Writing with heart

This morning I finished reading a novel, the ending of which had such a powerful impact on me that I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything since. It’s one of the greatest joys in my life to read something so mesmerising that once I’ve finished it, I feel that my world has been changed and that the writing will stay with me forever.

But this wasn’t the best-written book I’d ever written; far from it. In fact, as I began reading, I felt that I wasn’t going to enjoy it, and this disappointed me as it was part of a series, the other books of which I’d read several years ago and loved. As I’ve become more skilled as a writer, I’ve lost some of the pleasure in reading because I no longer read uncritically. And this particular book was filled with fundamental writing errors. So much telling and not showing! Clichés everywhere! Unconvincing dialogue! Lack of subtlety! But as I became engrossed in the story, none of that mattered any more. Because I cared about the characters and was immersed in their world. And that, for me, is the key to great writing. The characters don’t have to be loveable, but they should make the reader feel something. Yes, you can follow all the rules and write sparkling prose, but if your writing doesn’t have heart, it’ll never achieve greatness.

The five most common grammar mistakes I see

First of all, a disclaimer. I’m no expert; I’m sure I make plenty of mistakes.  And don’t even get me started on correct use of em dashes and ellipses … But as a medical writer as well as an author, I can be pretty pedantic. The rules in science are very strict: we must say ‘these data show’ rather than ‘this data shows’. 

I can hear you all protesting already: why does grammar matter in fiction? The standard rules don’t apply. For one thing, we can start sentences with the word ‘but’ and ‘and’. We can use one-word sentences and probably should; they add impact. And that’s what editors are there for, aren’t they? Not according to plenty of books I’ve read; I’m amazed at how many errors slip through the net. But most importantly, getting a novel published is a ridiculously competitive business. Agents only have time to consider a tiny fraction of the submissions that land on their desks every morning. We need to make our manuscripts as polished as possible.

I’m a beta reader for several writing friends. They’re all great writers, with a good basic understanding of grammar, but I see the same mistakes over and over again. Here are five common mistakes that you can correct in your manuscript today.

Use of commas

Omitting commas is the most common mistake I see, particularly before names in dialogue.

                      'Let’s eat, John’, is correct.

                      ‘Let’s eat John,’ has a different meaning entirely!

Another place commas are often missed is after the word ‘said’.

                       ‘she said wondering what he meant,’ is incorrect

                       ‘she said, wondering what he meant,’ is correct.

In general, if you’re not sure whether you need a comma, read the sentence out loud (one of the best habits you can get into as a writer). Where your voice naturally pauses, a comma is usually needed.

Commas can change the whole meaning of a sentence. Google the words ‘Commas matter’ and you’ll get the idea. There are some funny examples out there: ‘Hobbies: cooking dogs and reading,’ is a particularly good one.

Punctuation after dialogue 

The mistake I see most frequently is a comma at the end of dialogue when it should be a full stop. A typical mistake is:

                          ‘I’ve had enough of you,’ she sighed.

The sighing is a separate action from the speech. She didn’t sigh the words; she said them.

The correct version is:

                       ‘I’ve had enough of you.’ She sighed.

                        or

                       'I’ve had enough of you,’ she said with a sigh.

Use of semi-colons

I agree that this is more tricky and I doubt an agent is going to reject your manuscript for incorrect use, but semi-colons can make a manuscript look more polished. In general, they’re used instead of a comma to break up sentences. If you’re not sure whether to replace a comma with a semi-colon, look at the sentence fragments on either side of the comma; if they could be complete sentences in their own right, use a semi-colon. The previous sentence was an example of correct semi-colon and comma use (I hope!). Having said that, it’s best not to have too many long, over-complicated sentences in your manuscript. Mix up long and short!

Use of apostrophes

After years of misuse, I think people are finally getting the hang of these, but I still see occasional mistakes, so I’ll keep it brief. Apostrophes are never used to denote plurals.

I know the Smith’s,

I was born in the 60’s,

Banana’s (a market stall classic!),

are all incorrect.

It’s is an abbreviation of 'it is.'

Its means belonging to it, as in: ‘The cat chased its tail.’

You’re is an abbreviation of 'you are.'

Your means belonging to you, as in: ‘Your cat is chasing its tail.’

Me, myself and I

Most people know that: ‘Sue and I went to lunch,’ is correct, but they then write: ‘The waitress approached Sue and I.’ It should be ‘Sue and me.’ 

The easiest to work out whether to use I or me is to take the other name out; it then becomes obvious. I went to lunch and the waitress approached me. As for the word 'myself', never use it in this way. It sounds silly.

That’s it for now. If anyone finds this useful and wants more, let me know what you find difficult. And feel free to share your favourite funny grammar mistakes.

What I've learned from being published

So what words of wisdom have I learned from the process of becoming a published author?

1.     Don’t do things you don’t enjoy. You’ll read endless articles saying you need blogs, a Twitter presence, a Facebook author page. Google + etc etc. If you enjoy this, fair enough, but I've realised that not all of it is for me. I enjoy reading other people’s blogs, sharing writing tips etc, but social media is the thief of time. Just be aware that all these activities will take you away from your writing. It's best to find one or two social media activities you enjoy, and use these to genuinely engage with people than to spread yourself too thinly.

2.     Don’t let anyone dictate to you what you should be doing. If you don't want a launch party/to speak on the radio/to have your photo in the paper, then don't do it!

3.     Don’t obsess about your sales figures. I was miserable for half of November because I thought I’d sold no books, only to find that the publisher hadn’t updated the website. But why obsess anyway? Let’s face it, very few of us will ever make a living out of this, so if it sells a few every month, surely that’s good enough?

4.     Develop a thick skin.  I’ve been lucky enough to receive good reviews so far, but as my book reaches a wider audience, those one star reviews on Amazon will be inevitable. Of course one novel won’t appeal to everyone. Accept it.

5.     Remember to write for fun. Once writing becomes about marketability, it loses something.

6.     Live a balanced life and do other things that make you happy! After all, surely that’s the point of it all!

And that’s my New Year Resolution for 2015, to rediscover the joy in this process! Maybe I'll never be JK Rowling, but I'm a writer, not a publicist, and I'd rather spend the majority of my time writing than promoting myself.

Writing tics - we all have them!

It’s easy to notice overused words and phrases in other people’s writing, but do you notice them in your own? Yes, I have to admit I read Fifty Shades of Grey, if only to try and understand what all the fuss was about. It’s one of the worst novels I’d read for many reasons, but particularly those irritating repeated phrases. Oh my!

So how, as writers, do we get rid of them? Firstly, re-read your work until you’re sick of the sight of it. It can help to look at your writing in a different way. Print it out if you normally proofread onscreen. Or put it in a different font.

Secondly, have other people point them out. Ask all your beta readers to look out for them. During the publication of Future Perfect, the editor pointed out that my characters were biting their lips on five separate occasions. I’ve now added that expression to the list in my writing book, together with ‘and so’, ‘right,’ ‘sighed’, ‘smiled,’ ‘obviously’ and ‘certainly’. This is where the ‘find’ feature in Word comes into its own. It’s also useful for pruning out all those pesky adverbs: put in ‘ly’ and see how many you’ve used.

Another useful device is the word cloud. By pasting a block of text, this website generates a word cloud that shows you which words feature most often in the text.

http://www.wordle.net

But it’s not only words and phrases. A friend recently pointed out to me that I use a lot of ellipses – she’d been ticked off by her editor for the same thing. Annoyingly, the ‘find’ feature didn’t allow me to search for … but a quick search through my manuscript revealed the awful truth. I use this far too often to indicate pauses in speech and the habit’s getting worse!

So what are your writing tics? 

Why blog about myself as a writer?

For a while I resisted the idea of a blog about myself as a writer. While I enjoy my blog on fascinating females in history, the idea of anything else seemed too self-promotional and, being English, I'm rather apologetic of anything that smacks of pushing myself forward. But in the last few months while Future Perfect has been in the process of being published, I've read many blogs written by other writers and not all of them are saying, "Look at me and buy my book!" Most are, in fact, nurturing a supportive community of writers. Writing can be a solitary occupation and over the last few months I've learned plenty by reading about other writers' experiences of the publishing industry, as well as making some new friends along the way. I've also discovered that blogs can be a valuable way of sharing tips, whether marketing or for writing itself.

As for my own journey into print, it's been one of self-discovery. I thought that writing was a means to an end, the end being publication. I was wrong. Of course the day that I received the e-mail from Elsewhen Press saying that they'd like to publish the novel was a huge thrill. The day I hold the paperback in my hand will be the fulfilment of a lifelong dream. But the greatest joy I've had this year was writing the last novel in the trilogy. There's nothing on earth to beat the adrenaline rush of being so immersed in the writing process that the world disappears around you and your fingers can hardly keep up with the words that are leaping from your mind. And that's my advice to all writers. If you don't love it, don't do it. Writing isn't a means to an end; it is the end.