The advice you will find here follows the Chicago Manual of Style which is widely used by American publishers. There are some variances in style from country to country (and even from American publisher to American publisher.)
**It may be easier to...
My daughter recently asked me, "Mom, how do you spell naw?"
"Like you are gnawing on a chicken bone?"
"No, like naw-duh."
:(
I have FAILED.
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I've been reading a lot of fiction lately and I've learned something... I'm not the only one who has FAILED. So, let's go over my list of words THAT ARE NOT WORDS!
FOR THE SAKE OF GRAMMAR AND ALL THAT IS HOLY, please just stop.
1. Naw is not a word.
No form of this should ever be used. Ever. The word is NO.
2. Alot is not a word.
I really hate it a lot when people put these two words together.
3. Nevermind is not a word.
I blame Kurt Cobain for this one. Technically, "nevermind" is a word and it means attention. But, unless you are a great grandmother in the deep South and you are saying something such as "Pay him no nevermind", you will never use this word correctly. So stop.
4. Expresso is not a word.
Repeat after me. Esssssspresssssooooo. Espresso.
5. Nother is not a word.
I'm not even sure how this got started, but if you say "whole nother" please smack yourself in the face right now and never do it again.
6. Irregardless is not a word.
Just because Webster finally gave up and added it to the dictionary doesn't mean that it's a proper word to use in Fiction regardless of your feelings about it. All the dictionaries note it is a non-standard word. Regardless means "without regard", so if you ad the prefix ir (meaning without), you're literally saying without without regard.
7. Wut is not a word.
What are you thinking? If you use urban and text slang in your fiction, stop. Just stop. The only time this is remotely acceptable is if your characters are having a texting conversation with each other. Even then it's going to hurt my eyeballs if I ever see it.
8. Ain't is not a word.
Are we really still having this conversation?
**NOTE: It is OK to use these in dialogue where appropriate.
Do you have any you would like to add to this list?? I know you do! And I will probably think of others!
