On the Word "And"

For the past couple of days, I was experiencing writer’s block on what I kind of subject I should speak about for this blog post. I almost thought about doing another life update – which I’m sure would have been entertaining – but I just did a life update blog post exactly a month ago.

Personally, various things have been frustratingly stalled for the past two weeks. I just started reading my leisure book again after having to take a three week break due to busyness, and I really want to get back to writing creatively – I haven’t done so since my Spring Writing Project – but I don’t exactly have time for that either. (It’s bizarre not to work on a July Writing Project; I’ve had one for the last 3-4 years.)

And just when I figured I might have to wing this blog post, because forcing yourself to write is really the only way to overcome writer’s block, a youtube video came to my rescue.

I’m referring to John Green’s video about prepositions. As an English writer and speaker, I found it so fascinating. I also never really thought much about the phrase “on the phone,” and how weird it actually is.

Mainly, I was relieved that I wasn’t the only crazy person who has put so much thought into certain seemingly ordinary words lately.

For me, though, I haven’t been pondering about prepositions. Instead, I’ve been focused on “and.”

My new obsession came about because of the last two manuscripts I had to read for my internship. In them, both of the authors loved stringing along lengthy sentences by incorporating multiple and’s within the sentence. Every time I came across this word, I had to pause and determine if a compound comma was needed in front of it.

In one manuscript I even had to suggest an edit to eliminate an “and,” because it was just too much. There were five and’s that had showed up, so I crossed the third one out and replaced it with a period. Boom! Two new complete sentences.

Maybe it’s just a writing style that some people have? Using many and’s to give it more of a poetic voice? There is a better way at writing lyrically or whimsically, right? (Not to say that it’s completely wrong to overload on and’s, though. I can see it being used to convey the panic or rambling of a character written in first person perspective.) Of course, this is coming from a girl who creatively writes in a more direct way. I prefer shorter sentences; they get to the point and if done well, packs a better punch. You know, trying to use my active voice rather than a passive one. Also, I was always taught if you can convey your sentence in less words than what your have, then go that route. Nobody likes to read a run-on sentence.

Basically, I wish people would rethink how often they use the word “and” in their writing. Also, I should probably find a better hobby. Or at least get outside more.



P.S. In case you were curious, I used the word “and” sixteen times within this blog post. However, seven of those times were me referencing the word “and.” (<---This last one wasn’t counted.)

Simple Writing Mistakes I'm Tired of Seeing

You know how, once you start looking for something or noticing it, you begin to see it everywhere? In the past, I’ve done this with shoes. I was interested in buying boots for the winter, but I didn’t know what kind was in style anymore. So every time I was out in public, I would glance at all the footwear of women who walked past me, noting what kind of boots they wore. Once I determined what sort of boots I should buy, I stopped paying attention to everyone else's shoes.

Lately, I find myself doing this with any sort of writing I come across. I’m mainly referring to non-polished work – pieces found on the internet or drafts of another’s work. With my current internship, I’ve somehow trained myself to pick out all the errors found in a writer’s sentences, even though my noticing of them is not going to make a difference.

There seems to be certain words and grammar mistakes that continue to pop up, which baffles me because I thought the correct way was pretty straightforward. I would like to give people the benefit of the doubt – like, perhaps they’re just typing too quickly? – but I’m pretty sure it’s because no one pointed it out to them. Or they’re relying too much on how the sentence sounds to their ears without realizing how it’s actually incorrect when it comes to writing.

But mainly, I think it’s just me being a stickler about grammar and writing in general.

Things I cringe whenever I see them in someone’s writing:

1.) toward/towards

“Towards” is considered slang, people. Unless you’re a writer living in the UK or Australia, I don’t want to see it spelled this way. It’s always “toward.”

2.) farther/further

If you’re speaking quickly, I can see why you might get these two words mixed up; they sound almost identical to our English ears. However, they do have slightly different meanings. “Farther” refers to a physical distance, whereas “further” refers to something figuratively.

Although, I will admit that sometimes there are certain contexts where it gets tricky figuring out which word to use. I’ve been told that if you’re unsure, it’s probably safer to employ “further.”

3.) etc./ect.

I’ve recently began noticing how people use “ect.” at the end of a list instead of “etc.” I had never seen this, and I started to wonder if this was some sort of shorthand that I wasn’t aware of. But, no, people are just switching the order of these words around because of how it sounds to our English ears again. The Latin version of “and the rest” is “et cetera,” so you really should be using “etc.”

4.) When to capitalize “mom” and “dad”

I get why people might have trouble figuring out when/if to capitalize these words (I used to be one of them, once upon a time), but it’s actually not that hard.

If you’re using the word in placement of someone’s name, then it needs to be capitalized.

     For example: Can you give this toy to Mom?

Any other time, it doesn’t need to be capped. If the word “my” precedes it, it’s a dead giveaway that you shouldn’t capitalize it.

     For example: This is my dad.

5.) Shouty caps

I never realized how much people like to use shouty caps for emphasis or when a character is yelling.

     For example: “I told you, I CAN’T GO!” (Extra cringe whenever I see an exclamation point thrown in there. It’s so redundant.)

In books, it’s usually frowned upon and will be changed to italics. However, this tactic might slide if the novel leans more experimental. Mainly, I just view it as a cheap way of creating emphasis or emotion for the reader. If you’re a skilled enough writer, you can find a way to describe the situation without capping everything.

6.) Ellipses

First off, this is another thing that I was always taught to avoid when it comes to fiction writing - either mention how the character’s voice has trailed off or end your sentence with a period to make it declarative. I have been surprised at how frequently ellipses have been used.

Second, I didn’t realize that people would actually mess up on how to properly use those three dots. There’s no need to include all those extra spaces, either between each period or before and after words.

     For example: What … what do you mean by that? (incorrect)

                           What . . . what do you mean by that? (incorrect)

                           What… what do you mean by that? (incorrect)

                           What…what do you mean by that? (correct)



Easy, right? There’s no need to make your writing appear weak with these silly mistakes. You’ve got more important things to worry about when it comes to polishing that piece. Like whether your sentence really needs a compound comma or not. (Kidding. Although they can be tricky buggers, many people won’t actually know if you’re using them correctly or not. Unless the reader is a proofreader of sorts.)

What a Busy Month

June has been one of those months for me where I feel as if I’m frantically running around, trying to keep all my plates in the air, but it never ends because gravity is not on my side. I’ve been crazy busy, and there just doesn’t seem like enough hours in my day to finish everything.

First off, I had three birthdays to celebrate and shop for. And after Memorial weekend, I had Father’s Day, and now Fourth of July is around the corner. (Today my family is doing a pre-Fourth of July BBQ, so I’m quickly cranking this post out. I ran out of time to write it days earlier.) And two days after that holiday is my Mom’s birthday, so guess who has to celebrate (and spend more money) again?

It seems like I’m Editing All the Things lately, too. Earlier in the month, I managed to acquire another internship at an independent publishing house (because unpaid writing/editing positions seem to be what anyone will ever offer me…hopefully all the experience I’m racking up will be worth it). I’ve proofread two complete manuscripts in the past four weeks. I find it oddly satisfying nitpicking all the sentences, locating all the incorrect usages of grammar and misspellings and inconsistent details. Of course, it can be time consuming though, since I have to read twice as slowly in order to carefully read the pages. My fingers are itching to do some content or line editing (especially with the second manuscript I had to read), but at least it appears that my project for next week will involve actually doing track changes to the writing instead of just recording all the errors on a separate document.

But that’s not all! Two weeks ago, I volunteered to be a part of the Writing & Content team for the young adults/professionals (people who are mainly in their twenties) at my church. I figured it was probably time that I should do something more than passively showing up and participating in their activities. And when they launched the program for this summer, they just happened to be seeking out some writers and proofreaders to join (which was decided on the day of the launch).

So there’s a total of only six of us on this Writing team, and I’m the only one with some actual experience. One was part of his college’s newspaper, but he majored in Political Science. Another writes a lot of report stuff at his job, but it’s more of a financial advising slant. As for the other three people, they’re just doing it as a hobby. (Well, one was actually roped in by our leader because the Writing team is the smallest group, and this friend of his didn’t know which team to join.) It’s heartening to read all their writing in each of their blog post drafts (especially as I’m going through and proofreading them), but I fear I may be overstepping or becoming too intimidating/intense. I’m basically doing the same tasks that I did when I was the Editor-in-Chief for the Oakland Arts Review, and I find myself slipping back into my old role. I’m just trying to make sure things are moving smoothly, everyone! And that your work is polished so you look good!

Speaking of writing…

Tomorrow is the first of July, and I was originally hoping to begin my Summer Writing Project on that day. But sometime last week, I decided it wasn’t going to happen. Not on the first of the month, anyway. I haven’t really thought about what kind of project I want to do, and I feel like I need to wait until things start to settle down in my life before I dive into a new project. So perhaps in the middle of July I can get back to writing creatively?

Currently, there are three different stories that I’m pondering about. One is something that I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year, and it’s sitting at about 5k words. The other possible story is even shorter at only 681 words. (It was originally supposed to be a short story, but then last September I began to sketch out the world and its characters a bit more and the plot grew.) And the final story is the basic idea I mentioned in a previous blog post – you know, the Shiny New Idea that started to distract me during my Spring Writing Project.

Except…part of me thinks, after the two-month long project I completed for the Spring, I should take a break from long-form stories and focus more on writing shorter stuff. So I don’t know.

I’m disappointed at my lack of reading books this month, too. I only read one book: NOW I RISE by Kiersten White. And I finished that novel back on June 9. I suppose the manuscript reading I’ve been doing could count, but it’s not quite the same. I have to read those. Also, the pile of unread books sitting on my dresser is currently at eighteen.

Of course, it doesn’t help that I decided to watch a season of one series on Netflix during this month, too. But since I started it seventeen days ago, I’ve only gotten around to watching 8/13 episodes. I just keep running out of time in my day to watch (or read) anything.

So here’s to hoping that July will settle down a little bit…but probably not.

The Page 49 Exercise

Two years ago, when I was participating in my annual NaNoWriMo, I experienced something that every writer runs into at some point: writer’s block. Like most of my NaNoWriMos, I had decided to spend the month mainly writing short stories, with hopes that one would eventually stick and I could work on it for more than just a couple of days.

To generate some possible story ideas, I headed over to NaNoWriMo’s forums. They’re always a hit-or-miss for me, but it’s worth a try. And on this particular day, someone had given the suggestion of reaching for the nearest book, flipping to page 49, and then whatever the first sentence was that appeared on the page, it would become the opening line of your story.

Theoretically, you could choose any other page instead of 49. But the argument was that it was a page number early enough within the book where the action was beginning to take place, so it should provide exciting material. Also, every book should have at least 49 pages. (And I think, because it’s an odd number, it’s just more convenient to glance at the right hand of a novel rather than the left.)

So I picked up the first book sitting on top of my unread pile, turned to page 49, and then typed that specific sentence out as my opening line. This suggestion actually worked quite well for me – I ended up writing 38k words for it.

Now I’ve gotten into the habit of recording the very first full sentence on every 49th page of every book I begin to read. I scribble it into a notebook of mine, ready to use as a launching point for any sort of future story. The subject of some sentences certainly make it obvious which book I was reading, but I’ve found that the more “vague” the lines are, the wider the range it is for me to take the story into any sort of direction I choose.

Some great lines I’ve recorded that I haven’t applied to a story yet:

• He’s talking to her again. 
• You’ve probably heard that he never ages. 
• Her stomach tensed. 
• She unceremoniously withdrew from school and said good-bye to friends in awkward little conversations. 

(If you can figure out which books each of the above quotes are derived from, I applaud you. Because I can only remember two out of four of them.)

Perhaps it’s a weird habit of mine, seeking out every 49th page to see what the first full sentence is, but it’s now become a fun little activity. I think it’s so interesting to see what kind of story you can spin on your own based on those couple of lines.

I hope I’m not the only one who has such “silly” techniques to help ease writer’s block.

A Lesson on Semi-colons

My previous dentist had residency in a small office. It was a husband-and-wife team, with only two rooms that they really used for patients. (They retired last month, hence why they are now considered my “previous” dentist.)

Every time I went, I was ushered into the exact same room. And every time I settled into the dentist chair, my eyes would lock onto the framed picture hanging on the wall to my left. The faded poster talked about the dangers of gingivitis, but I was not fascinated in all the ways that poor dental hygiene could do to my teeth.

Oh no. It’s because there was a particular sentence on the bottom – written in bold font – that was grammatically incorrect.

The first comma of the sentence should have been a semi-colon.

My inner editor was triggered. Seeing a semi-colon being used improperly has always been my biggest (writing) pet peeve.

I always wondered if anyone ever pointed this particular sentence out to the dentist, but I didn’t want to be that nitpicky jerk who noticed such things. Especially on a poster that has probably been hanging for 20+ years.

It was one of those sentences with the word “however” thrown in the middle. Quick lesson: The word “however” indicates a relationship between two contrasting independent clauses. Therefore, you need a semi-colon before the word and a comma after it when writing a compound sentence. The only way you can throw “however” in the middle of the sentence without a semi-colon is if you’re simply rearranging the syntax. As in, if you move “however” to the beginning of the sentence and it still makes sense, then you’re okay with just using commas.

I will never understand why people have such a difficult time with how to use a semi-colon. I mean, if you replace the semi-colon with a period, and the two new sentences still reads fine, then you’re probably good to go.

And if you’re still uncertain, I’d rather you use a comma instead of slapping on a semi-colon just to appear sophisticated or intelligent. It’s less distracting for me to read your words as a reader, which means there’s less of a chance for me to stop reading your writing. (And, yes, this comes from a person who probably uses commas too frequently.)

Another quick lesson: A comma unites an independent clause with a dependent one. The latter clause is when it is missing a subject or verb, and doesn’t convey a complete thought.

But the worst offense I ever saw about semi-colons came from a manuscript I once had to read for a past internship. Judging by the author’s dreadful cover/query letter, I was already preparing myself for what I might encounter with her submission. (Don’t get me started on query letters, and what some people believe passes for one.)

I won’t get into the story itself, but on each page, there were at least ten semi-colons. She would use them instead of commas. And I had to read at least thirty pages of this manuscript. I desperately wanted to ask her to pick up the nearest novel she had lying around and count all the semi-colons she came across on one page – because I can guarantee you that there was probably no more than one.

Honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t had nightmares about it. I can imagine me waking up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat, shouting, “Semi-colons! Everywhere! They were everywhere!”

Oh, the horror of improper grammar. More terrifying to me than a trip to the dentist.

P.S. Fun fact, but spelling "semi-colon" with a hyphen is considered the British way, whereas Americans typically spell it as one word. Obviously, I prefer to write it with a hyphen, only because it looks weird to me if it's just "semicolon." Either way is correct, but don't let anyone tell you that I follow the crowd, lol.

Spring Writing Project: Final Update

It has officially been three days since I completed my Spring Writing Project. And by that, I mean I reached my two-month mark and not because the story itself is finished. (It’s close, though. According to my outline, there are only 7-9 scenes left to write. Most of them are just small scenes.)

Also, this post will contain a mix of what I experienced during the last sixteen days of my project and my overall thoughts about it. So here we go.

1.) General Statistics

I’m quite proud of myself for managing to write every single day during the entirety of the project, never dipping below the daily word count goal that I was aiming for. I actually ended with a total of 89,586 words. (I’m pretty sure this is the largest manuscript I’ve written.) Therefore, the average amount of words I wrote every day is about 1,445. Not bad.

However, I can’t calculate my exact average writing time. The document that I saved the information on was deleted on May 7.* Luckily, I had been recording all the word counts in an Excel document, but not the times. So judging by the information I had remaining – I had lost six days’ worth of recordings – my average time is probably around 1 hour, 43 mins.

Also, because graphs are fun, here’s what my daily word count looks like:

^ Can you tell when I began to write at least 1,400 words/day?

*I was so upset when I found out that I couldn’t save this particular document. It was like my own personal “junk drawer”; I have saved all sorts of random stuff in there. Things like quotes I collected, data, websites, various reminders for myself, etc. It had FIVE YEARS worth of material saved. But something happened while I was trying to save the document before restarting my laptop, and the file got corrupted. I researched all sorts of ways to bring it back. As a last ditch effort, I even personally emailed a Microsoft Tech Support guy to try and retrieve it. Alas, all he could do for me was convert it into a notepad, and all the words were nonsense. Once reality set in, there was only one thing left for me to do: I slowly rose from my desk chair, sat down in the middle of my bedroom floor, stared off into space with an unblinking gaze, and contemplated the true meaning of life. And then I created a new document. (Yes, I realize how dramatic I’m being.)

2.) Character Names

Honestly, I’m surprised that I made it through to the very end of the project without really assigning names to characters. I guess I wasn’t kidding when I said how, back in March, I wasn’t going to let my lack of names to stop me from moving forward with my story.

(Too bad I can’t pull something like Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD. None of the characters have actual names in that book. Then again, it’s quite easy when you’re basically only reading about two people.)

3.) Plot

According to what I had mentioned in the very first paragraph of this blog post, you know that I had enough story to get me to the finish line. I may have stretched certain scenes out, but you know what they say: it’s better to write more than less. After all, it’s easier to delete paragraphs than to sit there and have to write additional sentences. Also, even if you have to hack away certain lines, there’s still a chance that it might have helped you discover something about the story or characters. Words are technically never wasted in a draft.

Remember when I had mentioned in previous updates how there were two major scenes that I kept avoiding? Simply because it was too daunting to write? Well, on the night that I had lost my particular document last week, I wrote the first important scene. Got to channel my anguish for the protagonist. As for the second one, I actually wrote the tail-end of the scene on the last day of my project. I hadn’t planned on writing the last scene of the manuscript on the final day, but it worked out quite well. It was quite satisfying to type the last line out of the story on the 62nd day.

A majority of the story has been written out of order, though, so I’ll have to re-arrange everything if I ever want to get it to the editing stage. Luckily, I’ve been recording where each “chapter” belongs within the story. Outlines are helpful.

4.) Final Thoughts

Overall, I would call this project a success. I accomplished everything I had set out to do with it. I focused on only one story throughout the entire process; I wrote every day for two months straight; and I exceeded my daily word count goal.

Next time, though, I need to make time to write when it’s not after midnight. Sacrificing sleep is not good in the long run. But it seems like I never learn this lesson.

Strangely enough, despite how I had made it a habit to write daily for two months, I haven’t felt the absence of it in the past three days. Maybe I just need time for my brain to recover? I don’t know.

It’s clear now that I have the writing endurance to withstand a project of this length. So we’ll see what I want to do for my Summer Project this year…

Spring Writing Project: Update #3

These past two weeks have been quite the struggle when it came to writing. You’ll quickly figure out why in just a moment, but before that, let’s review what I’ve accomplished so far:

1.) General Statistics

As of yesterday, my current word count is 64,464 words. (It was by mere coincidence that I stopped writing at a number with all 4’s and 6’s.) I’m still doing quite well with getting my daily word count goal. And, yes, nothing has changed in terms of me beginning to write for the day during the after-midnight hours. It is officially a full-blown habit of mine to write at around this time.

However, somewhere along the line, I had subconsciously upped my daily word count an extra hundred words. I’ve rolled with it, and now it’s my new goal. Because apparently writing 1300 words/day was not challenging enough for me. (Why you always gotta make things harder for yourself, Amanda?)

Also, not only have I been writing slightly more each day, but I’ve managed to write quicker. My average time has dropped significantly: 1 hour, 46 mins. (Mathematically, it’s 1 hour, 45.71 mins.) I did not set out to shorten my time frame. I guess I’ve just become more efficient?

Basically, I’ve been a writing machine the past two weeks. Not quite sure why…

2.) Character Names

Nope. Zero progress has been made here. I’ve decided that I’m not going to worry about it until I finish the project next month.

3.) Plot

Ah, yes. The overarching plot. I’m slowly running out of “red” scenes to write from my outline. At this point, I think I’m stretching certain scenes only because I’m trying to avoid writing the two major events that happen (one of which being the major climax at the end). I kinda know what will happen during these two events, but because how important they are to the story, it feels daunting to write them out.

Also, I’ve learned that it takes me longer to write a particular scene than I think it does. Once again, it could simply be because I keeping adding to it rather than moving onto a new scene (where I would have to sit and roughly sketch what should be happening with the characters next). Or maybe it’s because I’ve learned to slow the story’s pace down. Perhaps it’s both reasons?

All I know is that I’m starting to get nervous about not having enough story to tell for the next seventeen days (including today).

4.) A Wrench in the Plan

Two days after my last blog post, my mind was roaming while I was doing my morning routine when a thought occurred to me. I had wondered why there weren’t many books based on a particular subject in world history. I’m not talking about historical fiction, but more like using it as a jumping off point to create a new fictional world. (Full disclosure: A novel based off of this time period and its people was published this month, and I instantly ordered it because of this fact. Even though this is the author’s debut, so I have no idea what the new writer is capable of.) 

I had pondered about it, and the conversation in my head basically went like this: 

“Why don’t you write this story, then? I mean, you write stuff.” 

“What?” 

“Well, I guess you shouldn’t. After all, you’re currently in the middle of your Spring Writing project.” 

“Okay, but this story you were thinking of - ” 

“We still have twenty-eight days left of this project. Exactly four weeks. We can’t think about another story. We already made a commitment to see this project through.” 

“…” 

“Wait. Amanda, what are you doing?” 

*glances at my notebook where I record story ideas* 

“NO, AMANDA, NO! Stop! What are you doing? Stop!” 

*scurries over to notebook and scribbles down the vague story concept* 

So, yes, now I’ve spent the last twelve days thinking about two completely different stories. I’m obviously still writing for my Spring project, but I have another foot brainstorming ideas for my next project. My Spring story has lost its sheen now because it has to compete with shiny New Story Idea.

Sigh. Why do I keep doing this to myself? And here I thought I was going to take a little break once this current writing project is over in May. Nope. It appears that I’ll be working on a Summer project, after all.

Maybe this is the reason why I focused solely on writing short stories last year. They were less of a commitment, and I got to dabble in however many stories/genres I wanted to write.

5.) Final Thoughts

I get the feeling that the last stretch of my project is going to be difficult. Based on my new 1400 words/day goal, I have roughly 24k words left to write. Do I have enough story material to get me to the finish line? Can I keep pushing back Shiny New Idea, hoping it will stop interfering with my current project? Will I ever have a decent sleeping schedule? (Probably not.)

I guess we’ll find out next month.

Six weeks down, two (and a half) more to go.