Any writer on t3h intrw3bzz knows that here in the magical land of computers and technology, grammar isn't always a top priority. So right here, right now, I'm making a list as part of my Weapons for Writers series of the grammatical and spelling mistakes that no writer should make.
And, horrifyingly, they appear more often then you think...
1. Prologues - the Spelling
Alright. Let's get this right out here. It is spelt P-R-O-L-O-G-U-E.
Not prouloge. Not prolouge.
And god forbid, not proelog.
2. What is a prologue, anyway?
I have seen, many, many, times stories where a 'prologue' is just a fancy name for a first chapter. Here's the deal; without the prologue, the story should work fine. The first chapter should still be dynamic and captivating and should still make sense.
Prologues are tasters, and there are generally two types of prologues: ones that typically either give hints to the plot later on, that, while are interesting and captivating to read make the reader, later on, go 'OMG, aha!'
Or, more commonly, they are hints at future events, events that take place after the story ends or before it begins.'
3. Mary Sues.
They aren't really 'grammatical', not technically, but still. They are absolutely, positively, completely terrible.
4. Italics.
sItalics in novels are primarily used for dream sequences, hilighting a specific word very rarely that is very significant during a description, or when a character gets particularly emotional and the only way we writers can express this is by slanting their speech.
Italics can be severely over used to the point where the reader turns the book sideways so the words are, for once, straight.
Okay, maybe not that badly. But it definately bugs the bajeeblez out of me where every second paragraph has a huge italicized chunk.
Bottom line is, it looks tacky and when you italicize crazily, the italics lose their punch. They don't have an interest or value any more because they've been so overworked.
5. Their vs They're vs There
Alright, I'll try to make this as simple as can be.
Their is possessive, as in saying that object A belongs to person B. For example, 'it was their ball.'
They're is 'they' and 'are' squished together, so instead of saying, 'They are eating pie' we can say, 'They're eating pie.'
There is saying object A is sitting somewhere. Where? We don't know. The writer has to aforemention where object A is, and then can say there to make it short and sweet. e.g Lisa put the dragon kibble over there.
6. Capitalization.
Now this is one heck of an axe that cuts both ways.
when you type just like this you look like an idiot. it makes your novel look like a crummy fanfic. it cheapens your writing and makes you look like a 9 year old. it just brings down a whole piece of work.
But When You Type Like This With Caps On Every Word OR LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME-
Oh god. I can't do it. Use your shift key!
Typing with no caps is bad, but capitalizing the first letter of every word is worse in my eyes. My mind just can't wrap around it, and even if it's the most amazing thing in the world, none of the readers will want to read it because, well, it makes your writing look like crap.
Capitalization is not a hard thing to get used to.
- The first letter of every new sentence is capitalized.
- Firstnames, middle names and surnames are all capitalized. Jane Mary Smith.
- Place names are all capitalized. Lake Myers.
- First letter of titles are capitalized. Dr Jones, Reverend Thompson.
For instance, 'Hi,' she grinned, 'are you new here?'
Technically, it would be grammatically correct; since commas were used, capitalization was not necessary. But...
'Hi,' She grinned. 'Are you new here?'
Looks a lot better. Speech capitalization is one of the largest areas of grammar that is flexible.
7. Cliches
These bad boys are so terrible they get an entire post for themselves.
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