How to Write a Novel

Grammar and Punctuation

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.  ~Vladimir Nabakov

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Editing and grammar. It can suck right? Especially if you have trouble spelling or using the correct symbols for everything. 

But, it's the only thing from changing the sentence:

Let's eat Grandpa. 

To:

Let's eat, Grandpa.

Correct punctuation can save a person's life.^^

See the difference there? It's very important to use the correct grammar otherwise your readers can get seriously confused. 

Let's get started on how to use the correct punctuation and grammar!

1.How to create dialogue out of correct punctuation.  It's a MUST to know how to use grammar correctly as a writer. When someone speaks in your story, put a " sign when the begin to talk, and when the stop talking. For example:

"Hey Mom, what's for dinner?" = Correct

Hey mom whats for dinner? = Wrong

Always remember to use that correctly! Also, if the person speaks a sentence, then put a comma instead of a period at the end of the sentence. Like this:

"We're having salad," said Mom. Right!

"We're having salad." said Mom. Wrong!

2. How to make sure you are writing correctly. When your writing a story on wattpad, sometimes you can cheat and press the spell checker at the top of the bar above your story. But, it's not always the wisest idea to do that. You want to be able to have the ability to write correctly by yourself without the help of machinery. 

Study up! Do your school work in language arts, writing class, anything that will help you learn! Even if your terrible at writing, you can grow to become the best! I believe in you!

Okay now here are some of the most common problems in writing today:

1. "It's" versus "Its"

It's: A contraction, meaning "it is" (as in "It's time for dinner")

Its: A possesive (as in "The dog was wagging Its tail" )

2. To, Two, and Too.

To: Basic multi-purpose function word (as in "My goal is to die a millionaire")

Too: Adjective, meaning "very" or "excessively" (as in "The Tigers were too inexperienced to challenge the Yankees for the pennant")

Two: The number between one and three (as in "Two losses to open a football season is two too many")

3."Who's" over "Whose"

Who's: A contraction, meaning "who is" (as in "Who's coming to dinner?")

Whose: A possessive (as in "Whose dinner is this?")

4."Affect" over "Effect"

Affect (verb): "To influence" (as in "President Clinton hoped to affect the outcome of the Russian elections")

Effect (verb): "To bring about" (as in "President Clinton hoped to effect a change in Russian policies")

Effect (noun): "Consequence", "result" (as in "Every cause should have at least one effect")

Affect (noun): Feeling, affection; the conscious subjective aspect of an emotion considered apart from bodily changes (pronounced AF-fect; this is probably NOT the word that you mean to use in international relations) LOL!

You can do this! ;)