《Write Better: Tips and tricks》Apples and Oranges and Grammar, oh my!
Advertisement
I don't really have a lot to say about editing for grammar. If you want to do it, you're probably going to have to read up on how. It's the basic sort of thing that you just need to know, or you can have just about anyone do it for you. You don't have to be a professional, but at the very least the average writer should have some grasp of the language they're using to write.
If you want to know your grammar really well EDIT YOUR OWN WRITING AND GIVE CRITIQUES TO OTHERS. If you just stare at it and say to yourself (I see the error), you are more likely to forget how to correct it than if you take the time to change it.
Likewise, if you find the error in someone else's story, take a moment to [politely] correct them, possibly even explain it, and you'll be reminding yourself, too! This is a learning technique, and it really does work.
Part of being able to, say, recognize a Granny Smith apple turnover from a Macintosh one, comes from being around the two. Once you know what to look for, it really isn't any harder than picking out the orange in a barrel of apples.
There are some basics that you should know, and those I'll mention here.
Don't worry about buying a fancy book. Often, the best thing you can do is go to google and type in what you want and read a few of the top results. With variety, you'll learn pretty quick what's correct and what isn't.
I've found it's easy to learn one step at a time based on what I need. If I need help with commas, I only search for commas. If on Monday I need to brush up on my semicolons, I search for semicolons on Monday.
Advertisement
(IE: consider googling these terms if you want to make your life easier):
Independent clause vs dependent clause
Commas
Commas and conjunctions
Comma splices
Semicolons
Hyphens and Dashes
Gerunds
Making sure your modifiers modify the right thing
Prepositions
Punctuation in dialogue
Ellipses
Colon
Whose/who/whom
Affect vs effect
Lay vs lie
:
This sentence is overapitalize the first letter of the next one.
"How do I punctuate a question in dialogue Bruce asked.
"I don't know how Sally said.
RUN ON SENTENCES. I CAN'T EVEN.
All the time. As you go. As the words are coming out of your head and appearing on the paper, screen, used napkin, whatever it is you're writing on.
Seriously, don't make more work for yourself later. Punctuate. Use your commas. Don't say "Ah, I'll go back in later." Make it a habit and sooner or later using grammar won't even be a conscious decision!
Advertisement
- In Serial61 Chapters
The Heavenly Wandering Sword
The Deity of Swords has lived for thousands of years upon Sword Mountain. In that time, he has tired of living the way a god does. To find the simpler life he had before his ascension, he leaves the Heavenly Palace to once again travel through the Jianghu. Since his ascension thousands of years ago to the Heavenly Palace, Li Jian found himself in a position where he never truly wished to be. Having lost track of all those who he had met throughout his time in the mortal world of cultivation, he seeks to find the various wisdoms he had forgotten in the millenias past. He had been many things: fisherman, warrior, and teacher to name a few but he has never been able to simply be. What he has sought since the first time he picked up his sword was a sense of tranquility with the world but it had only lead to his Heavenly Ascension. A swordsman without peer, he chooses instead to defy the law of the Dao and once again live in the world of mortals.
8 197 - In Serial10 Chapters
Just An Outlier
How unfair is it when Roa enters a new world with his friend's classmates, he is as weak as a regular person while everyone else is outrageously overpowered? Roa soons learns that he cannot even gain experience, leaving him to be forever cast as a failure by the people who summoned him.As the outlier of the group, he is thrown into an endless abyss when he tries to help the group. Cut off the road of a hero, what path will he take? Rather, what path will Roa forge when he learns that the world isn't as black and white as he thought?
8 65 - In Serial58 Chapters
The Year Before Eternity
A retelling of the classic tale, Beauty and the Beast. After 100 years, Kieran Pietre Erik, Crown Prince of Gaerin, has lost his chance to break the curse that befell his kingdom. Now, he lives for all eternity as the beast. The only people left alive in the abandoned castle to keep him at bay are a maid, her child, and the Prince's guard. Stuck in an endless cycle, they've lost all hope of freedom. Until someone resets the curse. Astrid Delacroix is beautiful and intelligent - and vain. She longs to be free of her boring life in her small hometown, where she has to put up with the small-minded. She toys with the people around her; she knows she doesn't belong in their world. The only things keeping her from running are her ill father and their crippling finances. When her father, in a desperate attempt to steal a rose made of solid gold from an abandoned castle, is held captive by a beast, Astrid switches one form of captivity for another. But her attempts to gain her freedom trap her into the curse that imprisons the castle's inhabitants. Now, with a new addition to the curse, they are given one, final year to free themselves from this neverending nightmare.
8 229 - In Serial10 Chapters
Bow down to your King!
He was once a king from another world but committed suicide because he got everything money, power, people, After that he got reincarnated with his family while they were moving houses a big storm was seen and hit them causing him to be separated from his parents after he met a phoenix that took care of him but was sadly died after that, He traveled through the forest and meeting a young girl and he was forced to take her back to her home after that he realized the young woman was a duke, After the girl returned home he was trained before he could go back with his parents but he did know they well still alive and safe and after that, He realized he didn't have everything from the past life he had he didn't have LOVE so he swears to himself he would protect everyone he loves but there is someone or something from keeping that promise
8 116 - In Serial64 Chapters
Elysia in Another World
Elysia has lived countless lives, constantly reincarnating into another world. She usually picks the world, choosing whichever option seems the most interesting, but sometimes the goddess gives her a mission. This time, the mission lets her keep all of her powers and memories acquired in her past lives. Alt Name: Isekai Elysia
8 189 - In Serial19 Chapters
Elysium
The first God, Prometheus.A being that transcended simple Godhood. He stood at the apex of power, the pinnacle of creation. But it was his might that became his downfall.His heart corrupted as his lovers and friends withered away with the passing of time. He envied them; their mortality and he thristed for it, more and more with each second.His mind and soul were thrown in an endless maelstrom of envy over his own brethren and raw madness. But before he gave into the pull of insanity he ended his own life.Overloading his own power in an explosion so massive that the fundamentals of space and time were distorted, a lone soul made its way through the cracked dimensions; bypassing nether and purgatory. Astray and confused the small wisp entered its new life.
8 101

