fandom_grammar . Entries tagged with writing tips

green-grrl.livejournal.com

The grammarians and readers of

fandom_grammar know that there are readers who don't notice misspellings, wrong verb tenses, or sentence structure errors—and then there are readers for whom those things are like nails on a chalkboard. Other errors can be just as annoying to people: the policewoman watching a cop show in which the heroes are shooting off several rounds every episode, or the fanfic reader who's thrown out of the story when a character drives from California to New York in a day.

One of the family of errors that gets to me is celestial mechanics—the structure of the earth, moon, sun, and universe as a whole, and how they work together. The day I learned that not everyone grasps basic lunar-planetary astronomy was the day I watched Catwoman, ( a movie reviled by many, but here is where it lost me. )

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bluewolf458.livejournal.com

Not many people have travelled really extensively, so when it comes to writing a story set in a specific area, especially in a country foreign to you, it's almost certain you've never visited it. Let's get a bit of help from our Sentinel friends.( Read more... )

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theemdash

With examples from The Hunger Games, Stargate: SG-1, and Harry Potter.

The narration is (arguably) the most important part of a story. The plot, the characters, and the setting are all important, of course, but the narrative is how you execute those elements, tie them together, and craft your story. So, how do you make your narrative as strong as it can be? The key to that is in revision, in knowing and making deliberate revisions to bring the reader closer to the action at certain moments and to make the story come alive.

Keeping in mind that different people have different writing styles, here are some things to consider while revising to strengthen your narrative.

( Revising for a Stronger POV and Narrative )

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http://users.livejournal.com/traycer_/

Tips for Writing Flashbacks

With examples from Stargate SG-1 and Sarah Connor Chronicles

( Flashback )

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chomiji

Sometimes, you're writing nothing but a blistering hot love scene, or a character study, or a drabble. In those cases, your canon is all you'll want or need. But there are other times - Yuletide, a Big Bang, your own original novel-in-progress, that sprawling AU epic that's been taking up all your spare imagination for weeks - when you're going to want the sort of details that add texture and depth to a story.

You may be blessed with a home library that includes just the reference books you want or a local library with sympathetic librarians. If not, there's always the Intarwebs ... but sifting treasure from trash can be a challenge.

Let's take a look at some ways to make the World Wide Web cough up the details that you need to write the story that you want.

With examples involving the historical novel Frontier Wolf.

( A-hunting we will go ... )

Mood: hopeful

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chomiji

A fair number of you are probably thinking "Huh? FG is going to tell us about calling people names?" In fact, we're going to do exactly that!

However, we don't mean "hurling epithets," as Ichigo and Renji are doing here:

"You jerk!" shouted Ichigo. "Whose idea was this, anyway?"

"Yours, you idiot," growled Renji.

This is actually a secondary definition for the word epithet: "a disparaging or abusive word or phrase " (Webster's). No, what we're going to discuss here is the more classical use of the word: "a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing."

There's an excellent chance you've come across these kinds of epithets, especially in fanfiction. For example:

"Matsumoto, you're offering me ... what kind of a drink?" said Ichigo, frowning.

The buxom blonde Soul Reaper sighed: "Why do people always think I'm trying to get them drunk?"

"There's a lovely moon tonight," said Shunsui to Ukitake; "and I have some very fine sake."

"You know I don't need excuses to spend some time with you," replied the grey-haired man.

"You don't need to treat me like your little fangirl any more," said Soi Fon coldly. The darkly feline woman raised a sardonic eyebrow at her.

With help from the cast of the manga and anime Bleach

( And away we go ... )

Mood: sick

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supercheesegirl.livejournal.com

west_side asks, "How do you eliminate and replace extraneous adverbs?"

First of all, what's an adverb? An adverb is at its root a word that describes or modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. In any sentence, an adverb answers the questions how, when, where or to what degree something is happening. If you're not clear on what exactly an adverb is or does, check out our Grammar 101 post on adjectives and adverbs to learn more!

So now you've got a sense of what an adverb is and how to spot it in your sentence - and now that you're spotting them, you're noticing an awful lot of them. It's very easy to misuse adverbs - in fact, the "very" in this sentence is an example of an adverb that gets overused frequently. Let's take a look at a few techniques to cut down on excess adverbs in our writing.

( With examples from Doctor Who. )

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chiroho.livejournal.com

Question:

pronker asks 'What is POV switching? Why is it bad?'

( With examples from Stargate: SG-1 )

Mood: embarrassed

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supercheesegirl.livejournal.com

Question:

mirror_mirrin asks, What style options are there for sentences which repeat the same word (e.g., "the," "a," "that")? (ex. John leaned over the table at the mess hall to give Rodney a kiss goodbye before leaving for the war games planned on the Athosian mainland.)

There's not really anything wrong with repeating little words in a sentence, but there's something about it that just doesn't feel quite right, isn't there? The example sentence that

mirror_mirrin gives us is a perfectly fine sentence. It's grammatically correct, it's straightforward, it tells us who's doing what and where they're going next. There's nothing wrong with it at all. But it's an awfully long sentence. If you read it out loud, you're going to have to pause in the middle to take a breath. It sounds kind of clunky with all those little words.

The issue here, fans of grammar, is wordiness. There's nothing technically wrong with a wordy sentence, but the faster the sentence can deliver its information, then the faster the reader will understand it. This is even more important for us today because of the internet--people want to get to the point even more quickly when they read online. And a long, wordy, clunky sentence can turn off potential readers, making your story seem overly long and boring. Let's take a look at some strategies for reducing wordiness and getting the point across in a way that pops.

( Read more... )

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lady-ganesh.livejournal.com

How do you find the right words?

Word choice is both incredibly simple and impossibly difficult. Every day we experience millions of words; we say them, we read them, we hear them on the radio or television, or in the songs played on our iPod. What's the way to get to the right word?

( Here's my advice. )

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melayneseahawk.livejournal.com

"Three Grammar Rules You Can (and Should) Break"
Michelle Pierce, Copyblogger

Description: A list of three grammar rules that never made all that much sense to begin with.

Why Is It Useful? A straightforward explanation of much-mocked rules about prepositions and splitting infinitives, including neat things like pop-culture examples. An ancestor to our own humble efforts?

Quote: Come on: “to go boldly where no man has gone before” just doesn’t have the same ring to it as “to boldly go.” If it sounds better to split the infinitive, then take an axe to it!

"5 Evergreen Editing Tips"
Maria Schneider, Editor Unleashed

Description: Five common mistakes that can easily be corrected in the editing phase.

Why Is It Useful? One would think that these mistakes (run-on sentences, modifier abuse) are simple mistakes to catch, but they're very common. Like the first article, this one lays them out in simple, easy-to-understand ways. This article is written by a professional editor.

Quote: Run-on sentences may seem deep and complex, but are often awkward and difficult to follow. Rewriting into two or three sentences will lead to better flow and readability.

"Follow These Rules for Stronger Writing"
Writer's Digest

Description: Thirteen tips for clean, efficient writing, both prose style and plotting.

Why Is It Useful? This article contains a variety of tips, as well as examples of incorrect and fixed sentences for the grammar and style ones.

Quote: The best prose has a rhythm to it. Honor that rhythm.

Mood: accomplished

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lady-ganesh.livejournal.com

Dialogue: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

With examples from Saiyuki, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, NICS, and Weiss Kreuz.

Dialogue is the backbone of most stories. It's a rare story that doesn't feature dialogue, and that's even more true in the world of fanfiction, where setting a scene usually comes second to letting familiar characters interact with one another.

Good dialogue can make your story more believable and interesting. Bad dialogue can make your story leaden, confusing, or dull. So it's important to know both the grammatical and the stylistic rules of dialogue.

Let's start with The Good and the Bad.

( I hate listening to people's dreams. It is like flipping through a stack of photographs. If I'm not in any of them and nobody is having sex, I just don't care. )

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rigel-7.livejournal.com

tigerlilly2063 asks: Why is it "times like this", but "moments like these"? When do you use each?

"It's moments like these you need Minties…"

If you are of Antipodean extraction and grew up in the '80's, you'll have immediately recognised that expression (one of the ads from the series for the curious). Because difficult times do call for delicious mint flavoured treats to help soothe the frustrated soul.

The two phrases are actually interchangeable. It's perfectly acceptable to use "moments like this" or "times like these", it all depends on that wonderful thing called context (and your local lingo).

( Time, as Einstein famously said, is relative. )

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supercheesegirl.livejournal.com

What’s So Bad About the Passive Voice, Anyway?

The quick answer: lots.

This feature will explain what passive voice is and give tips and tricks for how to recognize (and change) the passive voice in writing. We’ll also discuss the times when passive voice might actually be a desirable technique to use.

( Read more... )

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melayneseahawk.livejournal.com

with examples from Stargate SG-1

There are two conscious decisions an author must make before beginning a piece of writing—selecting the tense of the story and the point of view. These two things can set the tone of the piece, determining whether the reader is close to the action or further removed. The more immediate the action and the reactions from the character, the closer the reader is to the piece; the further away from the action, the more reflective the characters can be. The tense and point of view of the story are what drive the narrative and the reader's experience.

( Run, you idiot! )

(Many thanks to

theemdash for help with examples.)

Mood: busy

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momebie.livejournal.com

With examples from The Mighty Boosh, Good Omens, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

This is a follow up to the Tips for Betas Part 1 that was posted to this community on the 20th of June.

Happy Fourth for all the Americans out there, and I hope the rest of you are having a good Friday! For the second part of my Feature on Working with Betas I'm going to delve a little further into the relationship between the writer and the beta. It's a two way street, a give and take relationship that requires both sides to be invested in the work to get the best finished product. What follows are some notes taken from my years of being both beta and writer of fanfiction and original fiction, and some information on critiquing in general.

( Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow... )

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momebie.livejournal.com

With examples from bandom (Panic at the Disco), Bleach, Harry Potter, and The Boondock Saints.

Alright! Here's the deal. We're all here because we think that grammar is important. I'd be willing to bet about $5 a head that at some point each one of you has read a fic and cringed, or even closed it without finishing, because there was just something that didn't sit right with you about the writing style.

There are two very important things about writing for an audience – and in fandom you are writing for an audience, whether you like to admit it or not. The first is knowing your audience, and the second is being able to convey the information in such a way that the audience will be able to glean the most from it. This is why it is important to have every piece of fiction posted for public consumption betaed, whether it be fandom related or an original work.

( Sometimes though, even though the writer might have the best intentions, and the beta might know their stuff, there's a breakdown in communication. )

While there are other writing aspects betas should watch for, these are the most important. Some writers may have certain quirks that a beta may pick up on after becoming more familiar with the writer's work, and that familiarity can make a better beta. I'll be talking about this relationship between writer in beta in part two of this feature which will be posted here on July 4.

Until then: Happy betaing!

Mood: busy

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momebie.livejournal.com

Paragraphs, with answers for

haldoor and

callistosh65's questions on dialogue and paragraph formatting. – Examples from bandom(Panic at the Disco/Fall Out Boy), Trigun, and Good Omens.

What is a paragraph?

m-w.com defines a paragraph as 'a subdivision of a written composition that consists of one or more sentences, deals with one point or gives the words of one speaker, and begins on a new usually indented line'. While these things are all very true, the most important thing to remember when making sure your paragraphs are complete, is that a paragraph will always be a self-contained piece of writing that handles one complete point.

( Rather uncreatively taken from the Greek paragraphos. )

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green-grrl.livejournal.com

Writing Tips: Epithets

with examples from Lord of the Rings, Stargate SG-1, Smallville, Due South

"Epithets?" you say. "Doesn't that mean cursing?" And it's true, we most often hear the word in the context of "hurling epithets at each other."

A nine-way spat in Middle Earth might consist of:

"Filthy Human!"

"Stuck up Elf!"

"Drunken Hobbits!"

"Grubby Dwarf!"

These are examples of the secondary listing for "epithet" in the Oxford American Dictionary:

such a word or phrase as a term of abuse

The primary definition is:

an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned

This more general sense of epithet is one you'll be more familiar with in use. ( It's common to see in fanfic: )

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Fandom Grammar

Entries tagged with writing tips

Feature: Celestial Mechanics

Feature: Geography: How to Get It Right When You've Never Been There

Feature - Writing Tips: Revising for Stronger POV and Narrative

FEATURE: Tips for Writing Flashbacks

Feature - Researching to Add Richness

Feature - Writing Tips: Epithets Redux

How do you eliminate and replace extraneous adverbs?

Answer: What is POV switching? Why is it bad?

Answer: style options for long, wordy, repetitive sentences

Feature: Choosing the Right Words

Reference: Three Writing Articles

Dialogue 101: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

"Times like this" and "moments like these" with examples from NCIS

Friday Feature (on Sunday!): Passive Voice

Tenses and Point of View in Fiction: Is Present Tense More Desperate?

Friday Feature: Tips for Betas Part 2

Friday Feature: Tips for Betas!

Friday Feature: Paragraphs and Dialogue

Feature: Presentation and readability for LJ and beyond

Friday Feature - Writing Tips: Epithets

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December 2017

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