The Author's Mind: Coyote's Guide to Writing

[Arthur]

Okay, first of all, a very important thing: I did not make this guide. Don't all go suing me please, as I know Versy/Coyote wrote this guide. I asked his permission, and he allowed me to post this guide here. So yeah, there you have it. This guide is not for individual usage outside of this forum. If you place this guide in some other forum, on your personal website, whatever, you will immediately be permanently banned, and the original author will immediately be informed. Don't even try.
The original: [Click]
Also, personal additions by me and other staff members are in their respective colors, mine being red.
<<< And Mine, me being MTL, AKA, Mastin, is just plain ol' black, but I bold it and put it in the marks you see. >>>

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Table of Contents
Things All Writers Should Know [Search key: TAWSK]
The Beginning Writer [TBW]
The Advanced Writer [TAW]
Encyclopedia Grammatica [EncGram]
The Poet's Mind [TPM]
Critiques and Constructive Criticism [C&CC]

Outside Links:
Common Errors in English
Show, Not Tell (How to elaborate on simple statements)


Things All Writers Should Know[TAWSK]
This isn't stuff that'll make sense only for advanced writers or will only be of interest to newer authors. No, this bit of advice is for everybody. Whether you've written for two months or four years, this stuff can and will help.

However, I'll have you know this. This is how I write my stories. Me. You don't have to do everything I do. This is just here to help. If you like how I write, then pay attention. If you want any sort of advice, pay attention. If you believe yourself an expert writer, at least look over it. There is always room for improvement and room for a second opinion. Always. Whether you've never seen a book in your life or whether you've been writing them for seventy years, you always have room for improvement. Nobody's perfect. Sound familiar?

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Before Writing a Story

Decide what kind of a story you want. Get a neat story idea? Do you have something that you just have to write about? That's called inspiration. That is the original spark that compels a writer to write something. Inspiration grants a motive to start. It's that little nudge that will send a snowball crashing downhill.

Before you write a story, you need to know what kind of a story you want. Decide on the basics and make sure you have them firm in your mind. What sort of characters do you want as your main characters? What will this story be about? What do you want to tell the reader?

Decide what you want to tell the reader by writing this story. I want to put stress on that last one. What will you tell the reader? Every story, and I repeat, every story has a message. Think back to sixth grade. Do you remember how your English teacher taught you about the theme of a work? Y'know, what the author was trying to teach by writing the story? This is exactly it. In sixth grade, you probably dismissed it as crap that the teacher was feeding you just to make you work. I know that I did.

But it's all true. You want, no, you need to have a theme. If you don't have some underlying message throughout the whole work, it has no soul. When I say a message, I'm not talking about Aesop's Fables where there is always a set moral. I mean that there must be an underlying motive. You want to tell the reader something, anything. This message will not only make a story that much better, it will make it easier to write. Trust me.

Still confused? Read this. Or, better yet, read this. The first one's a poem, so it shouldn't take you forever. The latter, however, is long, so you might just want to skim through it and get some of the main ideas. Now, think about both of them. The message is pretty obvious, isn't it? If you don't get the message in the poem, reference my commentary. As for the story, the message is that friendship is eternal. Do you see what I'm talking about?

As a side note, when I say message, no, for the love of God or whatever other deity you might happen to worship, do not think up a set-in-stone, written sentence. No. This 'message' should be an impression. It should be just an idea. To put it into words just makes things worse.

As yet another side note, while you have to have a theme, you don't always have to know exactly what it is. You don't need to know exactly what you are trying to convey to the reader. However, you do need to know that you have a message to convey.

Plan it out. Do you have all of that done? Figure out what you want your story to be about and what sorts of things you want in it? Now is the time to plan it. Anybody that has any experience in writing will tell you that the beginning is easy. The ending is easy. But what about the middle? This isn't anything complex. Just bullet down what you want. Just summarize the whole story into maybe a page's worth of information. This is the big stuff you want a reader to get if he or she is just skimming over. If you get this stuff done and concrete beforehand, it'll save you the trouble in the long run. Organization really does help. Once again, trust me on this one.

Now, by no means should you stay absolutely to what you plan out. No, there is always room for editing. Suppose you begin writing your story and think, "Nah, I think it'd be cooler if Jake did this instead of this." By all means, edit it. You aren't chiseling this into a great stone obelisk to be eternalized for future generations. This is on paper. And it's written with a pencil. Pencil can be erased.

Think about a title. This is about the time you should think about what to title your work. Don't worry if you can't think of one right now. But at least give it a shot.
A title is what will catch the reader's attention. It should pique a reader's interest and make them wonder about what's inside that cover. Not only that, it should be of some significance to the story. Make sure it has some significance. This is why, unless you already have a title idea, you should think about the title right now. After planning all of that out, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with one.

A summary of the above: No, just like Spark Notes or Cliff Notes, you should not use this summary to just get the gist of what is going on. If you have any questions, this is an attempt to answer them by making things clearer.

Take my story, A Fallen Sun, for example. Nice and short so it shouldn't take you too long to read. When I wrote this, I first decided that I was going to write a story about the Igneus clan in AQ. I thought, "Hey, a volcano might look like the sun. They're both bright and they both give off heat." That was the original theme. Then, I thought more, plot-wise, this time. "I might want an outcast," I told myself. "This outcast would see the Igneus clan as his salvation." That guy in the story, lamenting about his unfortunate past and his getting kicked out of another clan, is that outcast. Why did I want an outcast? The idea of hope. The concept of hope is what drives this guy forward to seek his salvation in the Igneus clan.

What message did I want to convey? Not hard. Hope is eternal. It's as simple as that.

Okay. So far, I've got the plot, characters, and theme of this story figured out. I have the what, who, and why. This is the skeleton. Now, the how is the story itself.

When I wrote about it, I thought about fallen angels and the concept of falling from Heaven. An angel, an angelic being, whatever, is divine and looked up upon. However, a fallen angel is an outcast and has fallen from grace. A fallen angel. A fallen sun.

That also influenced the motif about the shooting star throughout the story. I'll get onto motifs later.

So, I had all of that written down. I had the whole thing planned. And, I had a neat title to wrap it all up. I had the story preparation finished, and then proceeded to actually write the thing.

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While Writing the Story

For the love of God, make sure the story is interesting. First off, define interesting. Does it interest you? In that case, it'll probably interest other people as well.

When you start writing a story, you want to have an attention-getter at the very beginning. You want to hook the reader and drag him into your story. Does that sound familiar? Perhaps more stuff English teachers lecture boringly about in middle school. I look back at all of that. Yes, all of that actually is important in writing.

Try to stay the hell away from starting with simple, bland description. "She has lovely blue eyes and loose, smooth blond hair. When she smiles, she looks like an angel sent down from heaven to reward the good." How interesting is that? Honestly. Tell me, will that attract attention? No. Start with action. Start with suspense. Start with anything that will catch any sort of interest. This is important. Very, very important.

If you absolutely must begin with description, make it visually stimulating. Does "imagery" ring a bell? If you use colors and smells and stuff that our physical senses can put feelings and sensations to, it'll be more interesting than concepts and objects that your brain has ideas about. The chair. Boring. The brown chair. Getting a little closer. The light-brown chair cast a shadow on the bedroom floor, the finish reflecting light and giving the grainy wood a glossy appearance. Much better.

GRAMMAR IS NOT AN ENEMY. This is the big one. Grammar is extremely important when writing prose. Extremely important. I cannot stress that enough. Spelling is also important. Do you have any idea how much a good story can be slaughtered by bad spelling? After writing a story, run it through a spellchecker. Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, and other word processors should have spellcheckers in them. The Google Toolbar also has a spellchecker. [and I believe Firefox has one by default, too] <<< Using Firefox myself, Firefox does, indeed, have a spellchecker, presuming you have version 2 or above. If you're looking for grammar check, then you're out of luck, though. >>> This is extremely important.

Use figurative language to your heart's content. Similes, metaphors, and all of that good stuff. Use them. Use them a lot. They will make a story better and will help a reader picture the story. Another big one is personification. People have an easier time picturing humans do things than picturing something else doing things. (If you don't know what any of this stuff is, look it up. I'll provide a small dictionary later.) When you write, you want to make sure a reader can picture exactly what is going on. This brings us to the next topic.

Imagery is a must. Imagery, as a dictionary definition, is when a story appeals to the senses. When you read a story, can you picture exactly what is going on? When you read, can you imagine what is going on? If you can, that person used imagery correctly. If the picture is blurred or vague, then that person did not. Use adjectives and adverbs to describe everything. Describe the setting, how people do things and how things happen. Describe all the little things about what happens. Does your thief have a smirk on his face and a mischievous glint in his eye when he is about to steal something? Stuff like that. Do people say you need to be more detailed? By all means, go all-out. It will help, not only with making a story better, but also with making a story longer to intimidate other writers and readers when they read your work.

To help with imagery, can you imagine everything happening? My trumpet instructor told me that when I play anything, whether it's an etude or an orchestral score, I have to play with style. He proceeded to explain how. When I play, I should think about what the music says to me. When I play, what sorts of things does this music bring to mind? And then, I should think about those things, and then play the music so that everybody else can think about that, too.

How does this connect to imagery, do you ask? Why, this has everything to do with imagery. That is imagery. When you write, picture exactly what is going on. Think, and imagine in your mind what your characters do, what other characters do, what the setting looks like, and everything else you can possibly think of. Think of it, like a movie. No, not like a movie. Think of it as if you were actually there where the character was and are now telling the rest of us exactly how things looked, sounded, and felt. You want us to think exactly what you are thinking when you write this. Read Chapter 1 of Prince of Thieves. When Ry is breaking into the house, can you see the moonlight streaming down and illuminating certain things? Can you see this black-cloaked figure stealing (forgive the pun) into the house to take the poor victim's belongings? You should be able to. That is imagery.

Always use transitions. Transitions can help you very much. Yes, they can. Say things that lead from one idea to the next. Otherwise, it sounds choppy. However. Meanwhile. And the list goes on.

Transitions aren't only limited to those words, however. See that sentence you just read? That, too, was a transition. It was transitioning from the idea in the first paragraph, that you should transition with words, to the idea in this paragraph, that transitions aren't just only single words. Do you see what I'm talking about?

A summary of the above: Re-read A Fallen Sun. Does it make more sense to you? You see that motif now about the shooting star? The mountain seemed to radiate warmth like a hearth fire. Simile alert! Man approaches lake. Can you see the Igneus mountain lying off to the distance like a setting sun? (Another simile!) I used figurative language and literary jumbo to make this story a good one, or, at least, the best I could. This, obviously, isn't my best work. If you want to see all of this stuff in action, read A Blaze of Glory or my novel-to-be Prince of Thieves. That should be a bit more clear than A Fallen Sun.

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After Writing the Story

PROOFREAD. Proofread, proofread, proofread, and proofread again. I cannot stress it enough: PROOFREAD. I don't care how awesome you think your story is or how terrible you think it is, proofread it. It might seem like a waste of time, but you'll be surprised. Things look much different when you write it and when you read it. When you read it, you will catch mistakes you won't remember making. When you read it, you'll see things that can be done better. Awkward sentences, perhaps. Lack of description in some place or another. Anything.

When I read any of my stories after initially writing them, I see tons and tons of mistakes that I made. When I re-read something I wrote a year ago, I disagree with how I wrote stuff. When I read A Fallen Sun, I realize that I could have made that story so very much better than it is.

Guess what else will help? Go away and do something else for about half an hour. Don't write. Do something else. When you get back, read your own writing. This will help you start fresh. When you write, you have your writing firmly in mind. And guess what? Your brain, if it already knows what to expect, will automatically correct things for you. When you read, you might notice some of your mistakes, but others will look correct. Take your mind off of writing and read it later. You'll notice things you wouldn't've noticed otherwise.

My trumpet instructor told me, "You are your own worst critic." You know why? Because you know your own strengths and weaknesses. You know what you have to work on. You, and only you know what you wanted to do in the story. You and only you know exactly what the theme of your story was. You and only you know exactly what everything should look like. You and only you know how to make that story perfect. Yes, other people, more experienced writers, perhaps, know how to make a story better. However, you and only you know exactly what you wanted when writing that story. That is why you have to proofread.

Accept help. Constructive criticism is there to help you. If someone points out all the bad things in the story, it is meant to make you a better writer, not to say that you can't write. A good critic will not only tell you what is wrong, he or she will tell you why it is wrong. If you can pick up on the 'why', you can pick up on the 'what' whenever you proofread.

But always question what the critic says. Not everyone is perfect. If you disagree with what the critic says, then tell that to him or her. Then seek a second opinion. Second opinions are always good. And if you disagree with someone, it always helps to have a mediator there that can either tell you what is right and wrong or help you keep the debate civilized.

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On the Subject of Plot

Yes, plot is extremely important. But people get carried away with plot. If all we wanted was plot, we'd have plays. Read down to the FAQ. I warn against writing in a 'guy does this guy says that' sort of way. You know why? It's because all that does is plot. Plot is not all-important. Think of it as the skin of the sausage. Yes, it does hold the whole darn thing together. But really, does it taste that great all by itself?

Don't let the storyline become stagnant. Have you ever read those annoying stories where there is a beginning plot, and just one good thing happens after another? It's fortunate event after fortunate event, and that can become very boring very quickly. Keep some twist in the plot. Action stories in particular. You want to keep the reader alert. Suspense is an excellent example of this. When you use suspense, you keep the reader hooked. Yes, you need a hook at the beginning. That's the initial attention-getter, but you don't want this fish to get away. Can anybody say "cliffhanger"?

Do you have sub-plots? Little, minor plots that keep the main plot interesting? Make sure all the events tie together. Make sure the sub-plots have some relevance to the main plot. This will help greatly from following a too predictable storyline.
Dramatic irony is a different matter altogether. I won't even touch it.

Every action has a reason. Every effect has a cause. If you recall the cause and effect they teach you in history class, that's what we're going after to keep a plotline reasonable. Everything has a motive, whether it is hidden or expressed openly. Doesn't it get annoying when you ask someone why they did something and he or she responds by just saying "Because"? That is what we want to avoid. Keep all characters' actions reasonable. Every little thing in the character's mind is influenced by something else. Characters have their own personalities and tendencies. If you make him do something because you want him to, that's great. However, if your character does that "just because", you've got a problem.

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Perspective

A very vital part of the story that's often overlooked. If you ever look at history, it is never a hundred percent accurate. Never. The thing is, history is always told in one perspective, usually that of the 'winners'. Nothing comes through entirely unbiased. People interpret the world differently. The same applies to your characters. If my character, Rychaeth, was attacked, he'd make a witty remark and fight back. If I was attacked, I might fight back. Or I might panic and run. Ry sees life as a game. I see life as something precious and that should be guarded. It's all a matter of perspective.

Think for a moment. Let's suppose you tell the story from the villain's point of view. Do they know that they're doing the wrong thing, or do they see themselves as the heroes? The villains in one perspective are heroes in the other. The heroes are the villains that threaten to kill the 'real' villain and slaughter all that he or she has worked for. You see how things can be turned around like that?

Keep that in mind as you write the story. How do you want everything to be portrayed? Should things appear evil? Does something not make sense? Is something unknown and to be feared? There are tons of stuff you can do with this. It's up to you to figure them all out.

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FAQ:

Ack! Commas! People tell me that I don't use commas correctly and I don't know what I'm doing wrong!
Commas. Ack indeed. Read about them here.

How do I make my story longer and/or better?
Imagery. One word. Imagery. Description will make your story longer and better. You always want to use description, even in fast-paced action stories. You know how a play is written? Guy does this. Guy says this. Guy does this. Guy's friend does this. Guy says this to friend. It's infuriating when you write a story like that. This is prose! Not playwriting! That is the big difference between prose and playwriting. In prose, you use imagery. In prose, you describe everything that happens. In a play, all of that is null.

What are line breaks?
Do you see that space between the question and last question's answer? That is a line break. You never use them in a novel unless you are separating different points. Do you see how lots of people use three *'s (* * *) whenever there's a scene change or the implied passage of time? That is the only time you should use line breaks in a novel.
However, writing on the internet is an entirely different matter. On the internet, there is no tab or indented paragraphs. So instead, people hit enter twice when starting a new paragraph. This helps put some sort of a break in the endless stream of words that tends to hurt the eyes.

I have writer's block and it's driving me crazy!
Take time off. Maybe you'll get your inspiration and your motive back. However, if you will never be able to continue again, ditch the project.
Now, writing through writer's block is an essential skill. You should think. Think about exactly what you wanted to accomplish. Remember the theme of your story? It should help push you forward. Remember that I had you plan your entire story out at the very beginning? Writer's block is one of the main reasons why I have you do that. If you have writer's block, then you can keep writing. You know what you wanted to write. You know what you have to write next. So it makes it easier to write. It's a handrail for you to hold on to in case you fall.

Clichés are horrible! Right?
Actually quite a touchy subject. But I'll give you my own opinion on it.
Wrong. Clichés are overused. But they aren't all-bad. Yes, you should refrain from using them. However, when you do use them, use them artfully. "A blaze of glory" is actually a somewhat common phrase. However, I took the time to use that phrase metaphorically in A Blaze of Glory. I have seen plenty of works titled after cliché and overused phrases. Why? It gives something to connect to. I don't know whether it's a genuine metaphor, but we are all familiar with that phrase. Because of this familiarity, we are able to see things in a new light. Do you see what I'm getting at?
If you don't, never fear. If you find yourself using a cliché phrase, then don't mind. However, if you find yourself overusing them (the difference between using and overusing is at your own discretion), then it might be an idea to find another phrase to use. However, there is much more freedom in a cliché plot than there is in individual phrases. When you use a cliché plot or plot device, then take it and twist it. Essentially, there is that cliché at its core. But you twist it, move things around, add bits to it, and voila, no longer a cliché. Take a cliché and add your own bits and pieces to make it yours.
I have an inability to come up with what people would consider a truly original plot. But what do I do to those familiar scenarios and themes that pop up a bit too much throughout literature? I twist it. I give it my own edge. You see, it's not the cliché itself that matters. It's how you write it. If you write it cliché, then, yes, there is a problem. But if you write it in your own, individual fashion, then, no, you're perfectly okay.

Is there anything else I should know?
Yes. When you write, just write. If you like what you write or are writing, then keep writing it until it's over. What if people hate it? Screw them. This is your work. This is your story. This is your playground. Not theirs. (Though, if they have advice for you, it might be a good idea to heed it.)
When you write, you are improving. Period. Regardless of what you are writing, you always improve when you write. What if you have writer's block? Keep writing. Writing through writer's block is an essential skill in writing.
And finally, have fun. Write because you like writing. Write because you think your story is cool. Do what your heart tells you to do.

[Arthur]

The Beginning Writer[TBW]
Ever want to try your hand at penmanship? Have you ever read through a novel and thought to yourself, "I wish I could do that"? Well, look no further. This section of The Author's Mind will provide the beginning writer with everything he or she wants. If it doesn't, let me know and I'll add it.

It might be a good idea for more experienced writers to just skim over this. Just because I address it here doesn't mean it only applies to beginners. This is meant to help new writers start off but also contains valuable advice for all writers in general.

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Before you Start
Okay. There is some stuff to do before you even think up a plotline or get an impression of what you want. Trust me, this will help. A lot.

Read, read, read, and read again. Read books. Read more books. Then read even more. Read romance, horror, action, or fantasy. Anything. When you read others' works, you should be opened to all the possibilities out there. You should familiarize yourself with grammar. Maybe learn a few new words. No matter what kind of a book you are reading, you can be a better writer just from doing that. I have a friend that had never written a single chapter in his life. However, he read a lot. He even read with his parents, who both happened to be English teachers at one point or another. He sent me a novel that he had just started. Guess what? It was good. He wrote with style. He made very few grammatical mistakes. He had tone. He had mood. He let me know that this was his very first writing work. Simply put, I replied with the critiqued story and a short message.

"Liar."

Yes, reading will actually improve your writing even before you start. So pick up a book, search the Web, anything. And get to reading.

Pay attention in English/Reading class. Yes, the crap they sthingyfeed you does help. Unless it's essays. If your teacher is talking about how to write an essay, I couldn't care less. But don't let your teacher know that.

When your teacher starts talking about foreshadowing, listen. When he or she talks about these small, obscure things the writer did to do something or another, listen. Sometimes, yes, the writer does these things by accident and we are just overanalyzing. But, professional writers do in fact do these things on purpose. Yes, they purposely use specific words to do certain things. If you've read Fahrenheit 451 in sixth grade, you'll be bored out of your wits. But, read it again in high school. You'll be amazed at how much more interesting it became. Why? Because of that crap your English teachers sthingyfed you.

Roleplay. These forums even have a roleplaying section. How convenient. If you are reading this guide, go there. Now. Why, do you ask?

RPing is much more interesting than writing stories. Yes, you only have control over one or two characters. However, when you RP, you have a collective pool of thoughts and ideas. When you RP, you are exposed to many, many more ideas than if you just start of writing. Why? Just from the simple fact that you are RPing with other people. Those other people will help you.

Earlier in this guide, I told you that every time you write, you get better. Read this. I am jinwoopang. Yes, that is me. Yes, I was writing really badly. Yes, I did suck at writing back then. Now read this. That is the result of two years of RPing. Pretty neat, no?

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Where to Start

Don't be discouraged by anything or anyone. Think. If you have a cool idea you want to try out, go for it. Who cares what others think? If you like it, you will have motive to keep writing instead of abandoning it. What if you can't write? Screw that. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Look outwards. See the journey? It will be long and arduous. It most definitely won't be very easy. But what about that single step? That thousand-mile journey begins with something as easy as a step. Do you know what that tells you? No matter how hard a project might be, something as simple as a step forward can start it. What this is saying that everybody begins somewhere. Look back to my very first RP. Yes, I did begin somewhere. I began in that RP. It was a single step forward, but it was progress. And I kept walking forward.

By now, you should know that I am a trumpeter. I started on the piano. I was playing hot cross buns on the piano. I was playing simple exercises that any pianist that had played for even just a week would find extremely easy. I found them difficult. But now, if you hear me play Für Elise, you'd hardly guess that I had taken a grand total of four years off of the piano. I quit playing four years ago. But I can still play.

Take some time off when you need to. That brought me to my next point. Yeah, if you take too much time off, you can get rusty. If I didn't practice my trumpet for a month, I'd sound like crap for about another month afterwards. Possibly two. But my crap-playing is still better than, say, a fifth-grader that just picked up a trumpet for the first time. If I were to never touch my Bach Stradivarius again until I was thirty-five, I would still be able to play. Albeit, not as great as I am playing now, but I'd still be able to play.

Do you know why? It's the mentality. You know how it feels to write. Your writing experience will never go away. You might forget a few things. But it will never go away. It's a fact that is set in stone and will continue to affect you. If you've written for a little bit, you should be able to pick right back up no problem.

So my main point is that if you feel tired, take some time off. Nobody ever said you can't take a break. If writing just isn't your thing, stop. It's your playground, after all. After a little bit of a break, you might want to write again. So write.

Writer's block is an entirely different matter that I won't touch here. If you want to read up on writer's block, scroll back up and read Things All Writers Should Know.

Try to get help. Did I mention my trumpet private lesson teacher(s)? Some pretty wise words, no?

Somebody that will help you and tutor you as you go through will be a great help when you start. That person will be your helping hand that guides you across the perilous street. A more experienced writer will point out what's wrong in your writing so you can pay attention more to those flaws and make them better. A teacher or a tutor will help you with your writing troubles, whether it's something grammatical or something psychological. Have writer's block? That person can help you. Out of story ideas? That person can help you.

The tutor will be a helping hand and a guide only. Don't copy exactly what that person does. Not only does that make said person uncomfortable, it's not good for your writing. Write like you, not like your teacher. You are you own individual.

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Common Mistakes

Plural and Possessive Forms/The Use of Apostrophes: Plural means more than one and possessive means that somebody owns it. Pretty self-explanatory.
For example, when you say that the bunny has a flower, you say, "The bunny's flower." There has to be an apostrophe there.
When you say that there is more than one bunny, you say, "The bunnies have a flower." There must never, ever in your life must be an apostrophe there.
However, if more than one bunny has a flower, you say, "The bunnies' flower." The apostrophe goes after the 's'.
That last one applies to everything that ends in an 's'. 'Chris' bike'. Not 'Chris's bike'.

There is a problem with the words 'Its' and 'It's'.
'Its' is in possessive. "The bunny held its flower." You must never add an apostrophe. That drives me insane. You don't want to see me when I'm insane.
'It's' is a contraction. 'It's' means 'It is'. You would never say "The bunny held it is flower," would you? That doesn't make any sense at all.
"It's holding its flower."

Your and You're
Your is possessive. Just like 'its' and 'their'. Your soda. I want your soda.
You're is a contraction for "you are". You are holding a soda. You're holding a soda.
"You're holding your soda."

Their, They're, and There.
Their is possessive. "The bunnies held their flowers." Just like 'his', 'her', and 'its', this pronoun is the possessive form.
They're is a contraction. Just like 'it's'. "They're over by the lake." "They are over by the lake." "The bunnies are over by the lake."
There answers the question 'where'. "Where are the pencils? They are over there."
"They're over there by the lake with their flowers." See what I'm saying?

Never must you forget any of them. If you do, I will have Fal flog you with a wet noodle. [And as there won't be a Versy or Fal around to slap anyone with a wet noodle, I'll just do it for them *evilgrin*]

Commonly Mixed-Up Words/Homonyms and Homophones: There are a lot of words, just like 'Its' and 'Their' that keep getting mixed up from the simple reason that they sound very much alike. It's like the two words 'soar' and 'sore'. They are both pronounced identically. But they mean completely different things.

To, Two, and Too
To is either the infinitive form of something or it means that somebody is going somewhere else. "He ran to the store." "To be or not to be: that is the question."
Two is the number 2. "There are two eggs in that nest."
Too means that there are a lot. "There are too many snakes on this plane!" [Also, the version of to/too/two that is the one you use in the same manner as 'also' is 'too'.]

Affect/Effect
Affect is a verb. To affect something. This affected that.
Effect is a noun. That was a neat effect. The sound-effects made the movie better than it would've been.

Accept and Except
Accept is a verb. To accept. Everyone was accepted to the club.
Except is a preposition and a conjunction. Everyone except me had to run. I don't like the gym except to work out.
Everyone was accepted except John.

Never forget your dashes. They can make something that much clearer. If you resign from a job, you are quitting. If you re-sign a petition, you are signing it again. Resign, re-sign. They are identical without that dash. So don't forget it.

The Use of Numbers: These numbers should all be written out. Meaning, say 'two' instead of '2'. Always.
0-99
100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900
1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000
And so on and so forth. Generally, if a number isn't too long to type out, then type it out. If it's something like 1,507,689 or 1,547, then don't bother. That is the only time you shouldn't type it out.

[Arthur]

The Advanced Writer[TAW]
Fancy yourself an accomplished writer? Think you have the potential to get something published?
In that case, I cannot guide you any further. This is the time where you cast off all your bonds and wish your teachers luck on their own journeys. This is the time when you are your own person.
But that doesn't mean I can't help you. No, I still have a lot of advice for you.

---

On the Subject of Writing Stories

Push aside your writer's blocks. Now, only take time off as a last resort. By now, you should know for yourself the best ways you can drill through your writer's blocks. Just plow through and keep going on even if you have writer's block. Keep writing. Don't stop. The ability to write through writer's block is an essential skill. Develop it.

Motifs are your friend. What is a motif, you ask? It's a reoccurring image or phrase that keeps popping up throughout a story. It makes stories look and sound cooler. Read this poem, Against the Tide. You see the loon pop up several times. And, the very last line referenced the loon again. Did that send shivers down your spine? If it did, you should now understand how effective a motif can be.

A motif is not anything. It isn't the meat of the story, nor is it part of the framework. It's just a little something extra that can make a story that much better.

Repetition is very useful if used correctly. Repetition is different from a motif. Repetition is when you purposely repeat certain words over and over again to create an effect. There is a fine line between repetition and redundancy. What is that line? That line is whether you did it on purpose or not.

Read Against the Tide. "There was not a sound" is repeated several times at the beginning and once at the very end. What does that do? It's repeated over and over at the beginning. Those words serve almost as an introduction just because I used them that way. When I use it once at the very end, it helps give that ending paragraph a fresh start. Instead of all of that lonely darkness that the story falls into, it jumps right back out into that bright but mysterious calmness that makes up the mood of the beginning.

Take your imagery and figurative language to another level. Yes. Mood and tone. These are two essentials that are extremely difficult to explain.

The mood of a story is exactly what it is: the mood. Is it shadowy and mysterious? Bright and happy? Dark and foreboding? How do you do this, you ask? Words. Certain words will shape the mood. Especially imagery. Now it isn't a matter of explaining things. It's a matter of how you explain things. Is that glass of water half-full or half-empty? How do you do this? This is where you point these little things out. The smallest of minute details that can make someone think certain thoughts.

Read Against the Tide. The story version. I start off with your pretty standard, forward description. Maybe I catch a sense of calmness, maybe I don't. I repeat "There was not a sound" several times in the first few paragraphs. What sort of a mood does that convey? There wasn't a sound. Maybe a sense of peace. There was not a sound except for this. Now, this is where you start thinking more. Except for that. It's a bit quiet. Too quiet. Do I successfully add a hint of mystery to the mood of the story?

A loon "cried mournfully, as if lamenting the loss of the sun’s bright rays." Cried, mournfully, and lamenting give the story a darker air. If you cry out, especially mournfully, then you are lamenting something. If you are lamenting something, perhaps you are stricken by grief. Perhaps you feel a sense of regret. Does that not darken the mood of the story? The moon's "eye" was "prying the shadows for secrets." (Personification alert!) What secrets? Shadows? Stuff can hide in shadows. People are naturally afraid of the dark. Why? The darkness can hide things. Does this not convey a sense of mystery?

Tone. This is how it sounds. If somebody was there, saying this out loud, how would that person say it? (No, unfortunately, I don't have a good example for this one. D=) When you write, you want to imagine that you were there and telling us these things out loud. When you do that, what tone of voice would you use? Sarcastic? Dark? Happy? That gives a sense of tone. If you can hear a person saying it this way, that is the tone.

Avoid infodump. At this level, you should be describing things on purpose. When you describe, you have to think about what sort of a feel this makes. You describe or point out certain objects or scenes for matters of tone and mood. You don't just go all-out describe everything. Get rid of that crutch. Think about what you will describe and why you are describing it.

Infodump is what it sound like: the dumping of info. This is where your pleasant shower of detail becomes a thunderstorm. When you describe things, make sure it's relevant. Infodump only serves to make a story sound choppy. If it's irrelevant or has no meaning, get rid of it. That doesn't mean you can't add little details, like the bird flying overhead. Now, why did I mention the stuff I did in the first paragraph? Why did I mention motifs? Why did I mention tone and mood? So you would get a better idea of what is irrelevant and what actually does have relevance to the story.

Character development is a must. Go back up and read On the Subject of Plot under Things All Writers Should Know. I mention cause and effect, no? This is the biggest thing you can do with cause and effect. Crap will affect your character. It doesn't have to be something drastic, like trauma, but people change over time. I look at myself last year. Last year at about this time, I was highly pessimistic, had an almost emo train of thought, and wrote simply as an escape from the world around me. I look at myself now. Yeah, I'm still dark and chock-full of angst. But I'm much more optimistic than I was. I have the ability to leave the past behind me. If I was a story character, this is definite proof of character development.

Your character should change at least slightly over the course of the story. If you're writing a novel, then your character has to undergo some sort of development. This helps immensely with the theme. And vice-versa.

Make use of archetypes. What is an archetype, you might ask? An archetype is a symbol. But it goes further than that. When chicks in a chicken coop see the shadow of a hawk flying above, they all retreat into their nests for safety. They don't even know what a hawk is, yet they instinctively react to that shape and hide. Farmers that saw this peculiarity tested it by making a hawk-shaped figure out of wood and flying it over the coop. The chicks still hid from the shadow. Then literary critic Karl Jung took that a step further by applying that same idea to us. There are certain images, colors, and symbols that appeal to us at a universal level. They all reappear in the myths of various isolated cultures with the same connotations and it cannot simply have been a result of cultural diffusion. Thus, archetypes.

The idea is that archetypes, when used and found in literature, will create a mood and its connotations will help further your point. The best way is to look at literature and find these archetypes for yourselves, but here's a short (*rolls eyes*) list to help you start off.

• Water: Mystery, resurrection, purification, fertility, growth. It is a symbol of the unconscious.
  - Rivers: Death/rebirth, the flowing of time
  - The ocean: Start of life, mystery, eternity and infinity, violent passion (eg. storms, waves, tsunamis)
  - Fog/mist: Uncertainty, the loss of hope
  
• The Sun: Creativity, vitality, consciousness/enlightenment, the Father, the passage of time
  
• The Moon: Mystery, seduction, the subconscious, the Mother, the passage of time
  
• Colors:
  - Red: Blood, violence, passion, lust
  - Yellow: Thinking, enlightenment
  - Green: Growth/fertility, hope, pestilence; death and decay
  - Blue: Water, truth, serenity, spiritual purity, the Great Mother; meloncholy
  - Violet: Royalty, passion
  - Black (darkness): Chaos, mystery, death, the unconscious, evil
  - Gray: Uncertainty, twilight
  - White: Light, purity/innocence, timelessness; death, terror, the supernatural
  
• Circles: Wholeness/unity, timelessness, repetition
  
• Numbers:
  - Three: Light, spiritual awareness/unity (eg. the Holy Trinity); male
  - Four: The four seasons (associated with the circle), the four elements, earth/nature; female
  - Five: Integration/unity (eg. the four limbs and the head)
  - Seven: Completion, perfect unity (the combination of three and four)
  
• The Four Seasons:
  - Spring: Comedy, birth
  - Summer: Romance, the "prime time" of someone's life
  - Autumn: Tragedy, death/dying
  - Winter: Irony, the absence of life
  
  In addition to these symbols, archetypes apply to characters as well. Personally, my characters tend to start off as archetypes (why I'm not the most amazing when it comes to characters) and become the characters they are as I put more thought into them and use them more in my stories and RP's. Not recommended for character creation, at all.
  
  
• The Archetypal Woman:
  - The Good Mother: Life, birth, nourishment, protection
  - The Terrible Mother (The Witch, "femme fatale", The Seductress): Fear, danger, death, the unconscious' terrifying aspects, lust
  - The Soul Mate: the Holy Mother, the princess, et cetera.
  
• The Demon Lover: The Devil, the male counterpart of the Terrible Mother
  
• The Wise Old Man: Think Gandalf the White. This is the all-knowing character with notable moral qualities that tutors the Hero. The Wise Old Man can also be personified as that last-minute lucky idea the Hero gets when there is no hope for the future that defeats the antagonist and makes the story end with a happier ending.
  
• The Trickster: The joker, the con man, the shape-shifter. The opposite of the Wise Old Man in his affinity for chaos; however, the Trickster is almost never the bad guy. The Trickster is the character that will, through not very obvious means, help the Hero, even if it appears that he is hurting the Hero. The Trickster's role is the survivor and the transformer that creates both chaos and order and has a wide universal appeal (Think Captain Jack Sparrow). The Trickster is the nonconformist and is bestial in his ways, but divine in his ends. Y'know what I'm saying?
  
• The Hero:
  - The Journeyman: The Hero that travels the lands far and wide, kills dragons and other evil beasties, solves impossible riddles, et cetera in order to save the kingdom.
  - The Sacrificial Scapegoat: The Hero that has to die to atone for the people's sins. Self-explanatory.
  - The "Reborn" Hero: This is the Hero that will go through a bunch of obstacles and hurdles and mature from a childish state to and adult state. A variant on the Journeyman that is based mostly in internal conflict. This version of the Hero usually undergoes three stages: separation, or the initial hurdle; transformation, where the Hero matures and changes to better face these hurdles; and return, where the Hero overcomes the obstacles.
  
  Keep these archetypes, especially the colors, in mind while you're writing. These archetypes and connotations of words are what create the mood. And, as I've already stressed, mood is a critical part of writing a good story.
  
  Sources cited:
  Guerin, Wilfred L., et al. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature Fifth Edition. New York: The Oxford University Press, 2005.
  
  

  ---

  
  
  Outside the Book
  
  Commercialization and socialization. Yes. Get to know other writers better. They'll help you improve, whether you know it or not. Me? I made friends with Mhiko and The Arbiter. Both of them are great writers and RPers. I help them. They help me. Whether we know it or not, it's happening.
  
  Not only that, but getting to know others better attracts attention to your own story. Yes, despite how modest you might be, your story needs traffic. Go out there and make friends. Make yourself known. And, mayhaps they'll find your stories thread and they'll read. Then they'll comment. The comments will attract others, and they'll read. And it become a Viscous Cycle. Except one of the good sort.
  
  Accept help. Whatever you do, don't get yourself an ego. Have the ability to accept help. If someone sees something wrong, then yeah, it might be wrong. Yeah, you might have made a mistake. Get over it; we're all human. We all make mistakes. Nobody is perfect. Everybody, and I mean everybody has room for improvement.
  Besides. These people are saying these things not because they hate you but because they want to help you. They want to help you become a better writer. And if you shut them all away and close your mind, you will get worse. People will spiral up above you as you slowly sink down. As I said before, anybody can make a valid statement. Anybody.
  
  On that note, if you haven't already, read the first post. That is stuff that applies to everybody and can help anybody.
  
  Give help. Go around and help other people. If they don't accept your help, it's their problem. But take the time to go around and critique others' works. Not only are you helping others, you are spreading your name around and becoming more well-known. Heck, I myself wrote a critique as long as the short story itself, and people were impressed. Commercialization, FTW.
  
  While you're at it, check Critiques and Constructive Criticism.
  
  <<< Link is needed for Critiques and Constructive Criticism; the old url tag had nothing inside of it. Removed for the moment until the link can be found. >>>

[Arthur]

Encyclopedia Grammatica[EncGram]
Yes, your all-around pocket encyclopedia for common grammatical mistakes. This (and the upcoming Writer's Dictionary) is where I will need the most reader input. I am bound to miss stuff. There is no way I'll be able to catalogue everything in one go.
So, without further ado, I present this to you.
[This practically means that if you've got a suggestion, post it here, and I'll message it through to Versy/Coyote]

Apostrophes: Where should you use these annoying little buggers? They might sound simple, even to some beginning writers, but as the plural/possessive list gets more complicated, so does the use of apostrophes. They can be summed up in these rules:

1) When you use a contraction. In a contraction, there are letters that are excluded from the original word (or words). For example: "Don't use apostrophes in the wrong places."
2) When you show possession. If somebody owns something, then you use an apostrophe-'S'. For example: "Mike's bike was stolen."
3) If you use a symbol in a plural form. If you want to use a symbol, like 'y', and you have more than one 'y', you use an apostrophe. "Donny, there are too many E's in that word."
This is where it gets complicated.
4) When you show plural possessive (IE, more than one person has one), you put the apostrophe after the 'S'. "My friends' iPods all have at least two hundred songs on them."
5) When you show plural possessive in list form (Ex: Joe, John, and Bob), you put the apostrophe-'S' on the last word. "Jessica and Christina's sidewalk drawings were washed away by the rain." This shows that both Jessica and Christina made the sidewalk drawings.
5b) However, if the things listed all have their own thing, you put an apostrophe-'S' after all of them. "Jessica's and Christina's sidewalk drawings were washed away by the rain." This shows that Jessica and Christina both have their own drawings.
6) When you have a plural word that doesn't end with 'S', use an apostrophe-'S' instead of an 'S'-apostrophe. "The children's block towers fell."
7) If a one-syllable word ends with the letters 'S', 'X', or 'Z', use an apostrophe-'S'. Make sure the word has only one syllable. "Chris's school picture looked goofy."
8) If a word that ends with the letters 'S', 'X', or 'Z' has more than one syllable, just add an apostrophe at the end. "Caesar Augustus' rule lasted somewhere towards the end of the Roman Empire."

Clauses, (Dependent, independent, subordinate): In other words, what makes a sentence a sentence, what makes the sentence a sentence fragment, and what makes the sentence a run-on?

Independent and dependent clauses. That simple. For simplicity purposes, I will be highlighting independent clauses in blue and dependent clauses in red.

An independent clause is a full sentence. In other words, it contains a subject, a predicate, and possibly a prepositional phrase. (Let's not deal with parenthetical asides right now.) For example: "The dog ran." Or, to add more to it: "The dog ran to the store." That is your basic independent clause.
A dependent clause, on the other hand, is a sentence fragment. It typically consists of a gerund phrase (detailed below). "When I finished my homework" and "panting as it ran" are two examples of dependent clauses. Do you see how it makes a sentence fragment? It contains no subject and often (if not at all) no predicate.
Introductory clauses are a special kind of dependent clause. They serve to introduce something. They're generally subordinate clauses tacked at the beginning of a sentence.
Now, what's a subordinate clause? Anything that's not a subject or a predicate. "When I finished my homework," for example. "In the afternoons" is another one.

Now, when you put a dependent clause and an independent clause together, you need a comma. "The dog ran to the store, panting as it ran." Or: "Panting as it ran, the dog ran to the store." Do you see how I put a dependent and an independent and an independent clause together?

However, when you put two independent clauses together, you need more than just a comma. This is where a lot of writers make mistakes. You need a semicolon, a conjunction, and in rare cases, a colon. A lot of the time, it's best just to leave the two independent clauses as what they are: two separate sentences. However, if you want to fuse two independent clauses into a single sentence, this is how you do it. As stated before, you need a semicolon or conjunction. "The dog ran to the store; it was panting as it ran." That is a semicolon. You can also use a conjunction. "The dog ran to the store and it was panting as it ran." When you use certain conjunctions (See FANBOYS, below), it's up to you whether you want to use a comma or not. Technically, you should. "The dog ran to the store, and it was panting as it ran." But nowadays, writers consider it more of a stylistic preference. If you want to be on the safe side (like for English essays and somesuch), go ahead and put a comma there.

Introductory clauses, on the other hand, are a special case. "When I finished my homework, I decided to finish my novel." When you have the introductory clause at the beginning, there is a comma. However, if you have it at the end of a sentence, there is no comma. "I decided to finish my novel when I finished my homework. The only exception to this is extreme contrast. This is more of a stylistic issue more than anything else. "I was very happy, despite that I didn't make the top band.

Colons and Semicolons: When to use them. Colons are to be used in only a few places. They are used for clarification, to state examples, or to elaborate. For example: this is an example. Use them sparingly. They aren't used very often in prose. The only other places they are used are in time (IE, 8:30) and analogies (IE, clay:potter::paint:painter).

Semicolons are much more well-used. I already mentioned one: the fusing of two independent clauses. The other one is a list that includes parenthetical asides.
"Raldoth, a dragonslayer; Lyether, a thief; Noar, and enchantress; and Darron, a warrior all went adventuring together in my discontinued story "A Blaze of Glory".

Commas: Ack. Commas. The bane of all beginning writers. Commas are perhaps the single most annoying punctuation mark to be found in the English language. There is no set rule for using commas. Technically, yes. But there are a lot of them. =/

1) Lists. I did this, this, this, and this. If you list something, you need a comma. "I went to the store to buy video games, clothes, and a new pen."
2) Sentence conjunction. This is described earlier. If you join a dependent with an independent clause, you use a comma. "I doodled during class, ignoring my teacher's lectures."
3) Sentence conjunction. Again. See FANBOYS, below.
4) Parenthetical asides. These are explained below. "Jessica (my sister) plays the flute." "Jessica, my sister, plays the flute."
5) Introductory statements/clauses/words. "Yes, Virginia, there is a God."
6) Certain transitions. "However, I failed to see the point of the argument." "I failed, however, to see the point of the argument."
7) Distinct pauses. Use commas to show an obvious pause you want there. Oftentimes, this simply serves as an extension to the independent/dependent clause rule and an extension of the extreme contrast rule. "Rychaeth may be a killer, but he's not heartless."
8) Addresses, geographic locations, and dates. "London, England." "January 13, 2007."
9) Distinction between prose and speech. "'Do you play the trumpet,' he asked me." "I told him, 'Yes, I do.'"

Now, when do you not use commas?

1) In between the subject and predicate. "The puppy in the crate, is your birthday present."
2) Compound (As in there are only two) subjects/predicates. "The man was tall, and skinny." "I flipped in the air, and landed painfully on the ground."
3) Subordinate clauses. As stated before, if a subordinate clause isn't an introductory clause or a parenthetical aside, there is no comma. "I read books, in the evenings."

Conjunctions: There are two different kinds of conjunctions. Three, if you count the second use for FANBOYS.

Coordinating Conjunctions: These are your FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So). You can use these to connect two of pretty much anything.

The biggest one is connecting two independent clauses (See Clauses, above). You just connect the two sentences. The dog saw a biscuit. It didn't take it. The dog saw a biscuit, but it didn't take it. Now, the only difference between connecting sentences and connecting anything else is the fact that you need a comma before the conjunction. Some authors omit the comma nowadays; I won't ramble about it here 'cause it's covered in Commas.

The other group contains anything else. You can join two subjects, two prepositions, two direct objects, or two of pretty much whatever you want. Joe and Sam went to the store. Sally jumped and skipped. Dan gave Josh a cookie and two dollars. Simple, isn't it?

Subordinating Conjunctions: I talked about subordinate clauses earlier, didn't I? Well, this kind of a conjunction can turn a sentence into a subordinating conjunction. This includes As, Because, While, By, and anything else that would explain who, what, when, where, why, or how. The trick here is where you put it. If you put the subordinate clause at the end of the sentence, you don't need a comma. However, if you put it at the beginning of the sentence, you need a comma after it, and if you put it in the middle of the sentence, you need to put commas around it.
The dog ate the biscuit off the floor. It likes biscuits. The dog ate the biscuits off the floor because it likes them. Because the dog likes biscuits, it ate them off the floor..

Dangling Modifiers/Pronoun Agreement: Ever look at a sentence and wonder, "Waitaminute, is this guy doing that or is that guy doing that?" In that case, that sentence is a victim of the dangling modifier and/or pronoun disagreement.

A dangling modifier... Well, it's best if I used an example. "Rychaeth punched Achasund, reeling back in pain." Now, who's reeling in pain? Ry or Achasund? That sentence is telling me that Ry, as the subject of the sentence, is reeling back in pain. However, he's not the one slugged in the stomach. "Rychaeth punched Achasund, who reeled back in pain." That fixes things. A lot.

Pronoun disagreement is the same thing except with pronouns. "Rychaeth punched Achasund. He reeled back in pain." This one's a bit less confusing than the last one. But it's still confusing. Unless you're doing it on purpose, we don't like confusion. And even when you're doing it on purpose, we don't like confusion. But hey, if you're not doing it by accident, at least you know what you're doing.

Dashes: Dashes (—, or online, --) are used to show interrupted chains of thought. You remember parenthetical asides above, don't you? You can use dashes if you want to show something a little more disjointed. My friend, Alan--he's over there--went camping the other week. You can pretty much stick anything between those dashes and still have it work. Try to avoid having anything too long in there, though.

The other function is to show a break off. Suppose Rychaeth Leithyr is talking and then suddenly gets slugged in the stomach.

"I'm tellin' ya, I dun got--" The man he was talking to stepped forward with surprising speed and slugged Rychaeth in the stomach, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Elipses: Oh, fun. Ellipses are there to demonstrate a dangling chain of thought in writing. (Well, in essays, you use it to show that you omit words in a quote. Like, "Oreo, a Siberian Husky, is what we named our dog" to "Oreo ... is what we named our dog". But we aren't talking about essays, here.)

To start, what you /do not/ want to do (and I see this far too much in online writing for my own personal comfort) is use ellipses everywhere to cheat your way past commas...semicolons...and all other punctuation marks other than full stops. As you can see...this can get quite annoying...in fact...it has driven me close to insane on several occasions. And I'll stop before I do the same to you.

Use an ellipse to show a dangling chain of thought. You usually want to do this if you want to imply something. (Jeremy was innocent; he didn't take any cookies while Mom wasn't looking. Alex, on the other hand...) You can also use it to show a pause (Wait... What?), or if you want to start a sentence hesitantly. (...So let me get this straight--You want to break into /that/ house?!)

Use them at your leisure. Not to get confused with dashes.

FANBOYS: For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. These are the seven conjunctions that you are allowed to use commas with. "I ran to the store, but I didn't get there in time." "I ran to the store but I didn't get there in time." "The team played well, and everyone cheered." "The team played well and everyone cheered."

Gerunds and Gerund Phrases: A gerund is a verb that can be used as a noun. "Biking is one of my favorite activities." Now, wait just one moment. "Biking" is a verb, right? "He went biking last Saturday." Wrong. Even in that scenario, 'was' is the actual verb. That, my friend, is a gerund.

A gerund is not, and let me repeat, is NOT a verb. It is a noun. For all purposes, it is a noun. And let me repeat that once more, it is a noun. If you have a gerund phrase but no real verb, it is a fragment. It is a sentence fragment.

A gerund phrase is simply the gerund with any associated subordinate clauses, adjectives, et cetera. All it is is a dependent clause with a gerund in it.

Helping Verbs: Although it's pretty hard not to get these correct, this is here for reference. A helping verb is a verb that cannot stand by itself. He went. He went where? He went to the store. When you have a helping verb, you need a prepositional phrase, a gerund, or a direct object to follow it up.

Parenthetical Asides: An important form of subordinate clause. Why are they so important? Because they use commas. *nod nod*

A parenthetical aside is a subordinate clause that can be used within parenthesis without any change in the sentence's meaning. It's generally just little extra stuff you want to tell the reader. There must be a comma on both sides of the clause. "My sister (Jessica) plays the flute." "My sister, Jessica, plays the flute." "Iran (once the mighty Persian Empire) is a country in the middle-east." "Iran, once the mighty Persian Empire, is a country in the middle-east."

Quotation Marks: Shouldn't be too difficult if you've been paying attention at all while you're reading, but people mess it up nonetheless. It's usually some small mistake here and there; it's pretty rare that someone doesn't know how to use these. It's here, anyhow.

Joe said, "Hello, Bob."
"Hello, Bob," said Joe.

By default, there should be a period at the end of a spoken sentence. However, if you have a "said whoever" or a variant of that (mumbled, yelled, whispered, etc.) after the spoken sentence, there should be a comma. If the sentence ends with a question mark or an exclamation point, don't change it to a comma.

"Whoah!" exclaimed Joe.
"Are they building a new store down the street?" asked Joe.

An error I see frequently is this.

"I heard they're building a new strip mall," said Joe, "I'm starting to get tired of all the construction here.

This is a run-on. If you take the "said Joe" out, you would get, "I heard they're building a new strip mall, I'm starting to get tired of all the construction here." That's a comma splice. The comma after "said Joe" should be a period.

"I heard they're building a new strip mall," said Joe, "and I'm starting to get tired of all the construction here."

That works because the "said Joe" is inserted in the middle of a proper sentence. And don't forget to mention that the "said Joe" should /not/ be capitalized. It's an extension of a sentence, not a brand new one, and is the equivalent of saying, "As he dodged his enemy's blade, He noticed that his enemy's technique was poor and could be bested easily."

[Arthur]

The Poet's Mind[TPM]
Okay. So maybe you don't like writing whoppers of novels. Maybe you don't have the attention span to sit in front of a computer for five hours straight, trying to get a chapter up in time. Fancy yourself a bit of a poet?

---

How to Write a Poem

What exactly makes a poem a poem? Answer? Whatever the hell you want. While improper grammar is frowned upon, it's not mandatory to have perfect grammar. As long as your grammar is consistent, it works.

Look back up. Did you read up on theme? What you want to portray? Y'see, in a book, the theme might not show up as clearly. But in poetry, the theme must be there. If you aren't saying a message, it's meaningless. Lookie here. Read A Beachside Walk. It's flat. It's meaningless. I wrote a piece of crud poem.

You know why? I didn't have anything to say. Look at any of the rest of them. All of them say something in between the lines (Against the Tide is much harder to figure out than the rest of them). Look back at that top one. Guess why I wrote it? To write a Shakespearian sonnet. Nothing more. That is bad. Write Shakespearian sonnets if you want to say something in that sonnet. Write couplets because you want to say something in the couplet. Heck, there are some one-liners people call poems that have a message fifty times as strong as all of my poetry combined.

You really need theme in a poem. That is the biggest thing that makes a poem a poem. It's not the lines. It's not the meter. It's not the rhyming. It's the theme.

Think of what you want to write about (On the subject of theme). Well, duh. You just might want to know what you are going to write about before you write it.

Easier said than done. Why? If you just asked that question, go back to the previous mini-section-thing and then read it again. Not only do you want to think of a literal setting, you want to say something. You want to say something about life. Read this. Then read the commentary for it. Then read the poem again. What is the poem saying on a literal sense? I'm asking what happened to some kid who was nice to his loving younger sister. Then I begin doubting the poor kid's honesty in being nice. I call him a selfish brat that thinks only for himself. Right?

No. Now you think on a figurative level. Who is that child? I am that kid. I walked across the street with my little sister. I'd take her everywhere. I loved her. Then time slowly put more distance between us. Yes, you see us bickering about the slightest things. But I know that deep down, I still love her. Simple fact of life. No matter how much distance there is, physically, socially, or anything in between, there will be love between siblings.

And that is my theme.

Figurative language is a must. Look back to that poem, Sometimes. What do I use?

Repetition, yes. I repeat the word "sometimes" over and over again, giving meaning to the title. But it serves to state that I only think of this some of the time. Not all the time. Some. That adds emphasis to the fact that there is distance.

Now, as stated earlier, I used metaphor. Metaphor is perhaps the singlehandedly most-used literary device in poetry. By comparing something with something else, we can get more meaning of the theme. We compare obscure topics to easily recognizable ones so we can envision it better. That's the purpose of a metaphor. For example, what do people see in kind little children? Innocence. Little kids tend to be innocent. So by comparing myself to the little kid, and ultimately the little kid that I was earlier in life, I am contrasting my corruption to the child's purity. By saying that purity is still somewhere deep down under, I am once again emphasizing the tone.

Now those are just examples. When you start off, you might want to just stick with the literal metaphors: This compared to that, no symbolism included. From there, as you get more and more used to dealing with similes and metaphors, you'll start to do it. Automatically. Heck, that's what I do.
(And to tell the truth, I wasn't aware I was doing half of this stuff until I actually went back and analyzed it for this guide. How's that for improvement? =P)

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Some General Rules of Thumb

Use proper grammar. For the beginning poet, use proper grammar. This isn't permanent, mind you, but it will help the beginning poet. When you start developing your own style, you could just purposely exclude things here and there to emphasize your meaning. Or, you can just do what E.E.Cummings did and screw grammar altogether and call it your style. Although people have criticized Cummings severely for relying too much on his style.

Use proper punctuation, especially at the end of lines. We don't care if you have run-on sentences in poetry. We do care about the proper punctuation. This is the one rule in grammar that you are not allowed to break for poetic justice. When you read poetry, you don't pause at the end of every line. You go through as if you were reading it in prose. You only pause where people mark there to be pauses. IE, commas, colons, semicolons, periods, et cetera. That's why it's important to mark those pauses. It helps one hell of a lot with flow, structure, meter, and emphasis to certain words and phrases.

It's either measured or it's open. There is nothing in between. You either have a poem where you don't have any sense of meter at all and instead have a continuous flowing line, or you have a poem that is metered and measured out just like music. Now, what is meter?
Those who can read music will understand much more easily. Go learn to read music, or at least the notes and rhythms and all that.
The downbeats, the beat or pulse that you tap your foot to, should have stressed syllables. What is a stressed syllable? Read that again, except pay attention to what syllables you either add emphasis on or make longer. What is a stressed syllable? What-is-a-stressed-syl-la-ble? WHAT is a STRESSED SYL-la-ble?
And on that note, it's a good idea to have the same number of stressed syllables per line.

Then again, you can just go open and don't deal with any of that.

Do not force rhymes. If you have something rhyming, you aren't writing free-verse poetry. As a general rule of thumb.

But if you are making stuff rhyme, you never want to make a rhyme sound forced. If you can't think of a rhyme for a word, just think of a different word you can use and make a new word rhyme with that. Now, think back to that 'grammar is never consistent' part. You can not only find synonyms, which is annoying, but you can rearrange words in the line to better suit your needs. Neat, huh?

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Going a Little Bit Further

Poetry should always have to separate meanings. What? Exactly.

Especially in more recent times, poetry will have a literal meaning and a figurative meaning. Take for example, Hotel 'California' by The Eagles (awesome song, BTW). If you read, the literal meaning is that a guy goes to a hotel, has a fun time, but notices something wrong. When he suddenly realizes that something is wrong, he is unable to leave. People have many different interpretations of the song, but most believe it to be about a drug addiction. Notice the similarities between the two meanings. It looks fun, cool, and it makes you happy. But all along the while, you have that nagging voice in your head that tells you that something isn't right. Well, guess what? When you realize that it's not a good thing to do and is, in fact, destroying your health, it's too late to back out. You can't quit. You can't leave the Hotel.

See how the literal meaning and the figurative meaning are two different things? You will see a lot of beginning poets writing about their figurative meanings. For example, if they want their figurative meaning to be about how lonely they are, they'll write about how lonely they are. Et cetera. You want to separate the two and make them different. Make the literal meaning apparent in the poem, but make sure the reader has to guess at the figurative meaning and deduce it from hints you drop in the literal meaning. This ties very much to the idea of a theme that I tossed around back in the story-writing section. All poetry must have a thematic message. If it doesn't, then it's not a poem. It doesn't mean that you have to have a specific theme in mind every time you write a poem. It means that all poetry has one, whether the poet intended to, or not. More experienced poets will generally have a specific theme in mind, though.

Break the rules. The biggest rule in any art form, be it painting, guitar playing, singing, or poetry, is that the rules can be broken as long as the final product is good. Beethoven uses parallel fifths in his music from time to time; generally regarded as an evil thing that breaks the laws of composition as you know it, but he knew what he was doing. And, in the end, it sounds good. Granted, there are a few ground rules that you have to follow. In story writing, you have to use correct grammar. Period.

But as far as I'm concerned, there aren't any of those ground rules in poetry. Want an example? "anyone lived in a pretty how town" by e e cumings. Notice how he breaks more or less every convention that grammar has to offer. And what is the end effect? A silly, nonsensical poem. But if you look deeper, you'll start deciphering things. "anyone" is in fact, a man. "noone" is in fact, a woman. "up so floating many bells down" signifies the ringing of wedding bells, as "anyone" and "noone" are married. And, in fact, if you read it, you actually will get a sense of what the poem is about, despite the fact that any attempts to analyze it usually end in failure. e e cumings knew what he was doing. He broke the rules, and he got away with it.

The point is, you don't have to follow the rules strictly. If you have a reason for breaking the rules, then you can defend it and get away with it. Don't listen to the people that try to impose too much structure on your poem. Not all poetry has to be divided up into stanzas. Not all rhyming poetry has to have a rhyme scheme. Not every line has to end with punctuation. Add as much structure as you'd like. Break as many rules as you'd like. No matter what you do, if it looks good, then you can get away with it.

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Meter and European Poetry

The free-verse, or open, style of poetry originated in the United States. Mostly. European poetry was structured and even, following strict rhythms. Yes, the same exact kind of rhythm used in music.

Here, I will teach you the basics of rhythm and counting, giving you examples of how poets use rhythm.

Stressed and Unstressed syllables
Say the word "syllables" aloud. Then say it again, paying attention to what syllable of that word you add emphasis on or make longer. SYL-la-bles. You notice?
That capitalized syllable is stressed, meaning it has emphasis on it. Try that with a sentence. This is an example. First, let's break up that long word, "example". You pronounce it ex-AM-ple. Now let's look at the rest of it. Articles, such as "the" and "a", are always unstressed. The word "is", as a helping verb, is also unstressed. So it would be: "THIS is an ex-AM-ple."
Let's take a look at a poem with some pretty obviously stressed syllables. This is William Blake's poem, "The Tyger" ("Tyger! Tyger!")

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

TY-ger! TY-ger! BUR-ning BRIGHT
IN the FOR-ests OF the NIGHT
WHAT im-MOR-tal HAND or EYE
could FRAME thy FEAR-ful SYM-me-TRY?

You see how you put stress on those capitalized syllables?

Time Signature



The two time signatures are the two most easily distinguishable in poetry, though the latter is rarely used (and thus will not be explained*). The top number is the number of beats in a measure. You know those pulses you tap your feet to when you listen to music? That's a beat. The bottom number tells you what note gets the beat, IE, what kind of note takes up an entire beat. In the first one, the number is over four. So that means that a quarter note gets the beat. In the second one, the number is over eight, so an eight note gets the beat. (Not really. In twelve-eight, you count 1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9, 10-11-12. Instead of being grouped into beats with a single offbeat, it is divided into beats with two offbeats. Y'know what I'm saying?)

The Four/Four Meter


See that there? Those are all of the notes people will use in any meter that is over four. I took the liberty of writing in the counts for you. The number is the beat. All the other stuff in there are parts of the beat. 1, 2, 3, 4 are the beats in the measure. Four beats. The +'s are half-beats, or off-beats. If you see in the third measure, the +'s show up. Each one of those notes is half of a beat. Then, the e's and a's show up. The notes in the fourth measure are all one-quarter of a beat. The second measure is made up of quarter notes. They go in order: half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes. Anything higher than that is just the previous one divided by two.

Stressed syllables should always come on the beats themselves. Whatever note happens to fall on the beat should always have the stressed syllable.

Now, take into consideration William Blake's poem, "Tyger! Tyger!"

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

TY-ger! TY-ger! BUR-ning BRIGHT
IN the FOR-ests OF the NIGHT
WHAT im-MOR-tal HAND or EYE
could FRAME thy FEAR-ful SYM-me-TRY?

I will put that poem in music for you. Slashes indicate line changes. Pay no attention to measures when indicating line changes. One line almost always equals one measure, although there are "pick-up notes" that screw that rule up, such as in that last line. See how the word "could" is unstressed?

You see how that's in a four-four rhythm? Each line is its own separate measure. The stressed syllables are all on the downbeats.

*Not a blatant guide-writer's cop-out. Definitely not.

[Arthur]

Critiques and Constructive Criticism:[C&CC]
Okay, so you fancy yourself an accomplished writer or just want to be helpful. Either way, a great way to help out others (And consequently try to bring in readers to your own stories) is the constructive critique. This is where you get to dissect someone's story, find the flaws, and help that person get rid of them. It can include anything from mechanics and grammar to artistic quality and plot. Even if it's just a second opinion on what kind of a story it should be.

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Beginning the Critique

First, actually read the person's story. Read it. Force yourself to read it. Because if you read in-depth, you can catch many more details than if you skim over. If you read it in depth at least once (And if it's a shorter work or if you're really devoted, two or three times), it will be easier to find flaws and catch some of the nice things they did. All in all, just make sure you read it and read it thoroughly.

Find some of the better things they did. It's a lot easier to read something that starts off with "That imagery with the flower petals really drew me in" than it is to read something that begins with "I caught several comma mistakes here and there." (Yes, I know I'm guilty of doing the latter from time to time.) You want to both open and close a critique with a compliment or with something nice they did. Not only does it make the critique more appealing to begin with, it lets the author know that you mean well and don't mean any harm. Plus, it shows the writer that you actually read their story instead of scanning it over for mistakes.

Finally, transition into the critique itself. Yes, transitions. They aren't only to be used in writing. You want to ease into the critique so the good feeling from the opening statement sort of carry over. "However" is an often-used one.

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Writing the Critique

Don't think what. Think why. Okay, so you liked something. Why did you like it? Authors don't like the generic "I liked the flower petal imagery." They like the more specific "I liked the flower petal imagery because it ties in with the child's innocence and outer beauty." Also, if you see something wrong, and you just say it's wrong, then how does the author know that you aren't making this up? "This is wrong, do this." No. "This is wrong because of this. Instead, you should do this." Yes. That crucial "why" not only takes away some of the forceful, blunt impact of the critique itself, but it adds substance to it. Now the writer understands the intentions and the reasoning behind it.

That flows in beautifully to my next point. The idea of a critique isn't to just point things out that are wrong in the piece. The idea is not to help the author with that story, but to help the author out in the long run. If the author knows why that is wrong, he or she can avoid it in the future. Whereas, if he or she knows the what, then he or she can avoid the what only when it shows up. If said author knows the why, it helps stick much more.

Assault the story. Don't touch the author. You want to notify the author that you're talking about him or her. You want to include a "You did this" or "you should've done this" here and there to keep the author's attention and keep the point going that this entire thing is addressed to the author. However, especially because of the nature of a critique, avoid criticizing the author directly. To bash the author is the equivalent of a flame.

If I told you that you can bash the story all you want, I would be lying. You want to say what is wrong in the story. You don't want to insult the story (And therefore, the mind behind it). This is constructive criticism, and insults generally have no constructive intent behind them. If you don't have something helpful to say, it's best not to say it.

Structure the critique. It helps make it easier to read. It's easier to read something that is spaced and organized than it is to read a huge chunk of text, especially if it's something where you are getting criticized. Use that helpful 'hr' tag to break things up in the critique. Use numbers and lists. Something to help make this thing easier to read. This helps especially when you are doing a line-by-line critique where you literally go down line-by-line, looking for grammatical errors.

Be honest. Oh, and while you're at it, be aware that this is only your opinion. This is a critique. In a critique, you want to be honest and say what's wrong. Because if you don't, the author isn't improving. This ties in with the 'why'. This also ties in with the author's love of more specific comments over generic "That was great" comments. Be honest. Don't be bashful. (No pun intended)

This is a critique. This is what you thought was wrong about someone else's work. You do not want to impose something on them. Okay, get through the grammar. That is more or less the only thing you actually want to impose on them. But past grammar and the potentially awkward sentence, these are your suggestions. If you and the author think differently about something the author did, it's up to the author to decide which viewpoint to take.

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Closing up the Critique

Finish it up with a compliment. Think of a critique as a sandwich. There are the buns and there is the stuff inside the sandwich. The stuff inside the sandwich is the meat of the critique. The buns are there to hold the thing together. You want to both start and end on a happy note. Make the author happy and he or she will more likely take into account what you said.