Writing Tips from Ace!

Punctuation

Punctuation can be just as difficult as grammar. Commas, apostrophes, and hyphens can be very difficult to understand and use correctly.

However, when I am reading, one of my biggest pet peeves is no periods or, even worse, no capitals.

Please, please, please use capital letters at the beginning of sentences and names of characters and places! If I don't see capitals, I immediately click away from the story. Capitals help keep things organized and help the reader keep the flow. If it's a mistake, I understand. My books aren't perfect. Just make sure it's not throughout the whole book! 

If and when your character is shouting or saying something intense, AVOID FULL CAPS (more of me being a hypocrite). Full caps do mean shouting but also look sloppy. Like you're texting a best friend. Not writing a book. Just use that all-mighty and powerful exclamation mark! You'll get the same effect without shouting in your reader's face. Literally. 

Phone writers, you may have to put in some effort to hit the capital button or turn on auto-correct. P.S. It automatically capitalizes it for you after a period!

A note for Wattpad publishers, most people read on their phones. The screens are tiny, so break up your paragraphs. I know that to have a full paragraph is 7-8 sentences, but when you're reading on your phone, broken-up sections help the reader from losing their spot. Think more 3-4 sentences. 

Periods need to appear when a sentence ends. This keeps the reader from getting lost in a sea of words. Another thing I see a lot of is run-on sentences that use a lot of conjoining words like "like" and "and" (hypocritical of me there). It's okay to use periods. Even if your sentence is only two words long. If you have four or more ands or other conjoining words, it's probably a run-on sentence.

Commas are a different beast. When you are writing, say your sentence in your head or out loud. Do you hear a pause? If you do, that probably means that you should put a comma. "She wanted to eat the cake, but her mom wouldn't let her until after dinner."

Use commas as sparingly as possible! You don't want a sentence that keeps going, and going, and going, and seems like it will never stop because, there are way too many commas in it to really understand what is happening in the book, so the reader gets lost. That's too many commas.

Commas are like a power that needs to be used responsibly. I usually limit my sentences to having three commas at most. You can have more if you're listing something. "He saw a blue, green, yellow, purple, pink, and red fish in the lake."

Apostrophes are how you break up a combined word. It's usually to combine two words.

"There is" = There's

"Did not" = Didn't

"They are" = They're

Don't be lazy and put "dont" and "theyre". Use those apostrophes! They are there for a reason!

They are also used to describe someone possessing something. "That notebook is Ryan's."

"That's the girls' team for softball." That apostrophe is used to describe a plural noun possessing something. There are multiple girls who play on the softball team, and the speaker is addressing the girls' team. Girls's doesn't sound right.

The hyphen is used to link words together. "That frog was rock-like because it didn't move."

It can also be used to have an abrupt end to a sentence. "She said, "I want to go to the park-" her mother cut her off with a no."

These are just the common mistakes I see. These will help your reader stay interested and stay on track. Reading a confusing book isn't fun. So, hopefully, this will help you understand how to keep grammar and punctuation flowing. Take your writing slow. Read through it a few times. Comb out the mistakes so you are confident in your writing, and your reader will enjoy your ideas!