We use a semicolon to join two complete thoughts; usually your word processing program will give you a hint on when to use a semicolon, so thank you, technology!
Did you notice our examples? (Wink!)
JILL: When this guy I knew used a semicolon correctly, I definitely gave him a second look. And then I married him. Punctuation is sexy!
Your assignment: Read and edit CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX of your novel.
Day 339
Comma, comma, comma
In school, you may have learned that commas are placed whenever there is a pause in a sentence. While that can usually get you by, it’s not a true rule.
The most common use of commas is to separate a group of items. We’ll use this sentence from The Darkest Assassin. See how the commas separate the colors.
His irises contained hints of blue, green, gold, and red.
Note: The Oxford comma is the comma used after the next to the last item in a list. The one before “and.” In the sentence above, it is gold.
Some people use it, some people don’t.
When typesetting was done by hand, this last comma was omitted in newspapers and books to save on time, money and labor. There is a huge debate in the writing community on the Oxford comma. We will not take a position, just know that either is acceptable even if not preferred. (If you happened to notice that some days use the Oxford comma and some do not, that is because one author of this book uses them and the others does not.)
If you have two independent clauses (meaning they can stand by themselves) and use the conjunction “and,” “but,” “for,” “nor” and “yet,” you’ll need a comma before the conjunction.
Money was her source of life, and she always wanted more.
A comma can also follow a dependent clause—a statement that cannot stand on its own—if the dependent clause comes before the independent one.
When her friend tipped her over, the change fell out of her pockets.
The change fell out of her pockets when her friend tipped her over.
No comma needed in that second sentence because the independent clause came before the dependent one.
Finally, if your sentence begins with an adverb, use a comma. (Did you see what we did there? An example in the same sentence as the tip.)
Use commas before a proper name, the word “too” if it is used for emphasis to denote a shift in thought, and “also” if it is used at the beginning of a sentence, and after “yes” and “no” if they come at the beginning of a sentence and the following thought supports the affirmation or negation.
Commas matter:
I’m going to eat, Bob.
I’m going to eat Bob.
A comma splice is when you join two independent clauses together with a comma. This is usually done to elicit a certain tone.
Both of these clauses can and should stand alone:
She’d been a child, he’d saved her from a life on the streets.
She’d been a child. He’d saved her from a life on the streets.
The two examples convey the same message. Do they convey the same tone to you?
What if you use a semicolon?
She’d been a child; he’d saved her from a life on the streets.
Or use a conjunction?
She’d been a child, and he’d saved her from a life on the streets.
Does one incarnation of the sentence convey a stronger message to you?
Your assignment: Read and edit CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN of your manuscript.
Day 340
Hyphenation: To Hyphenate or To HypheNOT
Verbs, Adjectives and Their Hyphens
Phrasal Verb: This is when you tack an adverb or preposition onto a verb. “Turn down.” “Log in.” This phrase won’t typically make sense without the context clues in the sentence. No hyphen is needed.
Compound adjective: When two or more adjectives are grouped together and come before the noun. You do use a hyphen.
His cold-blooded heart leaks hatred.
His heart is cold blooded and leaks hatred.
Similarly, ages as adjectives are hyphenated:
Age as adjective: The seven-year-dog is a lab mix.
Versus: My dog Zoey is seven years old.
A hyphen is also used with prefixes when two vowels might meet. Example: ‘reenter’ becomes ‘re-enter.’
Other hyphenated prefixes include “ex,” “self” or when the meaning is changed. “Recover” is different from “re-cover.”
Note: The reference standard in US publishing is the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
JILL: When I’m really stuck, Mignon Fogarty aka Grammar Girl usually has the answer.
Your assignment: Read and edit CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT of your novel. We are so close to being done with our first round of editing!
Day 341
Research: Find and Replace
Remember when you were in the writing flow and didn’t stop to do research and instead just wrote RESEARCH in twenty-two point font? Or as Gena likes to do, leave a crapton of “????” everywhere, then run a search/find. Now it’s time to find those spots!
Your assignment: Read and edit CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE of your novel. We finish this round of editing tomorrow, if you haven’t already.
Bonus assignment: Search your document for any capitalized messages or symbols you left for yourself, fill in any missing details and conduct any last-minute research you may have forgotten. Remember, it’s okay to create new things as long as they are believable. This is fiction, after all.
Day 342
Beware of Replace All
Often you may want to change a character name, town, or job. Our word processors make this incredibly easy, but we have a word of caution for you. You might ruin other words if you use “replace all.”
JILL: Once I named a character Ian, but later changed my mind and went with Riley. Thanks to the handy “replace all,” that task was completed in seconds. It wasn’t until later that I discovered just how many words had the same three letters in a row.
Giant became Grileyt
Piano became PRileyo
Radiant became RadRileyt
Defiant became DefRileyt
Searching and fixing all of those was so not fun.
Your assignment: Read and edit the last chapter(s) of your novel. When you finish, you will have completed the first full read-through of your novel. Congrats!
Day 343
Reflect and Catch Up
Comparing yourself to others is a great way to quickly suck the joy out of doing what you love. Don’t worry about what other people are writing/getting/doing. Concentrate on you and what you’re writing/getting/doing and you’ll not only be much happier, but much more productive as well.
—Author Kate Kessler
Day 344
Sever Your Emotional Ties With Your Book
JILL: In college, one of my professors invited a guest speaker, someone who worked in our field of study. This person spoke about the realities of the job. After his lecture, we got to spend the rest of class asking questions.
This is our time to talk about the realities of the job with you.
Sever the emotional ties you have with your book. Once you put it out in the wild, it is open to review. Expect it. Some feedback will be great, some terrible. Some of it will hurt your heart. Expect that, too.
It’s perfectly okay to write for your own enjoyment. You are still an author. Once you publish your book, either through self-publishing or with a publishing house, you become a professional writer. There are responsibilities that come along with being a professional.
Our first suggestion is easy—Don’t respond to reviews. You, the author, will never come out looking good. I know this may seem unfair, but this is one of the realities of the job. Just like elementary teachers must put up with germs and veterinarians must examine dog poop under a microscope, you have to deal with poor comments about your work. As a teacher you get loaded up with candles on the last day of sch
ool, and vets get pets and tail wags. You get the enjoyment of seeing your words printed on a page or pixelated on a screen, a dream many have but not everyone realizes.
Secondly, we like to caution authors not to read their reviews. Yes, it’s wonderful to see lovely things written about the world you created and your talent, but you can’t please every reader with every book. Is stumbling onto a soul-crushing review that will haunt you as you write your next book worth a possible pat on the back?
Okay, so you looked at the review, anyway. We’ll pretend you didn’t go searching for it, and that you were tagged in it (which does happen, so be prepared for that, too). This is where your author friend group can come into play. Lean on those people, commiserate with them, and keep it amongst yourselves.
Your assignment: Take some time to go over any problematic chapters that you haven’t been able to get out of your mind. If you need to add new scenes to your manuscript, go for it!
Day 345
Is Outside Editing for You?
Have we published a lot of books? Yes.
Do we believe in editors? YES! We can become blind to our own mistakes. We can get tired of reading the same story over and over to hunt for those mistakes, our eyes seeing what we want/expect to see. Some type of outside help could take your work to the next level!
There are usually three types of editing for a book. (1) Developmental, (2) line editing and (3) copyediting.
A developmental edit looks for problems and inconsistencies with your plot and characters, but doesn’t really focus on problems within your prose.
A line edit focuses mainly on the style of your prose.
Copyediting focuses on style as well as the mechanics of your text.
Depending on your budget, you may not be able to afford all three. You may not be able to afford any. Here are some alternatives.
First, there are several excellent books on self-editing. For example: How to Polish Your Manuscript in 10 Days by Anne Victory.
Secondly, find a critique partner or barter services. For instance, Jill will format Gena’s self-published books in an electronic format, and Gena will create fun shareables for Jill to post on Instagram.
Third, computer programs such as Pro-Writing Aid and Grammarly. They come with a cost, but they can help!
How to find an editor? Look at the dedication page of books you’ve enjoyed. Ads in industry magazines. Good editors are often booked up in advance. It’s best to get on their schedule long before you think you’ll be done. It will spur you on to meeting a deadline and make sure you’re not scrambling when your book is ready for an edit and your pre-order date is looming.
Your assignment: Examine your budget and the state of your manuscript, then determine how many rounds of editing you’ll need. Decide what you’ll hire out, what you’ll skip and what you’ll try to swap for.
Day 346
Proofreader: Yes or No?
Proofreader: Yes or No?
Our answer is short and sweet: Yes!
The reason is simple. We are extremely close to our characters and stories, and we can’t always see our mistakes. Also, our minds sometimes see what they expect to see, not what is actually there.
YOU AR3 R34D1NG 7H15, R1GH7?
Here’s an example of this very thing: The cover for this book had a typo for weeks that we simply did not see. That typo? A misspelling of Gena’s last name. Did Gena herself catch this? NO.
By the way, we put a handful of typos and errors in this book to help awaken your internal editor. Because we’re givers. And we care. Those mistakes have nothing to do with our own internal editors sleeping on the job. Honest! Maybe?
Your assignment: Research and book a proofreader if you decide to go that route. Good ones fill up fast, so you’ll want to book one as soon as possible, while keeping a realistic deadline in mind.
Day 347
Grammar With Feeling
JILL: In school, other students asked me to read their papers and check for spelling and grammar errors. Of course, my grammar isn’t perfect. No one has perfect grammar. But I’ve been using ProWriting Aid for a while now and it has taught me to remain humble. We all make mistakes, and those mistakes can become invisible to us, as we’ve mentioned.
Also, proper grammar just “feels” wrong sometimes. For instance, “between you and me” is correct. However, most everyone will say “between you and I.” Heck, even Shakespeare used this improper phrasing in The Merchant of Venice.
Another example of something that feels wrong is the phrase “bury the lede.” Lede is correct, but many think it’s lead. If you write lede, however, someone will ding you for it.
Now, when people ask me what to do when the grammar is correct but feels wrong my advice is simple. “Just write it differently.” (This advice actually disappointed my husband because he wanted to know the actual rule.) The main idea is to not draw the reader out of your book and focus on your grammar. So, if you’re worried about the grammar, discover conflicting “rules” or something doesn’t feel right—just write it differently.
Your assignment: Do you have any last minute changes for your novel? Today is the day to make them! Tomorrow we begin the second round of editing, and we will move at a much faster pace.
Day 348
Spell Check, Baby, One More Time
This may seem obvious, but you’ve made a lot of changes while editing. Go ahead and run your spell check one more time before completing that final read through.
Your assignment: Read and edit the first 5 chapters of your manuscript, checking for flow and consistency. Hopefully, you are doing more reading than editing at this stage. If the opposite is true, don’t worry. Gena edits heavily at every stage, too. Do what is best for your story!
Day 349
Your Final Checklist
Your Final Checklist:
All subjects agree with their verbs.
All sentences end with proper punctuation.?!
All “quotations” have both opening and closing marks.
You’ve checked for overused words.
Did you end every chapter with a great hook?
Have you answered every story questions that needed answering?
Possessives are possessives and plurals are plurals?
You’ve double checked for any kind of domino effect after making a change?
Your assignment: Read and edit chapters 6 - 10 of your manuscript, checking for flow and consistency.
Day 350
Reflect and Catch Up
It’s okay to ignore a reader who contacts you personally. The customer isn’t always right.
Look, opinions are subjective. Personal bias can make someone hate a good story. You’ll get emails telling you there’s too much sex, not enough sex, your book belongs in the trash, oh, and you’re trash, too. Don’t despair. Rejoice! You struck a nerve and made an impact. That’s a good thing and far better than the dreaded meh.
You don’t have to apologize because someone hates your work, and I hope you don’t let it stop you from living your dream. Just stick with your vision and keep writing the best book you can. What’s that saying? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
—Anonymous
Day 351
Rejection
At some point in your writing career, you will face rejection. Someone will decline to publish you, readers will post scathing reviews, and emails calling you a hack will trickle into your mailbox. It is the nature of the business. Authors are often considered products, like their books.
Accept it now: Not everyone is going to love your work. Not everyone will love the greatest book ever written, either.
The great thing about writing is that you can always reinvent yourself if one stream of work doesn’t pay off. Write a new series. Try a new pen name. Go wide if you’ve been exclusive or vice versa. Use different promo. What about a new cover and back blurb?
Utilize your hooks and play up your strengths.
Your assignm
ent: Read and edit chapters 11 - 15 of your manuscript, checking for flow and consistency.
Day 352
Scams
If you aim to be traditionally published, know that money does not flow from the creator—you—to the publisher. They might or might not pay you an advance, but they should absolutely pay your royalties.
All Write Already: Year Of Your Book Page 26