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.

Review: The Fossegrimen Folly

I was drawn at once to the cover and the blurb for The Fossegrimen Folly, and I actually contacted the author Michael Almich to ask for a review copy (generally it goes the other way around). He was kind enough to send me one, and the time I spent reading it definitely wasn't wasted. I'm very much looking forward to the second book in the series.

I wanted to read a YA novel with a male lead, and I'm pleased to say I picked a good one. Shy is a completely believable kid who's been sent, against his will, to summer camp. He fits his name well; before camp, Shy spends most of his time with his dog or dodging bullies at school. He's upset about his parents splitting up, and not at all looking forward to two months of forced separation from the world he knows. 

At first. Soon, Almich takes Shy (and me!) into a world of magic and mystery. Camp Lac Igam is introduced in spectacular fashion, along with supporting characters like the staunchly loyal Daniel and the laid-back camp counselor Tad. Gust, the oldest and wisest camp employee, is gruff and mysterious, but there are a few moments when true warmth pokes through his crusty exterior. Almich is superb at showing the byplay between characters, and the dialogue flows naturally through every page. Every one of the campers and counselors are unique, with their own distinct personalities, and I loved getting to know them.

Of course, they're just the human characters. Camp Lac Igam is also populated with fey creatures, faeries who remain mostly unseen to most of the people wandering around the camp. Shy stumbles, rather clumsily, into an adventure involving many of the intriguing creatures of the camp. Through the summer, he learns new stories and finds new evidence of the fey, almost always to fantastic results. Almich borrows from Scandinavian lore to create a truly unique fantasy world that's superimposed on the real world, and he blends the two together beautifully through Shy. 

He's already got enough to worry about even without the magical creatures. Shy's nemesis and the resident bully at his school is also at the camp, and much of his adventure is internal. Almich brilliantly leads Shy along on his quest toward self-confidence, and honestly I was just as excited about the end-of-camp games as I was about the faerie treasure (yes, there's treasure!). The good news is that Shy finds true friendship, and not all of the fey variety, during his all-too-short summer at camp. The bad news is that school bullies aren't the only forces of evil he'll have to face. 

A few formatting errors are the only thing that keep this book from being absolutely perfect. It's satisfying, it's exciting, and it's sure to please even non-fantasy fans (and I ought to know, since I'm one of them). At times, the reader does have to suspend belief -- the camp's adults are nothing if not negligent. But I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did. The fey creatures that live around Camp Lac Igam aren't cute or cuddly, they're like nothing I've ever seen in any other book, and I'm pleased I got to know them. 

It's an ideal world, and while it may be a little hard to swallow at times it is a fantastic place to visit. Since such a camp could never possibly exist in the real world, it's nice that at least it does exist in this book.

Almich is a strong writer with a very outside-the-box story to tell. It's certainly a fantasy book, but it's not at all a cookie-cutter tale. Shy is an unlikely hero that everyone's going to root for, and I'll be happy to wave a banner for him while he competes in camp games, refuses to back down to bullies and tries to find a way to live in his two worlds successfully.

Writing 101: The Difference Between Toward and Towards

Are you moving toward success with your writing...or towards it? Make sure your use of grammar in writing isn't untoward, and figure out what your words mean before you use them. That's right: it's time to find the real difference between toward and towards. There's got to be some reason they're two different words...right?

 Toward vs. Towards

In the dictionary, toward means in the direction of. Contrary-wise, towards means toward (seriously, go look it up). Basically, the takeaway from this is that there is no difference whatsoever between the two words.

So which one are you supposed to be using? Either one you like. Both words have the same meaning, and I'm pretty certain the letter s simply showed up at the end of toward in order to confuse writers. The no-s version is actually more common in American English, while towards is more frequently seen in British English. Whichever one you like the best is the one you ought to use. Change 'em up, switch 'em around, use them both with maniacal glee -- you pretty much can't go wrong unless you totally ignore the definition. Usually, the addition of the s changes the meaning of words...but not in this case. Toward and towards just happen to be a strange word pair that know no rules, so feel free to go crazy.

Justice Reviewed, One Page at a Time

"Varden's writing was compelling and left me thoroughly entertained."

Danica Page has kindly reviewed Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) on her blog, Taking it One Page at a Time. Go and read the whole thing before you decide if you want a copy of your own.

Writing 101: How to Properly Write Numbers, Dates, Years and Times

It's time to clear up some confusion. Too many authors are all over the place when it comes to writing numbers, dates, years and times in their books. Find out if there are rules when it comes to writing numbers in fiction, exactly what the rules are, and what authors need to know to keep their work clean, readable, and formatted in a sensible way.

You Are Not Writing for a Newspaper

We all love AP style. It's an industry standard in newspaper writing, online writing and magazine writing of all kinds. It's a college course, and it's a requirement in English classes all over the nation.

It's also incorrect when you're writing a novel. When you're trying to figure out how to properly format your numbers, dates, years and times, the first thing you need to do is set fire to the AP style book. Do not follow these rules when you are writing prose for a novel -- fiction or non. The only time you'll need to know AP style if you write books, in fact, is if you plan to quote a newspaper article that appears in the book (but that's another post).

That said, you're also not writing for your college professor. So don't let me find out that you're using MLA style, either.

When it comes to writing a novel, you're not going to find a single, handy style guide that's going to help you out -- and I'm positive this is from where the trouble stems. Plenty of authors have published plenty of books on the topic, but I'm not about to recommend one of them because I don't own any them. I'm sure they're all wonderful. But when it comes to properly writing numbers, dates, years and times, you don't need an entire book to tell you how to do it. You only need to master a few very simple rules.

Writing Numbers in Novels

That subheading ins't there because I'm trying to be cute with my post. It's a reminder. When you are writing a book, you are writing -- so write it out. That's the first rule of properly formatting your text.

• Write it out

Again, because I can't stress this enough, you're not using AP style. So spell your numbers out in total, unless they're gigantic. Spell out everything above five, everything above nine, and don't forget to format your compound numbers. Whether it's fifty-seven or twenty-one, compound numbers are always written with a dash in-between and both numbers spelled out in full. Spell out large numbers like five million and three thousand. If you're writing a large and complicated number, however, say four thousand one hundred and eighty-four, it's going to read better and look better as 4,184. Always use the number comma in four-digit numerals.

• Fractions

Your fractions should likewise be fully written as compound numbers: Roughly one-half of the students in class were asleep by the time he finished explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis in full, bleak detail. How terrible does it look to write 1/2 instead? Isn't that the ugliest thing you ever saw? Now try reading it in a half-dozen indie books without running outside and screaming your head off. This is what I struggle with.

• Calendar dates

I have to put a lot of dates in my books, because there's a lot of detail about when people were born, when they died, and so on. Writing dates is very tricky, so when you're doing it make sure you're paying attention. My character can be born on January 17, but she can't be born on the 17th of Jan. You shouldn't ever use an abbreviation in your book, unless it's a common acronym (like PETA, or BA for Bachelor of Arts degree). It's not okay to write January as Jan unless you're specifically referencing something that appears in a text or an email (or something similar). It's not okay use 2nd, 11th, or any of the above. Write out second and seventeenth. It's just a few more letters, and it looks 100 percent better. You're writing a book...there's no rush.

• Years

Years should always be expressed as numerals except in very specific circumstances. It's cumbersome to write July 5, nineteen eighty-six, and looks silly. For years, it's always okay to use 1986, even in dialogue. It's also okay to use the year abbreviation in dialogue, for example '86 or '02, but make sure you use the apostrophe. Also, don't use the abbreviation in non-dialogue prose (example: Amber hadn't thought of Tim since '06, the year of the senior prom). Again, you're not in a hurry -- typing that extra digit isn't going to hurt you, and it looks better.

• Decades

Many writers get this wrong -- not just in books, but everywhere I look. In prose, you really should be spelling out your decades (back in the seventies, Mr. Hamm experimented a little too much). But if you've just got to use the numerals, please do so correctly. It's '80s, never ever ever ever 80's. Why? because when an apostrophe precedes the s, you're usually showing possession. Are you saying that the number 80 has ownership of something, or are you referring to it? It's 1980s. It's never going to be 1980's.

• Times

If I'm a character in a book, I might celebrate tea time at four o'clock or even 4 o'clock. I might go out for my date at 8 PM or eight PM, or end up running late and not make it until 8:10 PM. What I'm not going to do is go to my date at eight-oh-five PM, unless I'm doing so inside dialogue. No other formatting is correct for times. If you're using numerals (ex. 8:10 PM), you must always use the colon. You don't have to capitalize PM and AM, though this is the accepted abbreviation. Some writers find the caps a little jarring, so you can switch to the lowercase pm if it really matters to you.

Be Consistent

Most importantly of all, be consistent. Even if you break all the rules above and do your own thing, do it consistently to keep your pages from looking like a hot mess. However you want to write your numbers, dates and times, always do it the same way. Otherwise, you look like you don't know what you're doing, and your readers are going to be confused.

Death: An Exclusive Excerpt

 I'll be revealing the cover for Death (Deck of Lies, #3) in less than two weeks, and you've only got a little longer than that to wait for the book's release. Until then, I'm releasing this exclusive excerpt that you can't find anywhere else. Keep reading! 

     I nearly shouted with glee when I saw Fallon’s familiar curvy figure leaning against my locker door. She’s a little taller than me, but Fallon had a habit of slouching and turning her shoulders inward that made us almost look the same size -- at least vertically.
     “Where have you been?” I was so pleased, I leapt forward to give her a hug.
     “I wasn’t in the mood this morning,” she shrugged. “But I showed up in time for lunch. Thanks for not bailing on school again today.”
     “Yeah, I know. Sorry about that. I wasn’t feeling well.” It wasn’t really a lie. I’d been feeling terrible the last few days, but not in the way I was trying to suggest to Fallon.
     “Suuure.” She wasn’t buying it, anyway.
     “Listen, Fall, I need to borrow your car.” I finished shoving books into my locker and turned to look at her, straight into her vivid blue-green eyes so she would know how serious I was.
     “What? What for? Is something wrong with yours?”
     “No, not at all. In fact, you can take mine.” I reached into my Polo purse to pull out the keys and shoved them toward her.
     “Rain, what’s going on?” She didn’t reach to take them.
     “I can’t really explain right now, Fallon.” I took her right hand in mine and turned it face up so I could drop the keys inside. “Just hang onto them until I get back. I’ll meet you in the parking lot at the end of the school day. If something happens and I’m not back, just take the car for today and you can drive it to school tomorrow.”
     “Rain!” She tried to shove the keys back at me, but I’d crossed my arms. “I can’t take your car home. My mom will flip.”
     “Look, I’ll be back in time. She’ll never find out. Has it got gas in it? Where are your keys?”
     “Rain!”
     “Be quiet,” I hissed at her. “This is really important. It’s…it’s about Laurel, Fall.”
     “Laurel?” She looked down, hiding her expression with a curtain of long bluish-black hair. “Is it really, or are you just saying that?”
     “Fall,” I reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. “It is really about Laurel, and it is really important. I’ll be back in time. Wait for me.”
     “Okay. I guess.” I tried not to let her see me celebrate while she dug into her purse for the keys. Fallon held onto my hand after she slapped the keys inside, her bright gaze boring into me. “Not one scratch. And I want my seat put back the way I had it when you’re done.”
     “It’ll be just like I was never there,” I assured her. I sprang forward to give her a quick hug, then fled down the hall before she could change her mind. I would take Fallon’s car straight to the police station, explain everything to Edwards over the next two class periods, and then meet her when school let out for the day. The von Sheltons would never even know. It was a perfect plan.

     For once, everything seemed to work in my favor. I made it all the way to the parking lot without getting spotted, not even by another student who was sneaking away from school grounds, and saw Fallon’s tiny yellow Porsche convertible pretty quickly. She was parked way in the back, because she’d been late. I ran toward the car, weaving through the high-end automobiles that packed the student lot.
     Freedom was just a few steps away when I stepped into one of the wide lanes. My eyes were fixed on the distinct round headlights of Fallon’s Porsche, the keys gripped in my hand. Everything was going to be okay. I heard the squeal of tires at the same time the thought went whizzing through my head, and turned toward the noise instinctively.
     A Mercedes-Benz was barreling toward me at full speed. For a moment I was completely frozen, my legs turned to cement columns beneath me. The car was almost close enough to touch when I heard my own voice in my head, screaming at me to MOVE, and I jerked myself to the right.
     I hit the asphalt roughly, skinning a knee and the heel of my left hand as I went down on all fours. The car blew by me, and I realized how close I’d just come to certain doom. “Slow down!” I screamed, even though the vehicle had already reached the end of the lane and jerked into a screeching turn. I watched it as I picked myself up and tried to brush off my skirt, speeding down the lane next to me. At the end, the car wrenched into a left turn…and started coming down my lane again.

Writing 101: Are You Treating H Like a Vowel?

Do your characters wait for about an hour, or a hour? Does it make a difference that the word hour is pronounced without its H? Should I write that my books delve deeply into a history of a very deceitful family, or an history? Are you treating H like a vowel...and do you know any of the answers?

Why I Hate Words That Start with H

You might think every letter in the alphabet is equal, that all 26 of them are totally benign. The truth is, some of those letters are actually ticking time bombs -- and they may have already detonated inside your book. If you think Y is a tricky letter, you've never gone 10 rounds with the letter H.

The problem with H is that sometimes it audibly shows up to the word party, announcing itself loudly and proudly. Other times, it sneaks in with other letters uninvited. Before you know it, H has spiked the punch, set the carpet on fire and done who-knows-what to get A all bent out of shape. There goes your word party...now you're just breaking up fights between consonants and vowels. Before you know it, some reader's bound to call in the Grammar Police (and those guys are totally un-fun).

H is most troublesome when it starts off a word. Brits won't even pronounce it, and all the rest of us have to remember when it makes a noise and when it doesn't. In American English, H is always pronounced in words like hard, head, hand, hell, hair and heavy. It's sometimes pronounced in words like herb, but it's never pronounced in the words hour, homage or heiress. Words might have a hard H, a soft H, an H that can't make up its mind, or an H that pretends other letters aren't already in front of it (H totally takes the limelight in words like whose, for example, but never in why).

And when your H-word appears immediately after a single A, that's when all the trouble begins. It's common to say "an hour" and "an heiress," but the H never rears its ugly sound in those words. What about when you're using words with a hard H? Should you be writing "an history lesson" instead of "a history lesson?"

Do you treat H like a vowel all of the time, or only some of the time...and when do you know the difference?


A Heck of An Arduous Task

As we all know, the word "a" becomes "an" when it comes in front of a word that begins with a vowel. You have to write that your character picked up an apple and put down a banana. But what if she's eating ham or hummus instead?

It all depends on how she's pronouncing it, actually. Because ham starts with a hard H, your character can eat a ham...she can't eat an ham. The rule actually applies to every single word that starts with a vowel. You wouldn't write that after she eats her ham, she goes to the airport to get an one-way ticket, would you? The word one certainly begins with O (you don't need grammar tips to know that), but it's pronounced WON -- with a hard W sound.

So, if I'm writing a history of a deceitful family without an honorable bone between them, I might have a hard time with figuring out how to best present an H-word...and editing it for proper a and an usage is a headache. If you start having trouble with your a and an usage, just read your text aloud. The pronunciation that comes most commonly to you (herb instead of erb, for instance) is the one you ought to use for your read-along grammar check. Whatever sounds more natural to your ear is almost always the right decision.

Use an Online Grammar Checker to Perfect Your Work

I write a lot about grammar in my writing 101 posts, because it's always difficult. There are tons of rules in the English language, and they're pretty easy to forget. Every indie author has to proofread and edit their own work to make sure it's perfect, but it can't hurt to get a second opinion. Why can't that second opinion be a website?

Check Your Grammar Online

 If you're not sure about a certain sentence or a certain passage in your book, and it's something I haven't already covered in one of my writing 101 posts, an online grammar checker can provide a simple, quick spot-check. There are several of them online, not all of them free, but I like this one best. You simply highlight the text you're unsure about with your mouse, copy it, then paste it directly into the blank box on the site. The corrected text will appear in the second blank box, just beneath the first. Words that have been changed will be underlined in both passages.

It's a very convenient tool, but it's not at all a viable way to proofread your entire book. Most grammar checkers cannot handle huge chunks of text; anything more than two paragraphs probably won't go through the system smoothly. You could spend hours, even days, checking everything paragraph-by-paragraph. It's a huge waste of time, and you'll serve your work much better by proofing it yourself. But if you do have something tricky you want to double-check, an online grammar checker is an easy, quick solution.

If changes do need to be made to your work according to the grammar checker, make sure you know why. The more your own understanding of the rules of language expands, the better your writing will be. It's very easy to rely on Internet tools to do a lot of the work, and sometimes it might even be necessary, but it's the author's job to be the word expert. Don't let the Internet become a crutch, and don't let it keep you from understanding the craft of writing. Internet tools should be used to help you expand your knowledge, not to keep you from learning.