Writing 101: Forget About the Slash Key

You wouldn't be wrong if you called me an author/blogger...unless you do it in a book. I'm a big fan of brevity, a point I've made clear in several past posts, but I am not a fan of the slash key. When you're writing your books, forget it even exists.

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The slash serves a very important function on the Internet, and it's a fantastic little device for shorthand purposes. Lots of people and items are more than one thing. Gene Kelly was an actor/dancer, Marilyn Monroe a pinup girl/movie star, new Kindles function like ereaders/tablets. It's common to see the slash in product advertising, online and print articles, commercials -- you can find it everywhere.

That doesn't mean I want to find them in your books. The novel is one of the last vestiges of civility society still has. Each book is a tribute to, and an expression of, the written word. Start substituting those words with handy little symbols like the slash, and you're on a slippery slope. Next, you'll be adding abbreviations to your work -- and at that point, why even bother to put the thing into an ebook, why not just tweet it? 

However, I am willing to make a concession. 

Slashing Sometimes

Adding a slash isn't always the worst thing you can do in a book. Let's face it, there's just no way better to write input/output. Sometimes, the slash really is the best choice, but only if it's not within dialogue. Outside dialogue, if you're using an expression or certain phrasing that is best-served by the slash, then you ought to use it. But you can't use it in dialogue, not ever.

People don't often use the slash when they are speaking, and when they do they don't sketch a funny little symbol into the air. They actually say the word slash, so you've got to spell it out properly (example: "Marilyn Monroe was an actress-slash-pinup girl"). When in doubt, always just spell it out. Symbols don't really have any business being in books...because books are for words.

Get Lost in the Deck of Lies

"It kept me in constant suspense throughout the story and once again it was virtually impossible to predict who did what."

"The unpredictability of the book is what makes it so great."

Sienna Logan, at Lost to Books, has followed up her review of Justice with new reviews for The Tower and Death, the second and third books in the Deck of Lies!

"This series is great and I would recommend it to everyone! The murder mystery keeps you in suspense and the love interests keeps you hooked."

Visit the site to read the full review of The Tower.

 "Jade Varden once again surprised me by turning the story on its head again and continuing it in a way I'm sure no one will predict."

See if you can predict where the story's going after you read the full review of Death.

Writing 101: Popular Books Aren't Necessarily Well-Written

Many authors like to read the work of other authors, and it's easy to get inspired by the greats. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so isn't it only natural that authors emulate the authors they like? Just know that, when you do, you should consider the source. Some of the most popular books aren't necessarily well-written, and you definitely don't want to take a page from them and re-produce the bad grammar.

Bad Grammar, Poor Punctuation

Some books explode into pop culture unexpectedly, becoming wildly popular and read by large audiences. But it cannot be taken for granted that such books are well-written, or shining examples of good grammar. In fact, sometimes the exact opposite is true. There are literally hundreds of books that sold well but still had horrible mistakes within the pages, but for the purposes of this post we're only going to talk about two mega bestsellers. One's a self-published book, and one is not.

• The Hunger Games

That's right: I'm not afraid. Read The Hunger Games carefully enough, and you'll find excess commas, poor sentence structure and more grammar errors than you can shake a bow and arrow at. Arguably, author Suzanne Collins may have had a reason for making all these mistakes -- but we'll get to that in a minute.

First, I've got a prove my case for all the fans out there. Here are two examples of comma overload, where semicolons should have been added instead:

In some districts, in which winning the reaping is such a great honor, people are eager to risk their lives, the volunteering is complicated.

Obviously Haymitch isn’t much, but Effie trinket is right about one thing, once we’re in the arena he’s all we’ve got.

Bad grammar is evident in many sentences. They are simply poorly structured, with modifiers in the wrong place, and end up making very little sense: 

But I retrieved the small bow and arrows he’d made me from a hollow tree.

My bow is a rarity, crafted by my father along with a few others that I keep well hidden in the woods.

The first error suggests that the bow and arrows were made from a hollow tree; the author means to suggest that they are hidden in the tree. The second error suggests that the heroine keeps her father, along with some other people, hidden in the woods. That changes the story quite a bit. 

I couldn’t go home. Because at home was my mother with her dead eyes and my little sister, with her hollow cheeks and cracked lips.

This is just a silly pluralization error. Because "my mother" and "my little sister" are both "at home," the correct verb is the plural were, not was.

The Hunger Games is crazy popular, and well-loved enough to spark a full-length feature film. It's also not self-published. This fiction juggernaut has all the power of a team of copy editors and the clout of a major publishing company behind it. It's possible that Collins intended to write the book in the tone and style of her protagonist, as the book is told from the first-person perspective. It's possible that these errors are actually brilliant, cleverly implemented as part of a careful writing technique. But at the end of the book, it's still wrong. And wrong is wrong, no matter what justification you use.

But some very popular self-published books are no better, mind you. 

• Fifty Shades of Grey

The self-published book that was read 'round the world, Fifty Shades of Grey, is also incredibly popular. It's also destined to become a movie, and plenty of article writers and book bloggers have already done the casting back to front. But you'd better not read it if you're looking for an example of great writing in the indie genre...because you won't find it. 

Notice how I used the ellipsis up there? I like using them; I've even blogged about it. But I definitely don't like them as much as E. L. James. 

I suck harder and harder … Hmm … My inner goddess is doing the merengue with some salsa moves.

He gently strokes my hair … Boy … I Survived. That wasn’t so bad. I’m more stoic than I thought. My inner goddess is prostrate … well, at least she’s quiet.

The word overkill fairly leaps to mind. Fifty Shades of Grey has also taken flak for being over-written; the term "purple prose" crops up a lot.

So...What's Wrong With Readers? 

So why is it that bad writing, poor grammar and weird punctuation are celebrated, rather than reviled? It's not that today's readers make poor choices, or that the nature of writing itself is changing. Many, many readers acknowledge that the books they love are riddled with mistakes, but they consciously overlook them because they love the plot and the characters of the book.

It seems to clearly point to the fact that readers care most about the content of the book itself: the story. But that's no reason to write just any old way, or ignore the basic rules of English. It's wonderful to write a popular book. It's even better to write a book that's popular and critically-acclaimed. You don't want your work to come with a disclaimer (sure, the punctuation is crap, but...) and you don't want your reputation to be that you're strong in plot but shite at the mechanics of writing. You can do both; it just takes a little extra time and care.

In the end, it's worth it.

Dressing the Deck of Lies

Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) is being featured next week, and you'll never guess where. The book is coming to Fashion Fantasy Game to give readers the chance to dress Rain, the main character in the Deck of Lies series.

I've blogged about Rain's style in the past, and Deck of Lies readers know that fashion plays a strong part in the series. If you keep reading the series, you'll find that Rain's fashion choices often reflect how she's feeling about herself and her life.

But maybe you can do a little better than me at dressing her up. Visit the Facebook page for Fashion Fantasy Game to find out when the competition begins. When it does, you'll have a chance to win my giveaway -- and to blow me away with your amazing fashion sense. Now, go have fun!

Writing 101: Not All Tips Are Good

When you're a writer, there's always room for learning. It's always good to expand your knowledge, and it's never a bad idea to look up information even on the basics of writing to brush up on your grammar, punctuation and wordcrafting skills. But there's something important you need to know if you go looking for ways to improve your fiction: not all tips are good. Sometimes, the writing advice you find isn't necessarily stuff you should always follow. 

Come Again?

It might sound strange coming from me, considering the nature of my blog, but it's true: not all writing tips you find should be taken to heart. In looking around the Internet, I've found more than a few that I just plain don't agree with. 

Bad Tips

In fact, there are an awful lot of bad tips out there. If you attempt to follow every single one of them, you might end up with a book that's so cautiously written it won't make you happy. Remember that you aren't writing to please writing bloggers who think they know better. You're writing for you, and with that in mind remember these writing tips that you can simply ignore: 

• It was a dark and stormy night... 

Some writing experts suggest that writers never begin a book with the weather. It's classically considered to be one of the biggest writing mistakes -- and I disagree. You know which book begins with the weather? The Bell Jar, for one, and The Secret History, for another. I mention them because they were ranked as two of the "10 Best First Lines in Fiction" by The Guardian. Other books that open with the weather? Orwell's 1984 and George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones.

• Tagging dialogue

I read a tip where one writer stated that no other verb than "said" should be added to dialogue tags. Meaning that, at the end of most of your sentences, you should have nothing more exciting than "he said," "she said," "Sheila said," and so forth to denote your speakers. Do you want to read that book? Of course not. Just throw this tip out the window right now.

• Adverbs

Adverbs are really just adjectives, descriptive words, with -ly tacked on at the end. In one tip I discovered, the writer cautioned authors against using adverbs with dialogue tags (she said sadly; he whispered gently). So if you follow all these bad tips, not only will your book be stuffed with he said and she said, but you can't even pretty it up by adding angrily to the end if you like.

• Exclamation point!

For some reason, some bloggers and writing critics seem to hate exclamation points. One tip I read said that writers should have no more than three per 100,000 words. They must be joking!

• Regional speech

Ever tried o read Pygmalion or Gone With the Wind? If you do, you'll notice  that regional dialects are depicted (in the case of the former, London cockney, the American Deep South in the latter) and that makes them difficult to read, at times. An actual line from Pygmalion: "Wal, fewd dan y' de-ooty bawmz a mather should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel's flahrzn than ran awy atbaht pyin." It looks and reads like ancient Greek, but verbally the line reads a bit like this: Well, if you'd done your duty by him as a mother should, he'd know better than to spill a poor girl's flowers than run away without paying -- only pretend I'm saying it in very broad cockney. Clearly the way it's written is confusing, so there's something to the idea that writers ought to avoid it, but regional language is a big deal in some books. It's the entire premise of Pygmalion, in fact, and without it the story wouldn't make a lick of sense.

There are already lots of rules in writing, and you can't possibly follow them all. Some writers, in fact, are well-known for breaking them. Lewis Carroll simply made up words for his books, and we still use some of them today. Emily Dickinson peppered her poems with punctuation that editors hated, and her style is considered to be definitive and delightful by critics today. Some writing tips are good, and it's always worth it to expand your knowledge, but you should never attempt to follow them at the risk of cramping your own writing style. Each writer has a voice that's unique to them. Don't stifle it by playing it safe and trying to follow everyone else's advice...not even mine.

Finding the Time to Write, and Do Everything Else, Too

I blog a lot, and work on my books a lot, and a I tweet a lot. Sometimes people ask me, how do you manage to do so much? Well, I'm finally ready to shatter the illusion and give you some answers.

Read my guest post, How Do You Find the Time, to learn all my scheduling and time-saving secrets. It's not possible to do it all...but you can make it look like you are.

Books on Film: The Outsiders

The Outsiders was one of the very few books I was forced to read that I actually really loved (and actually read all the way through). At least, I thought I loved it...but then I saw the movie. Sure the story's great, but when you add the likes of Rob Lowe to it the whole thing gets turned up several notches. On film, The Outsiders is a parade of up-and-comers in sleeveless shirts, and there's nothing wrong with that.

The Book

 S. E. Hinton started writing The Outsiders at age 15, and Viking Press published it when she was only 18. That was way back in 1967, but it still sells half a million copies every year. Hinton wrote the book about the two rival gangs at her high school: the Greasers and the Socials (shorted to Socs and pronounced soshes).

The book became iconic and extremely popular right away, solidifying S. E. Hinton as a beloved YA author. The story of The Outsiders, a group of poor greasers who are endlessly pitted against the rich and privileged Socs, struck a chord with readers of all ages.

The novel begins with Ponyboy leaving a movie theater and getting jumped by a group of Socs. Lucky for Ponyboy, his two older brothers Darry and Sodapop happen by and break things up. Right away, the reader sees the conflict. We start to become a part of the Greasers' world the next night when Ponyboy and his best friend Johnny go to the movies with Dally. Of all the Greasers, Dally is the most wild. He immediately begins flirting with two pretty Soc girls, Cherry Valance and Marcia, at the drive-in. Ponyboy and Johnny walk the girls home, because that's what you do with pretty girls.

But they get seen by Bob Sheldon and Randy Adderson, two Soc boys. Greaser boys aren't supposed to hang around with Socy girls. Cherry and Marcia blow their Soc friends off and they get home safely. So does Ponyboy, but he's late. Darry, the oldest brother, is stressed out and shouldering respnsibility far beyond his years because their parents are dead. Worried about Ponyboy and frustrated, Darry hits him when he finally comes home. Upset and hurt, Ponyboy takes off again and meets up with Johnny, who has a truly terrible home life. They go to the park to blow off steam and maybe try to get some sleep.

They run into five Soc boys instead. The Socs are drunk and pissed, and they take their rage out on Ponyboy by nearly drowning him in the park fountain. Johnny, terrified, pulls out a knife and stabs Bob. He kills him accidentally in this altercation, so he and Ponyboy run off to find Dally -- the only one who can help them without judging them, or going to Ponyboy's two older brothers. Dally gives them cash, a gun, and a place to go and hide.

At the abandoned church, the boys wash their hair and Ponyboy dyes his to make himself harder to identify. He reads a poem by Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay," which becomes a theme for the book. Because they've got so much time on their hands, Ponyboy starts reading my favorite book, Gone With the Wind, to keep himself and Johnny entertained.

Dally eventually arrives with news. The Greasers and the Socs are angrier than ever following Bob's death, and there's a rumble (a huge fight between the two groups) in the works. Johnny, feeling guilty, makes the decision to turn himself in. He certainly would have done so, but when the three Greasers return from getting some fast food they see the church on fire. To make matters worse, several kids are trapped inside the inferno. Johnny and Ponyboy run into the building to save the kids, and Johnny is severely hurt in the process. Both are taken to the hospital. Darry comes to see his baby brother and in a tearful scene between them, Ponyboy realizes how much Darry loves him.

Johnny and Ponyboy are heroes, but that doesn't change the fact that Johnny is a murderer...or that his back is broken. The rumble is also still on, a decisive battle that will end the turf dispute between the two groups. Darry allows Ponyboy to attend, and the Greasers manage to carry the day. Dally and Ponyboy go immediately to see Johnny in the hospital, who dies. Dally can't take it.

He leaves the hospital and immediately "knocks over" a store, which means he robbed it. Because he's making a huge show of himself about it, the police are on his tail pretty much immediately. Dally points an unloaded gun at one of the cops, and they shoot him dead in the street.

Ponyboy tries to go back to his life, but he can't. He struggles in school, and has just one shot at passing English: write a great theme. He ends up turning to Gone With the Wind again, and finds a note that Johnny wrote to him before he died. The note tells Ponyboy to "stay gold," and talks about how proud he is that he saved those kids. So Ponyboy sits down to the write. The first line of his theme is the first line of the book The Outsiders.

The Film

Sounds fantastic, right? A librarian at an elementary school in Fresno, California, certainly thought so. She encouraged students to write to one of the best filmmakers of the day, and of all time, because she thought it would make a great movie. Lucky for the rest of us, Francis Ford Coppola agreed with her.

As Fate would have it, Coppola loaded the cast with young actors and actresses who would go on to big fame and success. The Outsiders boats one of the finest ensemble casts ever assembled, though at the time the film's stars were just a bunch of kids most people didn't recognize. Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, Matt Dillion, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe are all in the film, and all deliver great performances.

The film is very, very faithful to the book, even copying some of the dialogue straight off the page. The events of the movie mirror those of the book almost exactly, but for purists there does exist a second version of the film that's even more faithful. Coppola re-released the flick in September 2005 that includes 22 minutes of additional footage that wasn't included in the theatrical release. He adds a beginning scene that shows Ponyboy's fight in front of the movies and scenes near the end. The score is also changed in this second version, featuring more music that was popular during the 1960s (when the story takes place).

What Got Adapted? 

There are, of course, some differences between the book and the film. No matter how faithful, no two-hour movie can successfully capture every detail revealed in a book -- even a relatively short YA novel. The film watcher doesn't ever know much about the history of the three boys (Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darry). The movie has also has taken some flak over the years for (of all things) casting. Dally is written as a blonde, which Matt Dillon clearly is not. Nor is Rob Lowe, though he plays Sodapop who is supposed o have lighter hair. Two-Bit, played by Estevez, is taller with sideburns, and some fans felt that Two-Bit's character wasn't jocular enough on film.

But in the main, The Outsiders is an amazingly accurate film reproduction of a book that's controversial and very evocative of a society where the rich and the poor are constantly at odds. Is there any question why that story still resonates so strongly today?

A Week of Lies...

Justice is being featured next week  on one of my favorite book blogs. Take a look at this introductory post to find out what sorts of fun things you can expect and to participate in a discussion about assigned school reading.