3 Mixed-Up Writing Goofs You Might Be Making

By Aly Brown, @AlyConnerBrown

Part of the How They Do It Series 

JH: Using the wrong word in our writing is not only embarrassing, but can hurt our novel's chances at success. Aly Brown shares a few tips on how to remember these often-goofed words.

Aly Brown is a newspaper editor and author represented by BookEnds LLC. She recently inked a deal with Feiwel & Friends / Macmillan for a nonfiction middle grade book on Alvin Submersible called The Last Unexplored Place on Earth. Release date 2023.

Website | Twitter | Grammar Chicken

Take it away Aly...

The Grammar Chicken: Helping Writers Write

By Aly Brown, @AlyConnerBrown

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Something fun and informative today, as Aly Brown returns to the lecture hall with her Grammar Chicken. Yes, that's right. A chicken that helps writers keep track of commonly misused words. Believe it or not, those are two of my favorite things (Well, chickens, and helping writers).

Aly Brown is a newspaper editor and author represented by BookEnds LLC. She recently inked a deal with Feiwel & Friends / Macmillan for a nonfiction middle grade book on Alvin Submersible called The Last Unexplored Place on Earth. Release date 2023.

Website | Twitter | Grammar Chicken

Take it away Aly...

Pardon Me, But Your Modifier is Dangling: Dangling Modifiers.

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

One of the funnier writing gaffs is the dangling modifier. If you’ve ever read a sentence that feels off and actually gives the impression of something impossible and often hysterical—odds are you’ve caught somebody’s modifier dangling.

Modifiers are words that describe other words, such as adjectives that describe nouns, or adverbs that describe adjectives or verbs. We use them all the time in our writing.

The Fault in Our Fiction. Avoiding Faulty Parallelism

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Have you ever read a sentence and things just sounded…off? You’re not really sure why, but something doesn’t line up, or worse, it creates a situation that knocks you right out of the story.

One possible reason is faulty parallelism.

Faulty parallelism is when the sentence construction doesn’t align correctly, causing a weird disconnect for readers. Nouns don’t match up with nouns, verbs with verbs, clauses with clauses.

Grammar and You: What You Need to Know to Write

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Publishing is a business, so to be part of that industry, you do need to write at a professional skill level. Understanding grammar and the mechanics behind writing is a must. Just like you can't figure skate in the Olympics if you don't know how to do any jumps, you can't publish if you don't know how to put sentences together correctly.

However...

These are skills you can learn. There are tons of books out there that can teach you proper grammar. And if you're a decent day-to-day writer, you might even have the basic skill set already, since writing is so much more than knowing "i before e except after c." Technical skill is only one part of it.

Making an Em Dash for it: How Do You Actually Use Them?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

There's nothing like a dramatic pause to crank up the tension or surprise a reader, and there's nothing better to do that with than an em dash.

What the heck is an em dash you might ask?

It's that extra long dash that sets off a particular phrase in a sentence. It gets its name because it's the width of your standard M. (two regular hyphens) The em dash functions like a comma, colon or semi-colon, and in many cases these elements can be interchangeable. There are all kinds of grammatical rules, but let's focus on the fictional uses today.