“Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations before the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand.”

The Art of War, Sun Tzu – 512BC

Like a military general, an author commands an army of words. It’s your choice how to launch the battle for your reader’s imagination. Do you prefer to charge into the story line full of inspiration without much thought to an overall plan? Many battle hardened writers would advise a different approach.

Consider planning your assault before the battle begins. In other words, plan your basic storyline in accordance with time tested writing structure, and you greatly increase your chances of writing a believable and compelling novel.

The Three-Act

One of the most common structures for books, movies, or plays is the three-act. Almost 2,500 years ago, Aristotle taught the three-act story structure in his primer on writing epic poems and plays (around 350 BC). Because it universally works well, we’ll focus on this approach.

Simply put, the three-act structure creates three distinct sections, or acts, of your story. Each act builds on the next, while intensifying the pressure on the main character, your Lead character. Things build until the final challenge and resolution.

Separating the acts are “plot points;” major turning points that drastically affect the main character and send the story moving another direction. These have also been called one way “doors” that the Lead character enters and cannot go back through. We find examples of these doors in most movies, or literature. Take, for instance, Paul on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus. When Romeo kills Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt. Or, when Dorothy is whisked up into a tornado and lands in Oz. Once a plot point occurs, the Lead passes through the door and the course of the story shifts and cannot be undone.

A Three-Act Example

Act I

[1] Introduction to the Lead character and his or her world. We begin to know and empathize with the Lead.

[2] Something disturbs or interrupts the Lead character’s life. It could be big or small.

[3] His/her motivation becomes clear; there is something the Lead character needs/wants, or must do. Your Lead character may not be ready or willing to take action on his motivation. However, after passing through the door, or plot point, he must.

[4] Something happens to alter the Lead character’s life irreversibly (Door to Act II).

Act II

[5] The Lead character sets off on a new direction, and the plot thickens.

[6] Midway, there’s a change in situation for the Lead character. Maybe he had money, and went broke. Maybe the friends she counted on turned on her.

[8] Tougher problems face the Lead character. The pressure mounts.

[9] The Lead character reaches the point of maximum pain, turmoil, or trial.

[10] The Lead character transitions to the last Act. He/she sees what must be done, and sets off to do it. (Door to Act III).

Act III

[11] The Lead character experiences a new hope.

[12] A win/lose resolution is achieved.

[13] The loose ends are tied.

Final Thoughts

As a final thought, consider these things:

• Most Hollywood movies follow a three-act structure, and people love them.
• Many best selling novelists plan their stories using the three-act structure.
• Planning your story still requires creativity, as does filling in the initial framework plan you create.
• People by nature understand a three-part story. We live in sets of threes: breakfast, lunch,  dinner. Morning, noon, night. Youth, adulthood, golden years.

When you start to think about it, you’ll notice this approach in many of the stories you’ve read and movies you’ve seen.  Can you pinpoint the three acts in your favorite movie? What about the first door, or plot point, in the most recent novel you read? If you have a favorite author, does he or she follow the three act structure? Have fun looking into it as you learn more about the writing craft from the stories around you!

Resources

If you would like to explore this in greater depth, pick up a copy of these two books which were helpful in writing this blog:

• Plot & Structure, by James Scott Bell
• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Christian Fiction, by Ron Benrey

Wrong: I laid down for a nap.
Right: I lay down for a nap.

Wrong: I lay the book on the table. (Book is the object of the verb.)
Right: I laid the book on the table.

Lain is an odd one and a word we don’t hear often. But here’s an appropriate use of this past participle:

She had lain down for an hour and now felt more energetic.

Using laid as the past participle, on the other hand, is correct when you say, He had laid the book down somewhere and had forgotten where he put it. It’s the object of the verb that makes the difference.

Here’s a little list that may help you lay the right word down on paper next time you need to:

• Present tense: lie (no object), lay (needs an object)
• Past tense: lay (no object), laid (still needs an object)
• Past participle: lain (no object), laid (and, yes, it needs an object)

So at the risk of sounding dictatorial, I’m laying down the law on this grammar issue: Only use present tense lay or past tense laid with an object.

No lie!

Susan Anderson has updated their profile – and the grating sound of fingernails on a chalk board.

How many people is Susan Anderson? She is one person, right? Then how can the plural possessive pronoun their apply to her? Jennifer has updated HER profile. If we must deal with a computerized form (on social networking or other sites) that cannot distinguish between males and females, let’s say Jennifer has updated his or her profile, but not the abominable THEIR!

The incorrect use of the plural pronoun has become so accepted and used today that nearly everyone speaks incorrectly when talking about one person and using the plural pronoun their or they. They, by definition, means more than one person—it never means one person. So the constant use of they and their for one person is and always will be wrong. As in, tell the person who sits next to you that their audio is too loud.

As William Zinsser so hilariously points out in his (not their) classic book, On Writing Well, people have suggested using a totally different word to avoid having to say his or her and have even suggested using the ridiculous “thon” to substitute therefor. Susan Anderson has updated thon profile? I think not.

In writing, this error can lead to misunderstanding and confusion on the part of the reader, as in:

• James followed the man in black until they were out of sight (does they refer to both James and the man in black? Or just one of them? Out of sight of whom?)
• The speaker told the audience that their experience made them a knowledgeable expert on the subject. (Was the speaker a knowledgeable expert or the audience members?)

Think of it this way: if many people wanted to start spelling the small furry feline that is a pet to many – katt – would that make it right? No! If many people wanted to spell or pronounce your name incorrectly and insisted on doing so again and again, would you eventually just shrug your shoulders and cave? I doubt it.

Please join me in refusing to go along with this egregious grammatical error that seems to have taken over the world.

Like a good hook, a well-developed character can pull the reader through the story. I’ve listed a few tips to aid the avid writer in developing a strong, believable character.

Choose an Appropriate Name:

Generic names like John Smith or Bill Williams, won’t fly. It’s fine for the neighbor, but not the main character. Choose an intriguing name, one with meaning. A fantastic resource for generating a full identity for your character is The Fake Name Generator. Check it out at the Fake Name Generator.

You also want to make sure the name fits the characters personality. You can’t have a suave gentleman by the name of Billy Jakes. No, sir, his name should be Reginald Archibald. Exceptions apply to every rule, but readers expect character names to match the character traits and personality of the character.

Character Traits

Provide each character with a special trait they consistently act on throughout the book or even something they say. Does your character twirl her hair between her fingers? Maybe push his hand through his hair when nervous? Your reader needs a solid anchor so they know who is in the scene. Also, people have habit, like their habits, and will expect the main character to have a habit. People love personal connections with other people and the same applies to fictional characters. If you’re not sure what special trait to bequeath to your character, observe those around you and pick one you feel would be most memorable for the reader and fits your character.

Character traits also provide fantastic action tags to break up dialogue. Tedious dialogue drags down the reader, especially when you keep it with “he said,” “she said,” ‘he yelled,” etc. Action inserts an element of surprise and keep the characters from becoming bobbing heads, but real people. Check out this list for more information on choose the perfect personality for your character.

Character Background

• Who is your character? What in their life played key roles in developing their personality into who they are today? Plan out your characters history. Answer the following questions:
• Where did they grow up?
• Who were their parents?
• Where did they go to college?
• What were their hobbies?

For more questions to ask about your character, check out this list.

You never know how the information you create about your character will play out in your novel. Events and circumstances happen to everyone, so make sure you think it out and plan a believable character.

Fiction is driven by plot and characters, oftentimes one leads while the other follows. Characters make or break our novels, so let’s spend the appropriate amount of time on plot, structure, but most of all on developing spectacular characters that are readers are sad to leave behind.

Share

I’d love hear from you regarding tips you’ve found useful when developing characters. Or, if you have any funny, family friendly stories to share about characters in real life you’ve seen you could make interesting character traits.

It’s rears its ugly head in these examples:

• The meeting was adjourned because it’s lengthy agenda could not be completed.
• Carefully turn the pot on it’s side to loosen the soil and remove the plant.
• Before class, read the article in it’s entirety.

By now, if you were typing one of the examples above, you would have noticed that your grammar check was putting ITS little squiggly green line under all of the IT’S in these examples. That’s because they are wrong.

It’s with the apostrophe can only mean the contraction for it is. When you want the possessive pronoun, don’t use the apostrophe—ever!

Check for this error by reading the sentence aloud. In the third example above, the sentence would read, “Before class, read the article in it is entirety.” It quickly becomes apparent that that is wrong.

This error happens because we are accustomed to adding “apostrophe s” when we want to create a possessive—John’s accomplishments, Andrea’s career, the cat’s fur, or the restaurant’s menu.

It’s (it is) easy to assume that adding apostrophe s, then, to the word it would correctly make it possessive. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

A second widely used error occurs with the word led. This is the past tense of the verb “to lead.” But it is often spelled lead, which is the heavy metal that can no longer be used in paint.

Here are a couple of examples of this error that can sink your writing like lead:

• He lead the fundraising effort in his community.
• The teacher lead the class in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

This gets a little tricky in a sentence like this one: The clues all lead to the culprit. If this sentence is present tense (happening now), it is correct because the clues are currently leading the detectives toward the guilty party. But if the sentence is past tense and the crime has already been solved by following the clues, it is incorrect and you are talking about the heavy metal again.

A good way to check for this problem is to remember that lead is a noun unless it is happening right now. The noun means either the heavy metal or the assumption of a leadership role—he took the lead in discussing the problem. It never means the past tense of the verb “to lead.”

Why do these little nitpicky things matter? They matter because we writers don’t want to trip our readers up with errors that can make them question our credibility or our ability to practice our craft. We want to provide the most polished, professional work we can produce—and that means error-free work.

Quality writing will lead (present tense) our readers to continue with our piece to its (possessive pronoun) end. It’s (contraction for it is) errors like these that have led (past tense of to lead) to put an article down because we don’t think the writer knows what he or she is doing.

1. I.e. vs. e.g.

The abbreviation i.e. is short for the Latin id est and means “that is.” If you replace it with “in other words” you’ve got the meaning. She writes fiction and non-fiction, i.e., she writes everything.

The Latin for e.g. is exempli gratia and is translated “for the sake of example.” Think of “example given” when you are reading or using e.g. She likes to write fiction stories, e.g., romance, historical, and suspense novels.

2. Parallelism

When listing a series of related words, they must all have a similar structure.  The author wrote quickly, accurately, and with lots of professionalism is not correct because “with lots of professionalism” is not an adverb phrase. Better: The author wrote quickly, accurately, and professionally.

3. Misplaced modifiers

Watch the placement of your modifiers and make sure they apply correctly. Growing up, my grandmother taught me to love writing. Your grandmother was already grown up, so a better sentence would be During my childhood, I learned to love writing from my grandmother.

4. Dangling modifiers

Similar to misplaced modifiers, dangling modifiers can cause confusion because they are too far away from what they modify.  Incorrect: As a popular conference center, editors take classes at Mt. Hermon. The editors are not the conference center, Mt Hermon is. Correct: Editors take classes at Mt. Hermon, one of the most popular conference centers.

5. God/godly, Scripture/scripturally, Bible/biblically

It is tempting to capitalize “godly” using a capital “G” in respect for deity. The word “godly” describes God-like attributes, but not God Himself. The same idea applies to “biblically” and “scripturally”; referring to the Bible or Scripture.  Our editors use godly principles. As authors, scripturally speaking, we are called to write biblical truths.

6. Comparative vs. superlative

Comparative is to contrast two objects using “er”; wider, bigger, smaller, etc. Between my friend and I, his story was longer. Superlative descriptions use words like widest, biggest, smallest, etc. when comparing three or more objects: In the writing class, his story was the longest.

7. Don’t use “opposed to” when you mean “contrasted with”

She thinks Tuesdays are better for the new conference schedule, as opposed to Wednesdays. She is not opposing the days themselves, she is contrasting them with each other. She prefers Tuesdays for the new conference schedule instead of Wednesdays or She prefers Tuesdays for the new conference schedule, contrasted with Wednesdays. If she doesn’t like the schedule at all: She is opposed to the new conference schedule.

8. Should’ve /Should of

When you hear the contraction “should’ve” spoken aloud, it often sounds like “should of.” Regardless of what it sounds like, it should always be spelled “should’ve”—even in dialog.

9. Regardless vs. Irregardless

In reading the last line above, “regardless” is the correct usage. Even though you may hear it frequently, irregardless is nonstandard word and a double negative to boot—don’t use it.

10.  An and A

The indefinite articles “a” and “an” are used differently depending on the word before that proceeds it. The rule to keep in mind is not just if the word starts with a vowel or a consonant, but if it sounds like a vowel or a consonant.  She has an MBA, but she still prefers editing is correct because the letter “M” sounds like “emm” with an “e” in front. Do you have an hour free to discuss my critique? is correct because “hour” sounds like “our” with a vowel sound.

11.  Appositives and Possessives

An appositive is a plural noun that modifies the noun that follows it. We went to the county library. A possessive “owns” the noun that follows it. We went to the author’s house. Sometimes the distinction isn’t so clear: Do we go to a writers conference or a writers’ conference? If the conference is for writers, then it would be the appositive writers. If it is organized by writers, then it would be the possessive writers’.

12.  Capitalization of job titles

Job titles are capitalized less often that you might think. The basic rule is to capitalize the exact job title preceding the person’s name, but not the description of it. For example, Conference Director Marilyn Smith enjoys her work. Also correct: Marilyn Smith is the conference director and enjoys her work. Ordinary job titles that don’t go with a name are not capitalized. The senior managing editor was pleased with the new intern’s work.

While not quite job titles, the titles of family members or terms of endearment are not capitalized. My grandmother helped me with my grammar. When using the title as a name then it is capitalized: I asked Mother to let me finish the chapter. Other examples: Bob is my uncle, but My Uncle Bob. Terms of respect are capitalized I agree, Your Honor, but “sir,” “ma’am,” and “miss” are not unless you’re writing a letter; Dear Sir.

I hope this article will spur you on to improve your writing skills. Let us know your experiences and tips on this topic!

Additional Resources

• Daily Writing Tips
• Purdue Online Writing Lab

POVs Types

The most common POVs used are First person and Third Person Omniscient. Here is a list of POVs and their descriptions:

• First person—Your own perspective, using I, we, my, us, our. As I carefully watched the actors, I saw a man look panic stricken for a moment; I thought he had forgotten his line.
• Second person—Telling the reader about what happened to you, using you and your. You felt sorry for the man and wondered how you would feel trying to remember your line. You were embarrassed for him.
• Third Person Limited—Showing your story through the eyes of one person, using he, she, it, her, his. Readers. He felt horror stricken as he searched his memory for his next line.
• Third Person Subjective Multiple—This uses more than one person’s POV. Warning: Be careful not to introduce too many POVs, it could leave the reader confused and the storyline to drag introducing new characters.
• Third Person Omniscient—The reader knows the story through from an all-knowing perspective, able to get inside everyone’s head and even tell about events that none of the characters know.

POV Problems

• Switch from one POV to another incorrectly is called “head hopping.”

Climbing into the taxi, Sally said, “Wow! That was the best play I’ve ever seen!” Looking at Sam, Sally remembered his stories about being a former small theater director and wondered what his ideas were on the play. As Sally leaned toward Sam, the taxi driver watched them in his rear view mirror. Touching Sam’s arm lightly she asked, “Sam, what did you think of the play?”

The POV is through Sally and what she experiences. She was so intent on getting Sam’s opinion she wouldn’t have seen the taxi driver looking in the rear-view mirror, so she wouldn’t be aware that he was watching.

• Using pronouns inconsistent with the POV:

Sam smiled as he thought of the man who had almost forgotten his line. He had been in that situation himself in times past. You would think that just about anybody who has had any acting experience would do that at least once.

The last line uses the first person perspective, when the perspective is written in third person. Better to leave it out or indicate Sam thought of that himself.

• Giving information the POV person couldn’t know or doesn’t do:

Sally turned abruptly when the taxi driver spoke. “Where do you wanna go?” he said. The driver hoped this last ride was a short one— he was tired after a long day.  Sam spoke up, “To the nearest theater!”

From Sally’s POV, she couldn’t know if the driver had hoped this was a short ride. She could, however, assume he was tired from observing the driver’s bags under his eyes or watching him stifling a yawn.

As the taxi came to a stop, Sam tried to get Sally to listen to him, but her attention was riveted on the bright lights of the new theater.

In this example, Sally was too busy looking at the bright lights to notice Sam trying to get her to listen, so this could not be from her POV. Either take it out or have her suddenly realize it.

Sally was so excited about seeing another play she smiled broadly, eyes shining.

In this situation, Sally can’t see her smile or that her eyes are shining. However, she can describe what she thinks about her smile: Sally smiled so broadly, she thought the taxi driver could see all her teeth.

As they climbed out of the taxi, Sally didn’t notice the sudden cold or that the driver had gotten out behind them.

Again, Sally doesn’t notice the cold nor can she see what is going on behind her back, so describing that is out of her POV, she is unaware of these things. A way to fix that is to describe how Sally shivered in the cold and pulled her coat tighter around her, or to indicate she heard the voice of the driver behind her.

Which POV?

In determining your POV, read a few books that use different perspectives and get a feel for how that perspective works for that particular genre. Try writing a few paragraphs in each perspective and choose the one most natural for you and your book.

Whether your book gets picked up by a royalty publisher or you want to publish your book on your own with a company like WinePress, knowing and understanding POVs is vital to your writing.

Bonus Question: Which POV does this article use?

Additional Resources

• What Point-of-view Do You Choose?
• The Three Points of View in Writing: Writing in First, Second or Third Person
• First, Second, and Third Person

© Nickolay Khoroshkov – Fotolia.com

Grammar

1. the study of the way sentences of a language are constructed . . .

2. an account of these features; a set of rules accounting for these constructions: a grammar of English.

Remember to have a good style guide handy for speedy reference.

• The Chicago Manual of Style
• The Gregg Reference Manual
• A current dictionary and/or Dictionary.com
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk & E. B. White

When you encounter an obstacle in how you want to say something it takes the fun right out of it! That’s why it’s a good idea to read your text out loud once you’ve put it to paper. Listening puts the spotlight on your grammar glitches!

Our first example:

• Words That Start With “A”

Here’s a short list of samples like “alight” and “a light,” “apart” and “a part,” and, lastly, “ahold” and “a hold.” Apparent on this list, the one-worders beginning with “a” can be various parts of speech: “alight” is a verb,” and “a light” is a noun. The two-worders, by contrast, consist of an article—the word “a”—and a noun: “light,” “part,” and “hold.” Yes, these words can be verbs, at times, but when something follows the article “a,” it’s a noun (unless something such as an adjective comes between the article and the noun, as in “a tangy apple”).

• “Alight” Versus “A Light”

Let’s see these in action. The first two—“alight”/“a light” are the easy ones. You could say, “That annoying bee wants to alight on my nose.” This means the bee wants to land on your nose, and there’s no space in “alight.” If you say, “He turned on a light”—with a space—that means he was no longer enveloped in darkness.

• “Apart” Versus “A Part”

The other two samples—“apart”/“a part” and “ahold”/“a hold”—are a little more work, even when English is our native language. The one-worder “apart” is both an adverb and an adjective. You could say, “He stood apart from the group,” meaning he stood separately. In that sentence, “apart” is an adverb that describes where he stood. “Apart” can also be an adjective, as in “It’s a world apart.” As for the two words “a part,” they mean several things, including a portion of a whole, as in “I am a part of this family,” or a piece of equipment, as in “I need to buy a part so I can fix the stove.”

• “Ahold” or “A Hold”

This one has been confusing me for years! Which one do we use where? The word “ahold” is frequently seen with the verb “get” and the preposition “of,” for instance “Get ahold of yourself!” The second version “a hold” is used like this, “She’s got a hold on me” or “I put a hold on that skirt at Macy’s.”

So how do you know when to put a space and when to leave one out? Here’s a quick way to figure it out:

Pretend you are writing a word that starts with “a” but you don’t know whether to leave a space. Change “a something” to “two somethings.” If it makes sense you need a space.

How about this—“I took apart the toaster”? It wouldn’t make sense to write “I took two parts the toaster.” Therefore, no space. If the “two somethings” tip doesn’t seem to work for your sentence, time to go to your dictionary.

Hyphen Use

Another current controversy is when to use a hyphen. Two words coming together as a compound may be written as one word, may be written separately or joined together by a hyphen.

Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun:

• a one-way street
• yogurt-covered pretzels
• well-known composer

Yet when compound modifiers come after a noun, they are not hyphenated:

• The pretzels were yogurt covered.
• The composer was well known.

Use a hyphen when you want to avoid confusion or when a combination of letters may be awkward:

• re-sign a contract (vs. resign from a position)

Always use hyphens in compound adjectives describing ages and lengths of time: if you leave them out it can make the meaning ambiguous. For example, 150-year-old houses clearly refers to houses that are 150 years old, while 150 year old houses could just as well refer to 150 houses that are all one year old.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are basic words that make it possible to connect two sentences so you don’t have to change any of the words in the original sentences:

• so, and, nor, or, yet, for, but

Example: Thomas created a portfolio. He organized it in a large leather carrying case. His prospective employer was not accepting portfolios.

Revision: Thomas created a portfolio and he organized it in a large leather carrying case, but his prospective employer was not accepting portfolios.

Redundancies

• advance planning
• awkward predicament
• careful scrutiny
• close proximity

Logical oxymorons

• original copies
• clearly misunderstood
• constant variable
• first annual
• larger half

In the first list, one of the words in each phrase needs to be removed. In the second list, decide what you want to emphasize and state it a different way. In the first sample you could say: “The first set of copies . . .” or in the last sample you could state: “He ate the larger portion…”

I have attempted to highlight a few of the prevailing problems we see in print today and remove the mystery from the solutions. Check out these resources for more information on grammar:

Additional Resources

• A Guide to Today’s Top 5 Writing Style Guides
• More About Achillies
• 40 Tips to Improve Your Grammar and Puncuation
• Redundancies and Logical Oxymorons

1. Use Lists

It’s a way to organize your message and readers can scan through to find the substance just by reading your numbered list headers.

2. Arresting Title

It’s okay to brainstorm for this one, with friends, co-workers, whoever can help. Think of at least one word in your title that will grab the spotlight in a search engine.

3. Use Segments

Make use of separate paragraphs. Keep it short and sweet. Everyone is pressed for time these days so making your blog specific and easier to read is one way to respond to a need.

4. Use Headers

Use sub-headings and bold them. A reader may only see one or two they feel they can use, but decide it was valuable because they could not find that advice anywhere else.

5. Pay Attention to Fonts & Formatting

Formatting is important. Fancy or color scripts and fonts are often too hard to read. Use a busy or dark background, and readers may click away to something simpler. I know; I’ve done it!

6. Use Images

No matter how much we protest to the contrary, we are a visual society. Make good use of images that express your idea or enhance your subject matter.

7. Do Guest Blogging (invite someone to yours, or comment on another blog)

This is a great “breather” when you suddenly come up empty. You may snag a whole new group of bloggers devoted to your guest’s blog site, and of course you have returned the favor by inviting your own readers to enjoy the guest post.

8. Respond to Comments (with more than a “thank you for your comment”)

We all want to think we deserve some attention, and just a nod doesn’t cut it. Engage your responding bloggers with time and a personalized, real response. They will feel encouraged and you might learn something new.

9. Respond to Another Blog

Write about another blog you follow, or happened upon. It could be about a news item they discussed or about the blog itself. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stumbled onto something really interesting, entertaining, or helpful, merely doing my blog research.

Bodacious: –adjective from South Midland and Southern U.S.

1. thorough; blatant; unmistakable: a bodacious gossip.
2. remarkable; outstanding: a bodacious story.
3. audacious; bold or brazen. (Literally a blend of bold and audacious.)

Resources

• 7 Ways to Improve Your Blog’s Readability
• 10 Ways to Improve Your Blog Writing
• 14 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
• Dictionary Definition of Bodacious

“It is well to remember that grammar is common speech formulated.”

—William Somerset Maugham

What if you have a great storyline and fully developed characters, but the reader doesn’t understand to whom or what your pronouns refer? They will either try to muddle through, or they’ll just grow frustrated and close the book. To avoid either scenario, here are some definitions and examples:

Definition of a pronoun: A pronoun takes the place of a specific noun previously mentioned. Sentences flow better with pronouns once the noun has been established. For example:

John and Barbara really like baseball and come to see the games as often as John and Barbara can. Sounds awkward, doesn’t it? Compare to: John and Barbara really like baseball and come to see the games as often as they can. Pronouns are useful when used correctly.

© pressmaster – Fotolia.com

Definition of an antecedent: The antecedent is the noun to which the pronoun refers. In the above example, John and Barbara is the antecedent for the pronoun they.

Types of pronouns:

• Subject: we, you, I.

I hit the ball.

• Object: me, him, you.

The batter hit the ball to me.

• Possessive: mine, hers, yours.

The bat he used was mine.

• Indefinite: anyone, somebody, someone.

Anyone could have caught the ball.

• Interrogative: Who, whom, what, whatever, whichever.

Who caught the ball?

• Demonstrative: This, that, these, those.

This is the first out of the inning.

• Reflexive: myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves and themselves.

The opposing team was beside themselves with joy.

Now that we have definitions and some examples of different types of pronouns, here are common traps to avoid.

• No Antecedents: Ensure the reader knows to what the pronoun refers. Consider the sentence They thought it was going well because we were ahead. It is not clear they refers to the cheering crowd, it means the game, and we is the home team. The cheering crowd thought the game was going well because the home team was ahead clarifies nicely.

• Unclear Antecedents: The heckler yelled after the pitcher pitched the ball and he was glad it was a strike. Does that mean the heckler was glad or the pitcher was glad? A better way: The heckler yelled after the pitcher pitched the ball and the pitcher was glad it was a strike.

• Anticipatory Reference: This happens when the subject is not yet identified. As he tagged the runner out, the first baseman was excited. Don’t make the reader guess who “he” is until the end of the sentence. The first baseman was excited as he tagged the runner out helps the reader understand immediately.

• Gender Agreement: This one is can be tough. The sign at the entrance stated, “After the game, everyone make sure their seats are clean.” Because “everyone” is singular, the correct way to write it is The sign at the entrance stated, “After the game, everyone make sure his seat is clean.”

Another example of gender agreement is gender switching. When the heckler hit the team mascot bear on its head, he lost his temper and hit the heckler back. Agreement: When the heckler hit the team mascot bear on his head, he lost his temper and hit the heckler back.

• Agreement in number: The first gender agreement example above is also an example of a problem with agreement in number. Another example would be: The pitcher should throw their ball in the strike zone. Pitcher is singular but their is plural. So the proper way reads: The pitcher should throw his ball in the strike zone.

• Agreement in person: Neither the pitcher nor the catcher thought they played the game well. Since neither/nor or either/or requires a singular pronoun, it’s better to write Neither the pitcher nor the catcher thought he played the game well.

Now you can help your pronouns and antecedents all get along so your readers will really enjoy and benefit from your book.

Resources

• Grammar Girl: Pronouns and Antecedents
• “Wrangling Pronouns” by Joyce Ellis from The Christian Communicator Newsletter
• Grammar quote reference