Writing 101: The Truth About Prepositions

There are certain grammar myths out there that can make even the best writers go bad. English teachers have learned how to strike fear into the hearts of their students, but there's no reason you should be afraid of prepositions. It's time to find out the truth about the proper way to use prepositions in your writing.

Prepositions

Remember the rule? A preposition is anywhere a mouse can go. This includes words like from, under, to, above, as, into, out, through and on -- to name just a few. Prepositions are one of the most-used elements of the English language...and they're used to invoke terror in the minds of writers everywhere.

 It's a commonly-accepted rule of English, and writing in general, that it's simply not okay to end a sentence with a preposition. This rule renders such common expressions as "what's going on?" and "what's up?" inherently flawed, not to mention renders oft-heard phrases like "what is that from?" and "what's that for?" all but useless.

If I was going to make the above proper, according to the preposition rule, those phrases would read read more like "from what is that?" and "for what is that?" And doesn't that sound absolutely outlandish? Who speaks like that, except for people in old Shakespearean plays? Throw around enough "that which" and "where from" into your book, and it's going to sound like you were born back in the 18th century.

 This is my long way of saying the rule is bunk. In common English today, pretty much everyone ends their sentences with prepositions every single day. If you want to be Polly Perfect and make your grammar spot-on throughout your prose, you don't have to end your sentences with prepositions if you don't want to -- up to a point. But when you're writing dialogue, none of those stuffy old rules apply. The only rule that really matters in dialogue-writing is this: write it the way people talk. I've never heard anyone ask me "for whom is that gift?" and I sure as heck don't expect to read it in a contemporary book, unless the character in question is some sort of rigid English professor.

Prepositions aren't scary...only grammar rules that aren't really rules, and don't really make any sense. So the next time you're getting ready to work a sentence around to shove a to in the front instead of the back, stop and ask yourself if it's really an improvement. If it sounds right and flows naturally, stick your prepositions wherever you like.

My Writing Secrets

I visited the Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile blog recently, and shared some of my secrets in a new guest post. 

Go read my Confessions to find out how, and where, I hide many little clues in my books that just might help you solve some of the mysteries. There are tons of clues in my upcoming book, Death (Deck of Lies, #3).

Writing 101: What Makes Writing Bad?

Bad writing. Everyone's afraid of it, and everyone's seen it at one time or another. It's always a threat you're going to have to face if you want to write books, and it's always out there lurking inside sentences and paragraphs. But if you want to avoid it, you've got to know exactly how to spot it. In order to keep your work free of bad writing, you need to understand it.

What Makes Writing Bad?

Saying that a piece of writing is "bad" is really ambiguous, and not at all helpful. Learn how to spot specific elements that make for bad writing, and you'll know exactly how to fix them.

• Telling a scene. One of the first rules of writing is show, don't tell. I covered this at length in a previous post. Basically, the trick to good writing is to be descriptive. Don't tell me that Sarah walked down the sidewalk, feeling angry. Show me Sarah, angrily kicking rocks out of her path and glaring at the trees as she walks past them. What do the trees look like? How hard is she kicking the rocks -- where are they going? Add detail and description to every line.
• But don't over-do it. I don't want to read too much description; I mean, I pretty much know what tree bark looks like. So remember to paint the scene, but give me plenty of action, too. If you go too many paragraphs without adding a verb, I might just fall asleep. Remember that in books, things need to happen, so keep pushing the action along.
• Do the research. Have some idea of what you're writing about, and do the research. Readers are going to know if you're just making it up as you go along. The beauty of the Internet is that you can ask it any question, so if you want to know exactly how long it takes for a girl to paint her nails or how many hours a flight to Cairo lasts, you can find out. 
• Be consistent. Maintain the same tense throughout the book, and don't randomly change your point of view unless it's central to the plot. Always be consistent with your writing; otherwise, it'll just be all over the place.
• Edit. Always read and thoroughly edit your book, more than once, to check the way the words flow and the mechanics of each sentence. Bad grammar and poor editing always make for bad writing.

Sometimes, the best possible thing you can do for your work is to separate yourself from it. When you're writing and editing and thinking about plots all day every day, it's easy to become so wrapped up in a story that you forget how to be objective. Take a break from your own work, read a book you didn't write or just forget about reading for a few days, and come back with fresh eyes. The more you re-read your writing, and work at perfecting it, the better it's going to get. Even the best writers are capable of bad writing, but through re-writing you can make your work great.

Jade's Best Reads

If you're a regular visitor to the blog, you may notice that my Amazon widget keeps changing (it's on the right side, under my list of followers). The widget shows a smattering of the books I've reviewed here on the blog, but Amazon limits the number of books I'm allowed to include. Because I can't possibly put them all on the list, I've come up with my own system of choosing which books are featured, and for how long.

When I add a new review to the blog, unless I don't want to recommend the book it'll be put on the widget right away. But I will start taking books away from the list as I add more to it. Which books will be removed? It's not necessarily based on time. Books I really like will stay on the list, so the longer a book stays on the widget the more I like it! I don't do a rating system on this blog, but if you keep an eye on my widget you'll know which indie books are my favorite and which...aren't so much my favorites.

Review: Subterfuge in Heart

I probably wouldn't have found this book, or decided to read it, if the author hadn't contacted me through Twitter. Since Subterfuge in Heart met all my review requirements, I decided to go ahead and agree to review it. I'm pleased to say the decision paid off; this is a wonderfully well-written book. When I review it on Amazon, I'll give it five stars -- but it really deserves six.

   

From the first page, it became clear to me that this book was a cut above the rest. To be perfectly honest, as a writer it made me feel like a bit of a hack. So I decided, quite early, to leave my own literary leanings at the door and look at this book like a reader instead of a writer.

It was impossible not to get swept away in the narrative, anyway. Like Charles Dickens, Tobias Troy begins the story with the birth of the protagonist, immediately introducing the reader to a fascinatingly complicated mind. Our hero is a genius, and his storyteller (Troy) is brilliant. I felt deeply emotional during the first part of the book, reading about the hero and his best friend, David. Their relationship grew more complex, as most relationships do, as they grew up together, and Troy presents the tale beautifully. Throughout part 1 of the story, there is a hint of the fantastical elements that will come in part 2. 

That's when the story takes an amazing turn, and becomes something else entirely. I'm never going to be accused of being a fantasy book lover, but I didn't consider putting the book down for one moment even when everything changed. Part 2 introduces action, deep pathos and vivid scenes that do justice to the majesty of human emotion.

Troy is truly a gifted writer, and his particular use of language creates an enthralling voice. I will read anything he writes.

Writing...and Over-Writing

Words are a beautiful thing. Through them, one can sum up the whole of human existence, explain the mysteries of the universe, invent fascinating settings that have never been seen by any pair of eyes. It's easy to fall in love with words...and it's easy to get carried away when writing them. When you're writing, be careful not to start over-writing.

What is Over-Writing?

Language is rich and full, and English in particular has a mind-numbing collection of words. Certain words are evocative, provocative, offensive, image-inducing...let's face it, words can do it all. But if I use a word like lugubrious instead of gloomy, hardly anyone will know what I'm talking about. I can just as easily use the word invigorating instead of the much lesser-known salubrious. 

Yes, it sounds impressive to use more flowery language, but obviously if you stretch your mind to find really uncommon adjectives you're going to frustrate your readers. Not many readers are going to be willing to keep a companion dictionary nearby just so they can get through a book, particularly one that's a fiction novel (which are, inherently, meant to entertain). The average reading level for adult Americans is 8th grade. So if you start throwing words like mordant and cumbrous around, you're definitely over-writing.

There's another reason you don't want to use it: realism. Over-writing is particularly terrible in dialogue, and you may notice that some writers (myself included) make glaring grammatical errors within dialogue. This is a necessary thing sometimes, because above all you've got to write it the way people talk. Most people are perfectly happy to leave propositions dangling at the end of their sentences, and in order to make your dialogue flow better you might have to write it this way. People don't often say words like turgid and obtuse, so your story might come across as a little silly if you've got characters who are using them. There are some very specific instances where over-done language might be an important aspect of a particular character, and in this case you should definitely flex your literary muscles.

Keep It Simple

Above all, your writing should be readable. I can't be stumbling over gigantic words all the time, backing up and taking a second look to try and figure out what it all means. Always check your writing for readability. Read along with your words, so you can hear how they sound. Even without using a bunch of four-syllable words, it's possible to create stunning scenes and vivid detail using simple, everyday English. It is possible to try too hard when you're writing, and when this happens over-writing is a common result.

Justice Reviewed by a Flock of Readers

"Read it very quickly and quite liked the characters. They were all well written and well developed."

The good folks at the Peacock Flock read Justice recently, and kindly wrote a review. Visit the blog to find out what birds of a feather think of the beginning of the Deck of Lies.

Writing 101: How to Use Apostrophes

Apostrophes are an essential element in punctuation, but so many authors get their placement confused -- or worse, leave them out entirely. A tiny little apostrophe can change the meaning of a sentence entirely, and when a wrong one appears it might just lead readers astray. Always be careful with your apostrophes, and learn how to use them well to make sure your words are getting the point across.

Using Apostrophes, Let Me Count the Ways

Apostrophes serve many extremely important functions in language; certain words could never even exist without them. To understand how to use apostrophes correctly, you've got to understand how, exactly, they're used.

• Missing letters

In certain circumstances, apostrophes can be used to represent missing letters -- this is the case in absolutely every single contraction. Words like can't, don't, you're and all the rest rely upon apostrophes to exist. We get so used to seeing contractions, it's easy to forget what they mean, easy to forget the function of the apostrophe. But without it, you've got two words that sound stiff and formal. In the examples above, without the apostrophes you're working with cannot, do not and you are. The apostrophe takes the place of the letters and spaces that you've eliminated.

It's important, because many writers have used the apostrophe as a device in dialogue. Certain regions of the world have their own specific accents and sayings. For example, no self-respecting southern writer would pen a tome set in the southern US without the word y'all in it. Brits are known for saying i'n'it, a bastardization of isn't it, and in words like this the apostrophe is essential to make the text understandable to readers who might not be familiar with regional speech. Because the apostrophe in y'all takes the place of the missing o and u, you can never write this word as ya'll -- though I've seen this in several situations. It's wrong, and it's truly an insult to apostrophes everywhere (not to mention southerners). When you use contractions for any reason, don't ever forget what the punctuation actually means.

• Possession

Apostrophes don't always represent missing letters; they're also an integral device if you want to show ownership, or possession, of any object (or idea, or person, or what-have-you). For example: This is Jade Varden's blog. Now, the apostrophe clearly shows that the possession (the blog) belongs to Jade Varden (that's me!), and the apostrophe placement is correct.

See what happens when I put it in the wrong place: This is Jade Vardens' blog. When the apostrophe appears after the s, rather than before, it's used to denote plural possession. In the sentence above, the apostrophe suggests that there is more than one Jade Varden (which is no good for anybody, not to mention confusing for all the readers). The only time, and I mean the only time, the apostrophe is placed after the s is to show possession of any object or objects by more than one person. It's used for plural possession, and only then.

• Getting it Wrong

I touched on this problem briefly in a previous post, but it bears repeating because this is a mistake that I see literally every single day. It seems the apostrophe is a little too common and a little too useful, because a ton of writers from the casual to the professional want to shove it into the middle of words where it absolutely doesn't belong. It certainly is a cunning little piece of punctuation, and I love using it as much as the next blogger, but there are times when you're going to have to keep the apostrophe from crashing your party. Otherwise, everyone's going to know you have no idea what you're writing.

Again, and I cannot seem to stress this enough, apostrophes are coupled with the letter s only to show possession. I can have possession of this blog, the words I write, an idea, the pair of glasses I wear when I don't have my contacts in my eyes, my fingernails. I can have possession of all these things because I am a person. Animals may also have possession -- I might say my cat's coat was shiny. The cat is mine, but I'm not in possession of the shiny coat of hair -- my cat is, so that's where the apostrophe goes.

But when I am pluralizing something, because there's more than one of those things, I only need the letter s. For example, my cats have shiny coats. No apostrophe, because I'm already showing possession with the word have. If I eliminate that word, I'll have to bring the apostrophe back to show the possession (otherwise, the reader won't know who has the shiny coats): my cats' shiny coats.... 

When you are simply pluralizing an object, you only need the letter s. Remember that, and don't let a spare apostrophe show up and completely change the meaning of the sentence. By the same token, if you're attempting to show possession and you don't include an apostrophe, you're muddying the reading waters in a different way. Proofread all your apostrophes, and make sure they're only where they're supposed to be, and nowhere they shouldn't.