 Short Stories: December 27, 2023 Issue [#12333] |
This week: Grammar Stuff, Part One Edited by: Lilli  
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It's all about the grammar!
"The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense."
"Let’s eat kids. Let’s eat, kids. Punctuation saves lives!"
"No more coffee! No, more coffee! (Punctuation matters.)"
"Apostrophes can be so possessive."
"I wish correcting the grammar on public signs wasn’t considered vandalism."
"When comforting the grammar police, I always say softly, “There, their, they’re.”" |
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No matter how long we've been writing, we will still make grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. The longer we write, the more practice we get, and hopefully make fewer mistakes. The funny thing is that readers make many of the same mistakes we do and tend to judge our work on those mistakes.
This newsletter will address some common mistakes we make and hopefully help us notice and correct them before our readers see them.
 Subject Verb Agreement
A singular subject (Frank, sister) must have a singular verb like 'is, can, will, etc'.
A plural subject (Frank and Joe, sisters) must have a plural verb like, 'are, were, etc.'.
Sentence Fragment
A sentence that is missing an independent clause (a subject and predicate - the words that describe the action) or a complete verb (the verb and all the other words attached to it that bring full meaning to the verb).
Ask yourself whether the sentence makes sense without anything else included.
"Jack and Jill went up."  That is a sentence fragment.
"Jack and Jill went up the hill." is a sentence because it has a subject (plural in this example) and a predicate ('went' is the verb and 'up the hill' completes that verb).
Misuse of Contractions
As a general rule, anything that uses an apostrophe indicates either possession {Susan's dog) or a contraction (we're is the contraction for we are, you're is the contraction for you are, etc.)
It is probably best to avoid using contractions unless you have (you've) got a specific reason for doing so. Contractions are okay when used in dialogue because they mimic the way a person may actually speak.
Passive Voice
In a sentence, you have a subject followed by the subject doing something (a verb) and they are related information (a prepositional phrase). For example, "Isabel (subject) ate (verb) the cake (prepositional phrase)."
When a sentence is written in passive voice, the verb is done to the subject. Ex: "The cake (subject) was eaten (passive verb) by Isabel."
Note: The use of passive voice is not always wrong to use in your writing. But, you must have a specific reason for using it (Perhaps the character is quirky and they always talk that way).
Dangling Modifiers
A dangling modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that is separated from the word it is supposed to be describing.
Here's an example: "We drove to my brother's house to get the repairs done."
Can you readily tell by that example what is getting repaired? Is it the house or the car? To avoid the dangling modifier in this sentence, it can be written like this:
"To get our car repaired, we drove to my brother's house."
That is all I have for this week! Stay tuned to my next Short Story Newsletter for Part 2! |
Here are some short stories to entertain you!
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Some comments from my last Short Stories Newsletter, "A Writer's Notebook" :
Thank you all for your comments, ideas, and sharing. I appreciate it! 
W.P. Gerace  wrote:
Greetings Lilli,
I do hope you are doing well today. For me, I have a few places for my writing ideas and I have to admit I am not the best at jotting them down and I need to be more thorough with this. But what I have currently that I use is a big red book I bought like at the dollar store a red hardback that says Jot It Down on the cover lol, then I use the notes section on my Android and I also have a page here at Writing.Com that is marked for my viewing only for notes and ideas. The goal is take what I have in my Jot It Down Book and the notes section on my phone and transpose it to the notes section I have here which is categorized by months I believe. I haven't looked at in a minute But that is a rough sketch of what I have. Then again I am just getting back into my writing after a bit of a hiatus. Thanks for a fabulous newsletter as always my friend. :)
Yours Truly,
Bill G.
Osirantinous Capricornus  wrote:
Oh yay to find other people with notebooks in their purses!! I have one in mine and I have one in my work backpack. One on my bedside table and several notebooks or notepads around the house. It does mean I've got ideas everywhere but at least I've got them. Some things are flash ideas, some are just words or a name, some are bits of stories I'm writing where the inspiration hits at a time I'm not at my usual writing space. I love looking back on old notebooks and finding the original idea for a novel be it only a sentence or a hundred words - it's like 'there you are, my wee sweetie'.
dragonwoman  wrote:
Usually, I write single sentence prompts and snippets of conversation, as well as unusual people I see in my travels.
JCosmos  wrote:
I have been keeping a journal since turning 40. Every morning I write in my journals. the dream journal contains dreams, draft stories, and ideas and is updated when I have ideas. On the fly, I write things on my phone. My journal is more of a list of things done, plans, keeping track of what I ate exercise, and news clippings, but I also copy some of my dreams into my journal. Once a week I take my creative writing put it into my creative writing journal and copy things to various subfolders. most days I write for two hours but on a very busy day maybe only ten minutes the point is I do it every day first thing in the morning while watching the news and drinking coffee. All my creative work comes out of my journals. Some of my stuff end up on my blog or social media accounts. and I doodle too.
W.D.Wilcox  wrote:
Your idea about ideas is an idea.
G. B. Williams  wrote:
I have never had a notebook or other method of capturing thoughts, ideas, or storylines, but I have seen many story ideas that I promised myself to write about and then six months later forgot all about them and moved on to something else. Those that really impress me, I write immediately and share widely -- about 200 people through text and Facebook. GREAT IDEA, and I shall attempt to develop the habit of writing down those thoughts in a notebook, cell phone, or laptop.
Thank you for waking up that small piece of info in my brain that was there but not addressed.
Damon Nomad  wrote:
Yes, a journal or a notebook is a must-have. I thought it was a silly idea at first. Now I find myself constantly jotting down plot ideas, and character ideas. Random and interesting facts. Thanks for including one of my stories in your editor picks.
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