Three Writing Tips for Authors

I’ve recently found a slew of new authors and indie authors and have been thrilled to have the opportunity of reading and supporting their work. In this process, I’ve been startled by some of the errors and inconsistencies that I’ve come across. Now, any author can have errors in their book or issues with syntax (I have a sister who always tells me she's found a couple of errors in any given book I publish). This happens for big name authors as well. It's just something that happens when you make so many passes through such a long work, even if you hire a capable editor to fix these things for you. However, I do feel like it’s much more common for new authors or indie authors to have errors like this occur within their final draft, and today I’d like to give some tips to help. 

Why would you want to take advice like this from me? Well, I’m obsessed with helping other authors find success and make their work truly the best it can be. I’ve self published eight books with more on the way (and I’ve learned a ton and worked to improve my writing and editing with each one of them). I have a degree in creative writing, and I taught middle school and high school English for a few years, paying special attention to writing. 
But this post isn’t about me. It’s about all you amazing authors out there putting your words into the world. And today, it’s about your sentences. Here are three tips I’d like to share with you that will help improve the quality and flow of your final draft.​

Tip #1: Once you've learned the rules, you CAN break them... but if you’re going to break them, please make it look intentional.

Yes, you can use run-on sentences and sentence fragments.

•  Definition: A run-on sentence is when you have what should be two (or more) sentences put together without the proper conjunction or punctuation.
• Definition: A sentence fragment is when your sentence is missing something, so it’s not a complete thought. A complete sentence should have a subject and a verb, at the very least. This is the error I think I see the most often in the works of new authors.

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If you have a bunch of sentence fragments, your writing sounds choppy and robotic and can get annoying for your readers to get through.

If you have a lot of run-ons, your reader can lose track of what you’re trying to say, and your story can get annoying for your readers to get through.

Now, I did say that right: You can have these things in your writing. But it should…

• … be intentional
• … be used sparingly, not often
• … have power behind it

​Otherwise, it's probably best to just try rewriting the sentence. The key is to vary your sentence length. The best way I have found to work this out is to read my work carefully out loud, pausing at the appropriate punctuation. If it sounds choppy or long winded, I change it up.

You CAN also start your sentence with a conjunction like and or but. Again, if you do this, it should at least appear to be done intentionally, and it should be adding meaning or power to the sentence.  


Tip #2: Your verb tense should be consistent. Please watch your verb tenses.

• Definition: Verb tense is the time frame that the action is taking place.
  • "She sees the plane (happening right now, present tense)" 
  • "She saw the plane (happened already, past tense)" 
  • "She will see the plane (hasn't happened yet, future tense)"
    • ​And so on. There are more tenses than just these three, but to keep things simple for this post, I'll leave it at this.

I’ve seen books written beautifully in past and present tense, but please KEEP YOUR VERB TENSES CONSISTENT. If your story takes place in past tense, great. Present tense, great. This works especially well for fantasy books. But please, keep it consistent. There are small verbs like said/say, had/has, etc. so this takes a careful eye, but I promise it will be worth it. 

There are some things to keep in mind that might shift your verb tense, but like with everything else, it must be intentional. These situations include...

• When your story is written in present tense, but you're recalling an event or lesson in the past (often in the form of a flashback, but not always)
• When you're foreshadowing events or lessons that have yet to come

 
 
Tip #3: Watch your malapropisms. If you use common cliche phrases or words, please make sure you’ve got them correctly written. For me, it’s as simple as a quick Google. “Is it all of the sudden or all of a sudden?” Most of the time, Google is pretty good to help you out. Not to mention, it’ll often list the distinctions between countries. For example, “gray” is the American spelling for the color gray. In Europe it’s spelled “grey.”

Here is a list of come common cliche phrases that people get wrong.

• all of a sudden
• I couldn't care less
• for all intents and purposes
• nip in the bud
• scapegoat
• beck and call
• shoo-in
• make do
• piqued my interest
• deep-seated
• one and the same
• sleight of hand
• case in point
• moot point

Thank you all for reading! I hope you found this post helpful in some way! If you are a new author or an indie author, reach out. Instagram @breyannailevans, email [email protected]. See you next week!