The Official Wattpad Christian Writers Guide ✞ ✓

ii. Grammar

ii. Grammar

Whether you're a grammar Nazi or you could care less, grammar is important in writing. I mean, the entire foundation of your work is grammar, basically. Making sure your chapters are semi-edited is very important (note that I said semi-edited. Editing is time-consuming, so at the very minimum, make sure you at least have your spelling correct).

Here are my top three tips from personal experience:

-Keep your tenses the same. Present tense or past tense, stick to one or the other, don't switch them around whenever you feel like it.

✘ "I love ice cream!" she said happily. The girl skips away with her chocolate chip ice cream running down her hand.

✔ "I love ice cream!" she said happily. The girl skipped away with her chocolate ice cream running down her hand.

-Start a new paragraph whenever a new character speaks. 

✘ "Do you think it's gone?" she asked in a trembling voice. Her friend shook his head and slumped against the cold wall. "I doubt it," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

✔ "Do you think it's gone?" she asked in a trembling voice. Her friend shook his head and slumped against the cold wall.

"I doubt it," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

-Make sure your quotation punctuation is correct. This is the one I see most often, and once you know it, you'll never forget it. See the example below:

✘ "The cat ran down the street." He explained.

✔ "The cat ran down the street," he explained.

(Use a comma at the end of the sentence unless you're using a ! or ? and use lowercase after the quotation mark unless it's a person's name {proper noun})

Those were my top 3 tips to get you started. Go ahead and list any other helpful grammar rules/tips for other authors out there!

NEXT: Section One, Plot