Write Nonfiction NOW!

For Grammatically Correct Writing, Don't Write as You Speak

I have been accused of being an old-fashioned editor. I edit or correct grammar and punctuation the way I’ve always done it—the way I learned grammar long ago in high school. I also typically follow the AP Stylebook I had to use in college as a magazine journalism major.  I do, however, pull out other style books from time to time as needed. Strunk and Whites’s Elements of Style lies close at hand.

However, some grammar rules have changed on me over the years. They became modern, and I remained old fashioned. (Occasionally someone points this out to me.) Actually, I’ve been know to say people allowed themselves to become lax about the rules, and I didn’t.

In fact, a few rules have been changed because we don’t speak the way we write. Along the way, wise writers (?) decided our writing sounded too stilted. They liked the way our speech sounded better, so they allowed us to do things like put prepositions at the end of sentences, for example.

For this reason, I sometimes have to go looking for grammar rules—to confirm what I already know or to learn why other editors are allowing their writers to get away with “mistakes” I don’t allow. I have lots of grammar and style books, but most are old. They contain old rules.  For this reason about a year ago I started searching for a better grammar and/or style book.

Given my feeling that we should not write as we speak—that maybe we should watch our speech and speak more grammatically (then our writing would follow suit)—I was quite pleasantly surprised to discover Catharine Bramkamp’s book Don’t Write Like You Talk, A Smart Girl’s Guide to Practical Writing and Editing. I asked her to send me a copy to review, and she gladly did with a warning that the book might not be what I expected.

Indeed! It is not only a book with some grammar rules we all need to know, it’s a modern lesson on not writing the way we speak, text or email. She’s taken all our technological “improvements” into account and considered how these—as well as our speech—affect our writing. And she’s done it in a very humorous manner. I wouldn’t have thought I would just sit down and read a book about grammar and style, but I did…and I enjoyed every minute of it.

On the more serious side, I located a very useful nuts-and-bolts, fairly dry guide called Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker. It even includes the MLA and APA style guides as well as grammar exercises. It’s totally functional. I have located every hard-to-find punctuation question answered in that little spiral bound book—and I’m talking about answers I searched for elsewhere…and I have searched for a few on line and in all my books. So, I suggest you take a look at it if you want a good grammar and punctuation desk resource. However, you won’t read it cover to cover like Bramkamp’s book. I promise. It has become a permanent fixture on my desk, though. (It does contain mostly “old” rules; if some one knows of a good grammar book with “new” rules, please let me know!)

I share all this not only to suggest you buy these two books; I’d also like to suggest that every writer and editor needs a refresher course now and then—even if just on one particular point of grammar. The rules of writing do sometimes change…although we have been told that they don’t. You might think you know something, but if doubt creeps into your mind, take a look at a book. (I do.)

It’s good to work out of seclusion now and then, too. I recently became part of a team of editors editing a newsletter for a writers’ club; the editor of that publication was quick to point out when he thought I, the “professional editor,” might need to recheck my work! This has helped keep me on my toes. That’s why critique groups or readers who can offer editorial feedback serve you well.

An Inspirational Moment…

Take a break from your writing. Rest from your worries that the publishing world is going to hell in a handbag, as the old saying goes. Listen to this message. It’s well worth just over two minute of your time. I promise.

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Ah….don’t you feel better? Now go write your book.

Listening to the Voice in Your Head that Tells You to Write

While at the  San Francisco Writers Conference last month, where I served as a volunteer, a “book doctor” and a panelist, I had the opportunity to hear several great keynote speeches. Typically I’m not too interested in the speakers at conferences; they tend to be novelists of one sort or another. They focus on the craft of writing fiction or their particular niche, and this typically has little to do with publishing nonfiction. However, I took note of one thing in particular that thriller writer Steve Berry, author of The Paris Vendetta, said during his talk.

He said he writes because the little voice inside his heads tells him he must. He shared that he quit writing once…until the voice in his head became loud enough that he had to go back to writing. He said writers are only happy when they listen to the voice–and write.

How many of us actually hear that voice? And when we do, how many of us heed its call?

Those writers who sit down each day and write listen to that voice. Those writers who make writing a priority and feel compelled to not only start but to finish their manuscripts hear the voice. Those writers who write despite the need to also be good promoters and business people listen to the voice.

I thought about Berry’s words for a long time, and I realized that much of the time I am unhappy because I do not write–at least not what I want to write. My books remain unfinished. My ideas for articles remain in my head. My essays remain unwritten. I do a lot of writing each week, but I’m not writing what I really want to write.

I could tell you all the reasons for this sad state of affairs: I don’t have time; I am busy completing client work; I have articles to complete for publications; I’m waiting for a publisher to offer me a contract; I’m building platform. The reasons are valid, but they also constitute excuses.

It’s true that nonfiction writers today must spend a huge amount of time building platform, but much of that time can be spent using writing skills to do so. I blog daily as a platform-building activity; that’s writing. I have a column with Examiner.com (which I choose to write to build platform); more often I could write about subjects of interest to me. I also could be writing those essays and articles I would like to compose if I just took time to send out a few queries to land the assignments–or if I listened to the voice in my head and wrote the essays and sent them out. I’d be building platform at the same time.

While nonfiction writers don’t need to write a whole manuscript to submit it to agents and publishers, nothing stops me from continuing to write my books as I  wait for a contract. I’ve left at least four projects unfinished as I waited…and lost interests… in worthy ideas in the process. Only now am I reviving a few of those projects and planning to self-publish them. Today we have so many options when it comes to publishing; we need not rely on a traditional publishing house…and we need not let our passion dwindle for our projects. We can move forward and write those books and get them published–if we listen to the voice in our heads and just keep writing.

Indeed, these days, thanks to Berry, I not only hear the voice in my head, I’m actually taking its advice. I know that if each day–or even if a few times a week–I actually make the time to write and write something I wanted to write–not something I have to write–I’m a happier person. I’m a happy writer.

It’s easy not to listen to that voice, to say, “Not now. Later.” However, in my experience, later never comes. All those other things–your reasons (excuses) end up coming first, and in the end you never get any writing done. At least, that’s what happens to me. That’s why when the voice says, “Write,” you have to say, “Okay. Now.”

How about you? What reasons (excuses) do you have that stop you from hearing the voice in your head that tells you to write? Are you ready to start listening? Are you ready to be a happy writer?