C. S. Lakin - Say What?: The Fiction Writer’s Handy Guide to Grammar, Punctuation, and Word Usage

Second Edition

SAY WHAT?: The Fiction Writers Handy Guide to Grammar, Punctuation, and Word Usage by C. S. Lakin

Second Edition

Copyright2015 by C. S. Lakin

Cover and interior designed by Ellie Searl, Publishista

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Print Version

ISBN-10: 0986134708

ISBN-13: 9780986134708

LCCN: 2015913298

Morgan Hill, CA

Good, concise, and easily accessible reference books on grammar and usage is hard to find. I mean, are hard to find. This is one of them.

~ James Scott Bell, writing coach, and author of Revision and Self-Editing for Publication

This handy, user-friendly reference book, presented with style and humor, is a must for any writer serious about honing their craft and garnering respect for their works. An essential resource, the e-book will save you time with all its quick links to the short, snappy topics, and the print version is small enough to stay within reach beside your computer, so I highly recommend getting both. Respected editor and writer C. S. Lakin succeeds in making a dry topic interesting and meaningful! And using this book will also help you reduce your editing costs.

~ Jodie Renner, editor, and author of Style That Sizzles

As a self-professed grammar nerd, let me just say this: the world needs more grammar nerds. Editor Lakin is doing her part to make this happen with her pithy, fun, and supremely useful guide to the everyday writing mistakes most of us don't even realize were making. Her book is conversational and approachable enough to make for enjoyable reading. But its true value is in its lookupability. This is the perfect guide to keep on your desk, next to your computer, for those moments when youre just not sure which word is right.

~ K. M. Weiland, author of Structuring Your Novel and Outlining Your Novel

Other Writing Craft Books by C. S. Lakin

The Writers Toolbox Series

Shoot Your Novel:

Cinematic Techniques to Supercharge Your Writing

Writing the Heart of Your Story:

The Secret to Crafting an Unforgettable Novel

The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction:

Your Blueprint for Building a Strong Story

The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction Workbook

Preface

Grammar

Spelling

A Word about Dumb Spell-Checkers

Chopping Off Words to Make Them Taste Good

All Confused Enquire Here

Racked, Wrecked, or What?

The Past Has Passed

Anyone Want Some Free Reins?

A Matter of One Little Letter

A Peek at Being Piqued

The Principal Principle

Mind Your Yesses and Nos

Being Forward about Forewords

Punctuation

Commas, Etc.

I Wonder, Where Is That Comma?

Using Commas, Since Theyre Needed

Commas That Are, Indeed, Useful

They Travel in Pairs... Sometimes

Learn When to Be Restrictive

Comma Get a Handle on Commas

Serial Commas Are Serious Stuff

Lets Not Eat Grandma

Any Way You Splice It

Semicolons: Commonly Misused Bits of Punctuation

Make a Dash for It

What Are Those Long Hyphens All About?

HyphenationNot-So-Easy-to-Understand Rules

Prefixes That Put You in a Fix with Hyphenation

More Handy Hyphenation Rules

Using Hyphens to Avoid Confusion

A Simple Hyphenation Rule That Is Well Advised

Hyphenating Numbers and Colors

When You Dont Want to Hyphenate

What about Those Techy Terms?

Lets Get Social in Our Terms

Are You Asking a Question or Not?

Stay Inside the Quote Marks

Scare Quotes Are Not All That Scary

Dont Abuse the Dot-Dot-Dots

Capitalization

Point Me in the Right Direction

Dont Get Cappy Happy

Places to Call to Your Attention

Capitalize on These Tips on Capitalization

A Capital Thought

Capping the Holidays

Numbers

Numbers and Numerals Count

What Time Is It?

Time Is the Topic of the Day

The 100 Percent Solution

Nouns and Pronouns

Mass Nouns and Count Nouns

Eradicating Zombie Nouns

Turning Verbs into Nouns May Be Bad for Your Writing

You Dont Know the Half of It

Are You Appositive about This?

Do Yourself a Favor and Learn about Reflexive Pronouns

Getting Possessive with Gerunds

Joint Ownership

Getting Serious about Series

Whom Should You Say?

A Helpful Way to Determine When Not to Use Whom

Are You a Who or a That?

Which to UseWhich or That?

Such Is the Way of Pronouns

Someone Has Their Pronouns Goofy

All Is Well When All Are Accounted For

Clear and Present Antecedents

Do You Speak to Each Other or One Another?

More Like Me or I

Verbs and Adverbs

To Lay or to LieThat is the Question

Dont Get Hung Up on Hang

Tenses Dont Have to Be Intense

Are You Progressively Tense?

Dont Raise a Ruckus about Rise and Raise

More Verbs to Drug You Through

Double Your Adverbs, Double the Trouble

You Woke Me... or Did You Wake Me?

How Much Further?

Are You Singular?

Do You Smell Bad or Badly?

Adjectives

Are You Coordinating?

The March of the Adjectives

Watch Out for Superfluous Adjectives

Each and Every Way to Get Confused

More Ways to Get Each and Every Confused

Is Anything Absolutely Impossible?

A Simple, Fun Lesson about Participial Phrases

Learning About Proper Adjectives in a New York Minute

Incisive, Decisive, Concise, and Precise

Other Parts of Speech

Not Always As You Like It

A Couple of Things You Should Know

Between I or Me?

Im Onto You

Are You Between or Among?

Either Or, Neither Nor

More Rules for Either Or, Neither Nor

While Means Whereas... Sometimes

Other Rules of Grammar

Do You Know When to Use (Those) Parentheses?

Some Grammatical Errors That Arent

When Youre (Missing) a Word in a Comparison

Because of or Due to Confusion

Is Your Modifier Misplaced?

The Danger of Starting Sentences with Participial Phrases

Abbreviated Details

Walk Toward, Not Towards

Are You Different From or Different Than?

Keeping Up with the Joneses

Dont Try and Do Anything

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Some Incorrect Constructions to Avoid

Are You in the Subjunctive Mood?

Another Look at the Subjunctive Mood

How to Decide if You Should Use the Subjunctive Mood

Other Forms of Subjunctive Mood

Do Signs Read?

Messy Plurals

More Messy Plurals

Each Writer Should Correct Their Own Grammar

Lets Be in Agreement

Dont Dangle

More Dangling Things

Each Thing Must Be the Same

Share and Share Alike

Acronyms and Periods

Mind Other Peoples Business

Its Not Rocket Science!

To Italicize or Not to Italicize. A Rule of Thumb

A Friend of Yours

Style and Usage

Confusables

Accept the Inevitable Exceptions

Are You Fortunate or Fortuitous?

More Confusion Im Averse to

Cumulative versus Accumulative

Can You Distinguish Whats Distinct?