Writing Tips

Tip #4: Grammar and dialogue are your friends.

Tip #4: Grammar and dialogue are your friends. No agent or editor will take on a project that isn’t picture perfect.

1.      There are a lot of mistakes in dialogue, so I’ll just clear this up now. The proper way to do dialogue is like this:

        a.       “I see that cat,” Mary said. (Always have the comma when you have a tag line.

        b.      “I see that cat.” Mary pointed. (With no tagline, just put a period.)

        c.       “I see that cat,” Mary said, pointing, “over there with the stripes.” (comma, tag line, action, comma, continued statement from before.)

     d.      “I see that cat,” Mary said, pointing. “It’s over there.” (comma, tag line, action, period, separate statement.

2.      Quotes within dialogue are done with only one quotation mark, like this: “And she said, ‘I really like cheese’ but I don’t think she was telling the truth,” Alana said. “She peeled the cheese off her burger.”

3.      Be aware of tensing. Keep everything one tense. Don’t flip flop between past and present.

4.      Check spelling. Go over your work before you post because even the best writers will have mistakes. Pay attention to the squiggly red and green lines.

5.      Everyone uses dashes, however, this (-) is not a dash. This (—) is a dash. You get that dash by pressing (-) twice, but make sure it’s backed up against words, like so(--)and then keep typing.

6.      Know your homophones. You’re (you are) and your (possession). They’re (they are), their (possession), and there (as in, “over there.”). Two, to, and too.

7.      It’s spelled definitely, not defiantly. I remember it this way: definite + ly. Leave in the “e” on the end of definite.

8.      Also, never bold or underline. To use emphasis, italicize. And use ALL CAPS sparingly.

9.      Blond/blonde is the only gender specific word in our language. Blond is masculine. Blonde is feminine. And for Americans, we say toward, not towards.