if both the independent clauses are relatively short and similar in meaning:

Sue went to the shops and John went home.

Rule #6: Use Commas to Set Off an Nonessential Element within a Sentence

Sometimes, you might want to include extra information within a sentence that isn’t essential to its meaning. You should set this information off using a comma before and a comma after it:

John went for a jog, which took half an hour, before having a long hot shower.

Writing a book, if I haven’t put you off already, is one of the most rewarding things you can do.

The sections in bold could be removed from the sentences completely and it would still make perfectly good sense. You could also use dashes in this context:

John went for a jog – which took half an hour – before having a long hot shower.

Dashes are useful if you want to imply a longer pause, or draw more attention to the nonessential element of the sentence. They’re also useful if you have several other commas in the sentence, to help avoid confusion.

Rule #7: Use Commas to Separate Coordinate Adjectives

When you’re describing something with two or more adjectives, you can use a comma between them if those adjectives are coordinating. (They’re coordinating if you could place “and” between them.) You shouldn’t put a comma after the final adjective.

For example:

He’s a cheerful, kind boy.

A comma is used here, because it would also make sense to say, “He’s a cheerful and kind boy”.

There’s a blue bath towel on your bed.

Here, “bath” is acting as an adjective to modify “towel”, but it’s not coordinate with “blue”. It wouldn’t make sense to say, “There’s a blue and bath towel,” so no comma is used.

For more on coordinate and non-coordinate adjectives, check out this post.

One Place When You CAN Use a Comma

While commas are normally either required or not required, there’s one key instance when you can choose whether or not to use a comma – and either option is equally correct.

Rule #8: If You Use a Serial Comma, Use it Consistently

A list of items can be punctuated like this:

We need bread, milk, cheese, and eggs.

Or like this:

We need bread, milk, cheese and eggs.

In the first case, the “serial comma” or “Oxford comma” is used after the penultimate item in the list. In the second case, that comma is omitted.

Some writers have very strong feelings for and against the serial comma. In general, it’s more commonly used in American English than in British English, but you’ll find that opinions vary on both sides of the Atlantic.

Ultimately, it’s up to you (and your editor!) whether or not you use it. The only rule here is to be consistent throughout your piece of writing.

Two Places Where You Shouldn’t Use Commas

Sometimes, writers end up inserting unnecessary commas or using commas incorrectly. Here are two common issues to watch out for in your writing.

Rule #9: Don’t Use a Comma Between Two Independent Clauses (Without a Conjuction)

If you have two independent clauses, you can’t just use a comma to join them. You can use a semi-colon, or you can use a conjunction plus a comma.

Incorrect: There were no clouds in the sky, I went for a jog.

Correct: There were no clouds in the sky; I went for a jog.

Correct: There were no clouds in the sky, so I went for a jog.

The incorrect version is called a “comma splice”.

Rule #10: Don’t Separate a Compound Subject or Compound Object With Commas

If you have a compound subject or a compound object in a sentence that consists of two nouns, you shouldn’t separate the parts of it using commas.

For instance:

Incorrect: The rain poured down on John, and Sue.

Correct: The rain poured down on John and Sue.

Incorrect: The rain, and the wind battered the house.

Correct: The rain and the wind battered the house.

I hope this helps you make more sense of commas. They’re a tricky punctuation mark because they’re used in so many different contexts. Many writers do struggle with them, so don’t feel bad if you find them hard to get to grips with.

If you’re finding commas particularly tricky, though, you might want to use an app like ProWritingAid (reviewed here) to help check your writing. As well as helping you ensure your writing is correct, this will make you more aware of when you’re not using commas correctly.

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Original post: When to Use a Comma: 10 Rules and Examples
from Daily Writing Tips
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Monday, April 8, 2019

How to Write a Novel: 10 Crucial Steps

novel

Whatever you write: blog posts, short stories, client pieces – I suspect that, at some point, you’ve at least considered writing a novel.

Maybe it’s something you contemplate every November, when NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) rolls around. Or maybe you’ve had an idea bubbling away for years now, but you’ve been waiting until you have more time to write.
His response
Writing a whole novel might feel rather daunting, especially if you’ve only ever written shorter pieces before. You may well wonder where to even begin.

Whether you’ve always wanted to write a novel, ever since you started reading “chapter books” as a child … or whether it’s a more recent ambition, this post will take you step by step through what you need to do.

Step #1: Choose Your Genre

In fiction, “genre” describes different types of novel. For instance, “science fiction” is one genre and “romance” is another. Within big genres like that, there are also subgenres (e.g. compare “dystopian fiction” with “space opera”, or “steamy romance” with “Amish romance”).

Some authors know exactly what genre they want to write in: they enjoy reading, say, psychological thrillers and they want to write something similar.

Other authors aren’t sure. Perhaps they have an idea for a novel that doesn’t really fit an established genre. If that’s you, think about where your book could potentially be shelved in a bookstore. What other books are similar? What books are definitely not like it?

It’s important to pin genre down before going much further because most genres have quite specific requirements. Romance readers tend to expect short novels, for instance … and a happily ever after ending.

Step #2: Settle on an Idea

You might have a bunch of different ideas for novels, or maybe just one idea that you’ve been carrying around for a long time. Novels have all sorts of starting points – C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe stemmed from an image that Lewis had in his head of “a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood.”

If you don’t currently have an idea that you’re interested in writing about, don’t force yourself to come up with something. A novel is a big commitment of time and energy – you don’t want to embark on it if you’re not feeling engaged with your idea from the very start.

Do, however, be open to ideas. They might come from anything – a hobby, a news story, a very different novel, a piece of art or music, a friend’s dilemma. Wait until your idea arrives.

If you have an idea that you’re unsure about – maybe it has mileage, maybe it doesn’t – then try writing it as a short story or a novel excerpt. See if it falls flat, or if you find that you want to continue working on it.

Step #3: Develop Your Characters and the Relationships Between Them

What’s more important, plot or character? It’s a trick question, really: you can’t separate the two. The plot of a story is driven by the characters’ actions; the characters’ growth (or “character arc”) is driven by the plot.

Personally, I find it easiest to develop characters first, then think about the ins and outs of the plot. If you’re working in a plot-focused genre (like action adventure) then you might prefer to start with the plot and then develop characters to fit it.

When you’re thinking about characters, you’ll want to work out a core cast for your novel. Don’t be tempted to throw in everyone – regardless of how “realistic” it might be. Yes, your characters probably have parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, best friends … but you don’t need to include all those unless they actually have a place in your story.

One technique for working out your characters is to get a piece of blank paper and draw a mindmap. Put each character’s name in a circle and work out how they relate to the other characters. Think about their key characteristics. (Are they cripplingly shy? Dangerously hubristic?) This is a good point to start working out which characters might come into conflict.

Your story may not have a “villain” as such, but it’s likely that there’ll be some major characters who play an antagonistic role. They could be well-meaning (e.g. a bumbling office-mate), a bit unpleasant (e.g. a glamorous and witheringly sarcastic mother-in-law) or downright nasty (e.g. a neighbour with serious anger-management issues).

Step #4: Decide How You’re Going to Tell Your Story

With novels, you’ve got some crucial choices to make about how you tell the story. You need to decide on whether you’ll write it in the first person (“I”) or the third person (“he/she”), and also whether you’ll use past or present tense.

(Technically, using the second person, “you”, is also an option, but I’ve never seen a novelist pull that off! It can work for a short story.)

There’s no “right” answer about whether to choose first or third person. With first person, present tense is fairly common (“I roll over in bed and reach for the alarm clock…”) but plenty of first person novels are written in past tense (“I rolled over in bed and reached for the alarm clock…”).

Third person present tense is seen as a slightly more unusual, literary choice (“He rolls over in bed and reaches for the alarm clock…”) but if it’s a good fit for your novel, go for it.

You’ll also want to think about how many viewpoints (also called perspectives) you want to use. With first person novels, it’s fairly normal to stick to a single viewpoint, but that’s not a hard and fast rule. With third person novels, it’s common to have more than one viewpoint, but to stick with one character’s perspective for each scene, only showing their thoughts and feelings.

If you’re not sure how best to tell the story, take a look at what other novels in your genre do.

Step #5: Think About Potential Sources of Conflict

Stories are driven by conflict – with no conflict, there wouldn’t be much story! Conflict comes in different flavours. Here are some key ones:

Internal – this is when a character’s struggles come from their own mind. For instance, they might be very anxious or shy, or they might find it very hard to connect to other people due to trauma in their past.

Interpersonal – this is conflict between characters. For instance, your character might get into a parking dispute with someone else in their block of flats.

Environmental – this is conflict that arises from an aspect of the character’s environment: for instance, it could be a physical limitation that they have, a financial problem, or a snowstorm that prevents them from getting to work.

Obviously, the different types of conflict can overlap – a financial problem might lead to interpersonal conflict (e.g. one spouse hiding difficulties from another) and to internal conflict (e.g. if the character needs to steal in order to feed their kids).

Look at your main character(s) and figure out what conflict you could throw in their path. Who might they end up arguing (or even fighting) with? What internal struggles are they trying to overcome? Is there anything in their environment that could make their life harder?

Step #6: Work Out a Rough Plot

Some authors write highly detailed outlines in advance … I’m not one of them! I do think it’s important to have a rough plot in mind, though; otherwise, you risk writing pages and pages that simply go nowhere.

Here are some good questions to ask yourself at this stage:

Where does your story begin? What kicks off the action? How do things get worse for your protagonist? How does it all end?

You can be as detailed (or not!) with your plans as you like. Keep in mind that you may find you want to change things as you go along, especially if this is your first novel – so don’t spend so long on planning that you’ll resist making necessary changes.

Novelist K.M. Weiland has some great resources on story structure that you might want to check out when you’re plotting your novel.

Step #7: Write the First Draft of Your Novel

This is a pretty big step! You might be surprised that it comes so far down the list – but there’s no point starting your first draft without any idea about your characters and plot.

Some authors like to write their first draft by jumping around between different scenes: they write whatever inspires them on a particular day, then they piece it all together at the end. I don’t think that’s a great approach for most novelists – it can lead to you leaving all the hardest scenes till last, for instance (and running out of steam altogether), and it makes it really tricky to have a natural flow of action and of character development.

So I’d recommend tackling your novel from beginning to end, drafting each scene as best as you can – whilst remembering that it is a draft that you’ll later be able to edit. Don’t aim for perfection at this stage.

Finishing your first draft will almost certainly take several months, and quite possibly a year or more. It’s easy to lose momentum partway, especially if this is your first attempt at a novel. If you’re struggling to keep going, there are some tips at the end of this article that will hopefully help.

Step #8: Read Through Your Whole Draft

Once you’ve finished your first draft, give yourself a huge pat on the back! This is the point in a novel where I like to break out some sparkling wine and celebrate having reached “the end”.

Of course, there’s still more work to do, but take a few days off first – not just for your sake, but also to give yourself the chance to return to your novel with fresh eyes.

After a break, read through your whole draft novel. I like to do this on my Kindle (you can send a Word document to your Kindle by following Amazon’s instructions here) – but you might want to print out your manuscript or even get it bound into a book by a print-on-demand service like Lulu. However you choose to read your novel, I’d suggest avoiding reading it in the same software in which you wrote it – you want to try to see it from a reader’s, rather than a writer’s, perspective.

As you read through the draft, jot down notes about any major changes that you think you need: chapters you might delete, scenes you might add, characters who aren’t really working, and so on. Don’t worry too much about little details at this stage – a clunky sentence here, a wordy bit of dialogue there. These might well get changed or cut during your revisions anyway, and you’ll do a close edit at a later stage.

Step #9: Redraft Your Novel

Redrafting is sometimes called “revising” which means “re-seeing” – this is your opportunity to see your novel afresh and shape it accordingly. You may well find that you need to make major changes – like cutting out big chunks of your story, fixing plot holes, removing or adding characters, and so on.

I know how frustrating it can be to cut thousands of words that you spent hours and hours working on – but ultimately, if those words are making your novel weaker rather than stronger, they need to go. The words you cut out aren’t wasted: they were an important part of the writing process, and they helped you get to this point.

(It’s very normal for novelists, even highly experienced ones, to make major changes at this point. Novels are complex, messy things!)

As with drafting, I like to approach redrafting sequentially: I start on page one and work forward. This means that I can incorporate major changes (like the removal of a character) throughout as I tweak other things, and I can make sure that the pacing and flow of the story still works.

Step #10: Do a Close Edit of Your Novel

The final step is to do a line by line edit of your novel. By this stage, you should be happy with all the major building blocks of your novel: your characters, the scenes, the key points in your plot. During this step, you’re not making major changes, just little tweaks.

As you edit your novel, line by line, look out for things like:

Awkward dialogue – maybe it sounds stilted, or it goes on too long.
Clunky sentences (you might want to read aloud to listen for ones that sound off).
Anything that doesn’t fit with your revisions – e.g. maybe you changed a character so they were much more decisive than before, but you have a couple of paragraphs where they’re dithering about a course of action.
Mistakes and typos – obviously check anything that your spell-checker has flagged up, but don’t trust it to have necessarily spotted all the mistakes. (Conversely, don’t blindly obey the spell-checker – sometimes its suggestions are wrong!)

Whew! You should now have – after probably a year or more – a finished, polished novel. This is the stage at which you could start thinking about submitting it to literary agents, or looking into self-publishing it.

I wanted to finish, though, with some key tips that fit across several of the different steps – I hope these will help you stay on track and produce the best novel you can.

Five Key Tips for Writing a Novel

write

Tip #1: Set Aside Regular Time for Your Novel

Whichever step of the plan you’re working on, you need to put time aside for it. (Even planning takes time – sometimes a surprising amount of it.) You don’t need to work on your novel every day, but if you want to see steady progress, I’d suggest finding 3 – 4 hours per week for it. That might mean 30 minutes a day or 2 hours every Monday and Thursday evening.

Tip #2: Get Feedback and Support

Most towns will have a local writers’ group (or several) – ask around! If nothing exists, talk to your local library about starting something up. A supportive group of writers will be invaluable in so many ways: you’ll meet likeminded people who “get” writing, and you’ll be able to get feedback from them on your work in progress.

Tip #3: If You’re Self-Publishing, Hire an Editor

If you plan to self-publish your novel, I’d strongly recommend hiring a professional editor. This won’t come cheap (you’re probably looking at $1,000 or more to edit a whole novel manuscript) – but it’s an essential part of publishing something of a professional standard. If you can’t afford to get your whole novel edited, at least pay for an editor to read and review your first few chapters – any issues they spot with those might well be repeated elsewhere in your novel.

Tip #4: Each Scene Should Have a Point

Every scene — in fact, every sentence! — in your novel should have a point. Avoid scenes where characters sit around drinking coffee and chatting, or even scenes where they bicker – unless there’s an actual purpose to it. It’s worth asking yourself, as you edit, “Does this scene advance the plot?” (If a scene reveals character, that’s important too – but there’s not much point showing us more about a particular character unless something is happening as a result.)

Tip #5: Keep a Writing Journal or Record

Every time you finish a writing session, make a quick note of what you achieved (or not)! This could be as simple as logging your wordcount for the day – but you might want to go further and include notes on how you felt about it (e.g. how focused you were, how much you enjoyed writing that scene) as well as anything you want to remember later on in the novel (e.g. that you’ve established a character has a brother, for instance).

Writing a novel is a major undertaking, but one that I hope you’ll find very rewarding. I think it’s something that every writer should attempt at least once. Work through the steps above, and this time next year, you could have a finished draft … and perhaps even a complete, edited novel. Best of luck!

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Original post: How to Write a Novel: 10 Crucial Steps
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Friday, April 5, 2019

What is the Difference Between Metaphor and Simile?

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The terms metaphor and simile are slung around as if they meant exactly the same thing.

A simile is a metaphor, but not all metaphors are similes.

Metaphor is the broader term. In a literary sense metaphor is a rhetorical device that transfers the sense or aspects of one word to another. For example:

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. — “The Highwayman,” Alfred Noyes

Here the moon is being compared to a sailing ship. The clouds are being compared to ocean waves. This is an apt comparison because sometimes banks of clouds shuttling past the moon cause the moon to appear to be moving and roiling clouds resemble churning water.

A simile is a type of metaphor in which the comparison is made with the use of the word like or its equivalent:

My love is like a red, red rose. — Robert Burns

This simile conveys some of the attributes of a rose to a woman: ruddy complexion, velvety skin, and fragrant scent.

She sat like Patience on a Monument, smiling at Grief. — Twelfth Night William Shakespeare

Here a woman is being compared to the allegorical statue on a tomb. The comparison evokes unhappiness, immobility, and gracefulness of posture and dress.

Some metaphors are apt. Some are not. The conscientious writer strives to come up with fresh metaphors.

A common fault of writing is to mix metaphors.

Before Uncle Jesse (Dukes of Hazzard) did it, some WWII general is reputed to have mixed the metaphor Don’t burn your bridges, meaning “Don’t alienate people who have been useful to you,” with Don’t cross that bridge before you come to it, meaning “Don’t worry about what might happen until it happens” to create the mixed metaphor: Don’t burn your bridges before you come to them.

Many metaphors are used so often that they have become cliché. We use them in speech, but the careful writer avoids them: hungry as a horse, as big as a house, hard as nails, as good as gold.

Some metaphors have been used so frequently as to lose their metaphorical qualities altogether. These are “dead metaphors.”

In our own time we have seen the word war slip into the state of a dead metaphor: the war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war on AIDS. In these uses the word means little more than “efforts to get rid of” and not, as the OED has it:

Hostile contention by means of armed forces, carried on between nations, states, or rulers, or between parties in the same nation or state; the employment of armed forces against a foreign power, or against an opposing party in the state.

In a sense, all language is metaphor because words are simply labels for things that exist in the world. We call something “a table” because we have to call it something, but the word is not the thing it names.

A simile is only one of dozens of specific types of metaphor. For a long and entertaining list of them, see the Wikipedia article on “Figure of Speech.”

Are All Cliches Metaphors?

No. Many metaphors (some of which are similes) have become clichés through overuse – think of things like “dead as a doornail”, “blue sky thinking”, “plenty more fish in the sea”, and “he has his tail between his legs”.

So many clichés are metaphors. But there are also some clichéd phrases that aren’t metaphors at all, such as:

To be honest…
Let’s face it…
It goes without saying…
Been there, done that.

(For a long list of clichés, many of them metaphors, check out 681 Clichés to Avoid in Your Creative Writing).

Should You Use Similes and Metaphors in Your Writing?

All types of metaphor, including similes, can be appropriate in writing.

Even clichés can be used in some circumstances – for instance, you might use them in dialog when writing fiction, either to help give the impression of realistic speech, or to assist in characterisation (perhaps one of your characters has a tendency to speak in clichés).

When you’re using similes and metaphors, you should:

Pay careful attention to any worn or tired phrasings you use. Phrases like “fishing for compliments” or “bubbly personality” are metaphors that you might barely notice. They’re fine if you’re chatting to a friend, but not necessarily appropriate in formal writing.
Be careful with extended metaphors. While these can be used to great literary effect, they may come across as overdone or forced in modern writing. (An extended metaphor is one that runs with the comparison over several sentences, e.g. Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.” From As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII.
Check you haven’t mixed two different metaphors. Again, this is easy to do with metaphors that have become part of everyday language. However, you’ll want to avoid writing sentences like “We need to think outside the box and sow the seeds to drive us forward” or “It might feel like we’re out of the frying pan and into the fire, but once we’ve crossed the next bridge, we’ll be able to get a bird’s eye view of the situation.”

Summing Up

“Metaphor” and “simile” don’t mean quite the same thing. A “metaphor” is a rhetorical device that transfers the sense or aspects of one word to another. A “simile” is a type of metaphor that uses “like” or an equivalent word.
You should avoid mixing metaphors (unless you’re intentionally striving for a humorous effect).
You should also avoid using clichés, except in dialog. In some cases, dead metaphors (such as “war on…”) will be appropriate shorthand – particularly in journalism or in informal writing.

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Original post: What is the Difference Between Metaphor and Simile?
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Monday, April 1, 2019

All About Prepositional Phrases, with Over 60 Examples

phrases

This article contains every common preposition in the English language. Isn’t it nice to know that you can learn them all? A list of every common verb or every common noun would be very long…

Prepositional phrases usually begin with a preposition and end with an object. For example, in the prepositional phrase under the hill, under is the preposition and the hill is the object.

A prepositional phrase serves as an adjective or adverb; that is, it modifies a noun or a verb. In the sentence “He left after lunch,” the prepositional phrase after lunch is used as an adverb to modify the verb left. It tells us when he left, as do “He left earlier” or “He left later.” There is no adverb in English that says, “He left post-lunch-ly.”

The object of a preposition is a noun (after the meal), or at least some kind of a noun, such as a gerund (after eating), pronoun (after him), or a noun clause (after what he ate).

Some writers tie their writing into knots to keep from breaking a supposed rule against ending a sentence with a preposition. When criticized for doing that, Winston Churchill is supposed to have replied,

This is the type of errant pedantry up with which I will not put.

His point was that it would be clearer to say, “I will not put up with that type of errant pedantry.”

Maybe your sentence would be clearer without any preposition. Earlier we’ve given you five ways to minimize prepositional phrases. Prepositions such as of and by are sometimes clues that the sentence could be made shorter or more direct. For example:

An occurrence of sneezing is sometimes considered a sign of disease by over-cautious parents.

Remove two prepositions and it’s shorter and better:

Over-cautious parents sometimes fear that sneezing can signal a disease.

List of Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases Examples

Aboard: I was aboard the Titanic but escaped on an life raft.
About: Kids are crazy about playing Fortnite.
Above: There was a cat meowing above me in a tree.
Across: I have sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.
After: After I finish school, I have always planned to be a dermatologist.
Against: It’s the Bulls against the Lakers for the basketball championship.
Along: The pirate came along the aft side, threw a line over the rail, and boarded the ship with a sword in his teeth.
Amid: Amid the cheering crowd, she walked to the platform to receive her medal.
Among: After the battle, I grieved to see that among the bodies lay friends and foes.
Around: My grandfather put his arm around me and promised to buy me a pocket knife.
At: At the football game, freckled teenagers sold sodas to raise money for their club.
Before: Wash your hands before supper, and after supper too, in your case.
Behind: Behind the barn, I imagine there’s an old Lamborghini tractor or two.
Below: That chipmunk must live below the ground because he disappeared into a hole yesterday.
Beneath: Caves can extend miles beneath the surface of the earth.
Beside: She sat beside me and said that her ring had just slipped down the drain.
Between: This suspicion between us is damaging our careers in espionage.
Beyond: The size of the universe is beyond imagination.
But: Everyone but Mom ate jalapeno ice pops.
By: Our next poem was written by Robert Frost.
Concerning: I speak to you today concerning the great opportunity before us.
Considering: The racehorse kept up a good pace, considering her age.
Despite: Despite her potato heart, Veggie-Girl faced the forces of evil daily.
Down: Look down the foaming river before you decide to dive in.
During: I cried during the whole movie after my drink spilled in my lap.
Except: I would make cookies except I have no flour.
Following: Read the next chapter, then answer the questions following the map section.
For: This present is for you, Jimmy, so be thankful.
From: I came from the future!
In: Help, my foot’s stuck in the fence.
Inside: Three dogs live inside one big doghouse.
Into: Look into the crystal ball and see your future.
Like: I love my suntan even though I look like a burnt chicken nugget.
Minus: The dress looks much better minus the red frill.
Near: The flagpole near the pine tree is almost as tall.
Next to: Put the Chaucer on the bookshelf next to the Caedmon.
Of: The life of a millionaire is amazing: the cars, the money, the taxes.
Off: The paint will not come off my shoes.
On: Snow fell on my head when I sledded under a tree.
Onto: He drove off the main highway and onto a gravel road.
Opposite: She lived in the cottage opposite the pond.
Out: Look out the window at the beautiful sunset.
Outside: It’s dry here, but I hear it’s raining outside of town.
Over: Okay, can you jump over a traffic cone on a skateboard?
Past: The football flew past the car and into a tree.
Plus: The vacation included a week on the island plus the cruise to the island.
Regarding: I speak to you today regarding the great opportunity before us.
Since: I’ve felt depressed ever since my grandfather died.
Through: The baseball flew past the tree and through the window.
Throughout: Throughout history, there have always been compassionate people.
To: Send this sword to Sir Raymond of the Palms.
Toward: Hit the ball toward the sky and get out of the way.
Under: I dug under the ground and found a gopher hole.
Underneath: I just realized there’s quicksand underneath me.
Unlike: The northern moors are treacherous and isolated, unlike the southern moors, which attract tourists.
Until: Don’t wake me until eight o’clock Christmas morning.
Up: Uncle George went up on the roof to get the rocket back.
Upon: I bestow upon you this gift of armor.
Versus: Traveling by dogsled can be cold, versus traveling by train.
With: With the weather outside so sunny, I think I should ride my bike.
Within: There’s no gas station within 100 miles.
Without: Without food or water, we could not survive.

Prepositional Phrase Quiz

Choose the answer that reflects the prepositional phrase in each sentence.

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Original post: All About Prepositional Phrases, with Over 60 Examples
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Monday, March 25, 2019

Mary Sue Test: Does Your Character Pass It?

Mary-Sue

Let’s say you’re writing a story that involves a character who’s smart, funny, gorgeous, and beloved by almost everyone.

They sound great, right?

Well, they might be. Or you might be inadvertently creating a “Mary Sue”.

So what’s a Mary Sue … and why should you avoid using one in your story?

Mary Sue Defined

A Mary Sue is a character who is way too good to be true. She’s often exceptionally talented for her age; love interests throw themselves at her feet; and she can pretty much get away with murder.

Mary Sue characters don’t have to be female, either. Male Mary Sues exist too (sometimes they’re called “Marty Sue” or “Gary Sue”, but most people just use “Mary Sue” to describe this type of character – whatever the gender).

The term “Mary Sue” comes from a 1973 piece of Star Trek fanfiction by Paula Smith that parodied this particular trend with a character called, you guessed it, Mary Sue.

There’s no one universally agreed-upon definition of a Mary Sue, but here are a couple that give you a good idea of what to look for:

[A Mary Sue] is what happens when a hero is too heroic—to pure, too powerful, too overwhelmingly good.

A Mary Sue is an over-idealized and seemingly-flawless fictional character, one often recognized as either a self-insertion character for the author, or a vessel for wish fulfillment.

These characters are often physically beautiful, exceptionally skilled, and universally admired—but only within the confines of the story.

(From The Problem with Perfect Characters: Mary Sues, Gary Stus, and Other Abominations, Jacob Mohr)

The most basic definition of “Mary Sue” is an original female character in fanfiction — which is largely about established characters and worlds — who is often close to perfect. Like, too perfect. Very good at her job, very desirable romantically or sexually, and sometimes very emotionally moving when she dies, tragically, and the other characters mourn her. The story usually centers around her, often warping established characterization in the process.

(From Mary Sue: From self-inserts to imagines, how young women write themselves into the narrative, Elizabeth Minkel)

Mary Sue characters can appear in almost any type of writing, including published novels and popular TV shows. (The often-criticised Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation is a frequently cited example, as is Bella Swan from the Twilight series.)

They’re particularly common, though, in fanfiction.

Here’s a quick litmus test to check whether your character is a Mary Sue:

If the answer to all these questions is “yes”, you very likely have a Mary Sue on your hands:

Is the character an idealised version of you? (Be honest!)
Are they popular with pretty much everyone?
Are they a bit “too good to be true”?
Do they have a surprising range of skills / expertise?
Have they advanced a long way in their career despite being very young?

If the answer to all these questions is “no”, you very likely have a Mary Sue on your hands:

Does the character have any real flaws? (“Clumsy” or “poor at math” are not flaws.)
Do they ever fail at anything, in a significant way, in your story?
Do they change in some way (for better or for worse) during the course of the story?

Common Confusions About Mary Sue Characters

Sometimes, people will call a character a “Mary Sue” based on a particular trait or aspect of the character.

These (common) things alone do not make a character a Mary Sue:

The character is a powerful female. You can (and should!) write strong female characters. They only tip over into Mary Sue territory when they’re exceptionally skilled in multiple areas in an improbable or unexplained way. (E.g. if your character has been studying karate since she was five, it makes sense that she’s good at fighting – but if you never mention any type of training and have her effortlessly defeat three armed assassins, it’s going to seem ridiculous.)

The character has wacky coloured hair or eyes. While this can be a trait of a certain type of Mary Sue character, it’s also something you might well be using for other reasons – perhaps just because you like that hair / eye colour (which isn’t such a terrible reason to include it!), or perhaps because it has a particular plot relevance.

The character has multiple love interests. In certain stories, it’s normal and even expected for your main character to have more than one love interest. (Think of all the mainstream romance novels and films that involve – usually – a woman choosing between two men.) In some sub-genres, like reverse harem romances, the whole point of a story is about a character having several love interests at once. Even if the story isn’t a romance at all, it’s still perfectly plausible that a character might have more than one love interest.

They’re based on the author. While “Mary Sue” is sometimes seen as synonymous with “author insert”, it’s not necessarily the case that characters based on the author are Mary Sues. Some writers would argue that all their characters are based on them to some degree: after all, who else’s thoughts and feelings do we have direct access to? Just because a character shares some characteristics with the author doesn’t make them a Mary Sue.

They’re an original female character in a fanfiction story. Admittedly, this type of character has a fairly high chance of being a Mary Sue (compared with, say, original characters in original works). One of the main issues with this type of character is that they tend to steal the spotlight from the real main characters – the established ones who fans want to read about. But original female characters are not invariably Mary Sues.

The Big Problem with Mary Sue Characters

Mary Sue characters can be a lot of fun to write … after all, there wouldn’t be so many of them otherwise. If you’re purely writing for your own enjoyment, and you don’t plan to share your work with others, then indulge in as many Mary Sues as you like. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of wish fulfilment!

The problem comes when you want other people to read – and enjoy – your work. The sad truth about Mary Sues is that, for most readers, they’re boring and annoying.

You might think that readers would enjoy a story where someone smart, talented, good looking and universally loved saves the day again and again … after all, isn’t that a kind of wish fulfilment for the reader, too?

Some readers might indeed enjoy that. But what most readers actually want is a story where characters struggle, get things wrong, fail (at least temporarily), and change and grow. That makes for a satisfying, exciting story.

Mary Sue characters tend to “break” stories, too, either by the actual rules of the world being different around them (e.g. magic works differently for them) or by effortlessly winning everything — without it ever feeling deserved or earned.

Obviously, you can write what you want … but if you want your work to be read, avoid using Mary Sue characters.

Instead, make your characters real, complex people. Give them flaws (real ones that they need to overcome) and let them fail, before they succeed. Your story will be all the more satisfying for it.

Mary Sue Quiz

The questions below will test your understanding of the character.

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Original post: Mary Sue Test: Does Your Character Pass It?
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