"Work, the what's-its-name of the thingummy and the thing-um-a-bob of the what d'you-call-it."—P.G. Wodehouse, Psmith, Journalist A placeholder is what a writer puts in when she can’t think of the right line or idea at the moment. Placeholders can be a useful tool when you are making that mad dash through your first draft, especially during November’s NaNoWriMo challenge. How often do you get bogged down when you stop to try to think of just the right word or phrase? How many times do you make a detour to the Internet to search for that word or phrase and get further derailed by blogs, articles or that “ding” that signals you have a Facebook message? Well, turn off everything but your word processing program and remember “placeholders.” You can use a placeholder when you can’t remember what you named the heroine’s fifth child ten  chapters ago. “When he saw the huge shadow looming, Little Whosit dropped his books on the ground and ran.” You don’t need to take...

By Catherine DePino (reviewed by Linda Lane) The preface of this book opens with these words: “No matter what your circumstances, Excuse Me, Your Participle’s Dangling! will give you the bare essentials of grammar that you’ll need to write like a pro. This book also offers a simple yet foolproof method of writing under pressure, the key to success in any college program or workplace.” While this sounds like a practical approach for many folks, how does it work for novelists, who rarely fit into the “academic” category and whose grammatical needs can sometimes be extensive and complex? Chapter one appropriately addresses verbs. Why appropriately? Verbs empower sentences. Verb choice can determine whether a sentence lies on the page, soon to be forgotten, or rises up to compel a reader to digest its content and continue reading for more gems. This chapter focuses on verb types, weak and strong verbs, active and passive voice, and irregular verbs, covering the “bare essentials...

Which sentence “shows” the action best? • Joe walked to the house. • Joe strode to the house. Verbs are action words and are key to showing rather than telling. Verbs themselves can be active or passive, as you can see from the examples above. Joe walked is pretty mundane. It’s not wrong, but you can show his state of mind by using a strong, active verb, such as strode, stomped, loped , or stumbled . You can also describe the character with a verb, such as Joe limped . Watch verb “helpers” , such as the “to be” form. Joe was walking . Again, it is not wrong, but it is more passive than even the simple Joe walked. The voice of a verb tells whether the subject of the sentence performs the action (active or strong) or is acted upon (passive or weak.) • Joe was praised by Glen. (passive) • Glen praised Joe. (active) The passive voice can be used when the actor is unknown or is less important than the object of the action. • Participants in the survey were asked about the...

I have several word pet peeves. One is “snuck”, which I have written about previously. Another is 9 a.m. in the morning. (Think about it! As opposed to 9 a.m. in the evening?) My word of the month is “Utilize”. Utilize is one of those fluffed up, pretentious, supposedly intellectual “dollar” words that people use when they want to sound smart. Many times we see it in PR copy: If you utilize this product, you will be better/stronger/smarter/richer etc. But I often see it in plain old prose: He utilized the rake to clean up the yard . Aw, come on. There is a perfectly acceptable, three-letter word you can “use” instead. That’s it—USE. He used the rake to clean the yard . If you use this product you will___. Simple. Utilitarian. Easy. And do NOT use the even fluffier, more pretentious verb form: “utilization.” Ugh. Here are the definitions of the two words: Use : take, hold, or deploy (something) as a means of accomplishing or achieving something; employ— Oxford English Dictionary ...

No, I don’t mean that tight feeling in your shoulders when you’ve been sitting at the computer too long! In writing, TENSE shows the time of a verb’s action. The following are the simple tenses we commonly use: • Action occurring now is PRESENT TENSE. She understands the problem . • Action that occurred before now is PAST TENSE. She understood the problem . • Action likely to occur in after now is FUTURE TENSE. She will understand the problem . Then, we get into somewhat more complicated versions. By adding a “to be” verb, we create a PERFECT TENSE. (That doesn’t mean it’s perfect to use all the time though.) • PRESENT PERFECT refers to completed actions whose effects are still relevant. I am walking that trail today. • PAST PERFECT: I had walked that trail last week.  • FUTURE PERFECT: I will have walked that trail many times before I grow old.  The tricky part is knowing which tense to use when, and when to limit the “perfects.” As authors, when we begin a sto...

Sometimes I marvel that anyone can learn English at all! We have so many words that sound alike but are spelled differently or that are spelled the same but have different meanings. I think one could write a whole book in this subject. But I’ll try to hit some of the highlights and the most commonly misused ones. As an editor, one mistake I come across fairly often is passed/past . Passed is used when a car is going around another. When that car has passed far enough by the second car, it is past . OR My grandparents lived in the past . Another is farther/further . This is a difficult one. FARther refers to distance. How much farther is it to the beach? FURther refers to additional time, amount or other abstract matters (I don’t want to discuss this any further . OR …to further (advance) a cause.) Then there is rein/reign . Rein is what you use to control your horse. Reign is what kings do. Try to remember the difference by thinking of “Reign” as a bigger word. A king’s powe...

Susie decided she’d had enough of his insubordination. It was time to let him go. “John,” she said, “You have been insubordinate one time too many. You’re fired.” Many beginning writers feel they must set up the dialogue by explaining first what the character is going to say, or to emphasize a point by repeating it in dialogue, but it is not needed. Unnecessary repetition weakens sentences and adds extraneous words to your manuscript. Say it once, cut to the chase. Another example of saying the same thing in different words: Many unskilled workers without training in a particular job are unemployed and do not have any work. (“Unskilled” and “without training” mean the same thing, as do “unemployed” and “do not have work.”) Better : Many unskilled workers are unemployed. Be aware of repetitive phrases: • Circle around  • Continue on  • Final completion  • Frank and honest exchange • The future to come • Repeat again • Return again • Revert back • Square i...

In recent years, I’ve read a couple of books by highly-acclaimed literary authors who use no punctuation. Well, almost none. They don’t use quotation marks for dialogue. Cormack McCarthy is one, and I do not want to read another of his books because it drives me absolutely crazy. (And that’s a short trip!)  On the other hand, the novel Dirt Music by Tim Winton didn’t bother me as much. I think because the dialogue was properly attributed with actions, reactions or taglines. And the author started a new paragraph for each new speaker. McCarthy doesn’t always, and sometimes refers to two different characters as “he” a couple of times within the same paragraph. Confusing? To say the least. That said, McCarthy is a best-selling author and has won many awards. He knows his literature and he knows the rules. I always tell my writing students and editing clients that it may seem like we are spending a lot of time on “rules” when maybe we should be concentrating on writing. But…we ...

How often have you see this type of thing? The Smith’s got together with the Johnson’s to discuss the problem’s they had with their kid’s . It seems to me when God handed out apostrophes, some people must have taken more than their fair share. Most nouns add an “s” or “es” to indicate more than one. (I’m not going to get into irregular plurals, like woman-women, child-children etc.) It’s very simple, really. The Smiths (more than one Smith) got together with the Johnsons (also more than one Johnson) to discuss the problems (oh dear, more than one problem!) with their kids. (also more than one kid. They must have been fighting again.) Here’s when you can use apostrophes : to indicate possession or ownership. The kid’s book, mom’s apple pie, Bob Smith’s beard, Jim Johnson’s wife. What if you have a plural that ends in “s” and you want to show possession? The style varies somewhat here. Some publications simply use the apostrophe after the “s”. The Smiths’ children . Other st...

Omniscient : having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness or understanding. In this Point of View (POV), the narrator is a God-like character. The narrator knows everything about all of the characters, places and events involved. You can put the readers inside anyone’s mind at will and the author can state facts that none of the characters are aware of. Now this may seem like “the key” to you. We could tell the story so much quicker. Why should we worry about who is able to know what—that seems so complicated, right? But look at this example, something beginning writers often fall into: He bit his nails and thought that she did not understand him. He watched her and wondered what to say. She brushed her hair and thought that he needed therapy. It is jarring, and can bump the reader out of reading concentration, which is absolutely not a good thing. You want the reader to identify with your main character(s) and to keep turning the pages. This POV is considered rather an...

This is one of those terms that could make your eyes cross, but when you come right down to it, it pretty much defines itself. Think of “nonrestrictive” as “non-essential”, which is not actually the technical definition. It’s giving extra or parenthetical information. Here’s the technical definition : Restrictive clauses limit the possible meaning of a preceding subject. Nonrestrictive clauses tell you something about a preceding subject, but they do not limit, or restrict, the meaning of that subject. Okay, let’s see an example to make it more user-friendly. The suspect in the lineup, who owns a red car, committed the crime . The sentence makes sense without the phrase “who owns a red car” and doesn’t actually “need” that qualifier. It’s not essential to the crime in this case to know he owns a red car. However, The suspect in the lineup who has red hair committed the crime is a “restrictive clause, because it IS essential to the meaning of the sentence. We know it’s not the s...

Allowing Joe to reach for me, he cradled me in his arms . Is there something wrong with this sentence? The phrase “allowing Joe to reach for me” modifies the noun that follows: he. So what this sentence says is that he (Joe) was allowing himself to cradle “me”. The fix: I allowed Joe to reach for me and he cradled me in his arms . OR: Reaching for me, Joe cradled me in his arms . The arrangement of words in a sentence is an important clue to their relationships. Modifiers will be confusing if the reader can’t connect them to the words they modify. A modifier is a phrase that describes something. They can result in sometimes unintentional humor, such as this example in the book Sin and Syntax : “FOR SALE: Mahogany table by a lady with Chippendale legs” (The lady has Chippendale legs?) Or Groucho Marx’s: “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know” (He did intentionally misplace the phrase “in my pajamas” to make the joke.) In this ...

To lay or not to lay—that is the question I would guess 99.9 percent of us have. This seems a huge grammar issue to some, and it should be so simple. I’ll try to help everyone understand it, although I have to admit, sometimes I need to look it up to remind myself which is which under what circumstances. “Lie” (we’re not talking about prevaricating here) means to recline. “Lay” means to place something.   Hint : Forms of to lay (to put or place) take an object. Forms of to lie (recline) do not. The confusing part comes because of past and present tense. “Lay” not only means to place, but it is also the past tense of “Lie". LIE Present tense: Lie Past tense: Lay Present Participle: Lying Past Participle: Lain LAY Present tense: Lay Past tense: Laid  Present Participle: Laying Past Participle: Laying Here’s a fun little quiz to test your lay/lie understanding: Select one answer from the choices provided after each sentence.  1. The dog has been ____...

In the world of grammar rules, we’ve all heard that “split infinitives” are as unappealing as split ends. But what does that mean, anyway? What is an infinitive and why should I care? My grammar book defines the infinitive as a plain form of a verb plus “to.” Infinitives and infinitive phrases serve as adjectives, adverbs or nouns. Example: To design a mall is to create an artificial environment. (two noun phrases) Malls are designed to make shoppers feel safe . (adverb phrase) The environment supports the impulse to shop . (adjective) A split infinitive puts an adverb between the two parts of the infinitive. For example, Star Trek’s famous line: “ to boldly go where no one has gone before.” Or: She decided to generously pour scotch into the stew. It really is not wrong to split your infinitives, but when in doubt, don’t. Take a closer look at your sentence. Does it read better splitting the infinitive or not? My example about the stew would read better as: She decide...