{"id":1668,"date":"2018-07-03T18:18:57","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T22:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/?p=1668"},"modified":"2019-11-29T23:05:43","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T04:05:43","slug":"writing-advice-the-most-misunderstood-rules-of-writing-part-2-grammatical-correctness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/writing-advice-the-most-misunderstood-rules-of-writing-part-2-grammatical-correctness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Misunderstood “Rules” of Writing, Part 2 – Grammatical Correctness"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This article first appeared in Night Owl Reviews<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Got some bad news about pet peeve #3…see newly-added definition #4 at Dictionary.com. And this is why “grammar” rules aren\u2019t really rules.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I used to wonder what was more important\u2014wordsmithing or storytelling. This was when I was on my O. Henry Prize kick, reading dozens of beautifully written short stories that received high praise despite lacking plots or any deep meaning (to me, anyway). As a result, for a while I believed wordsmithing was more important and focused a lot on improving my prose. Then I realized short stories were a career dead end<\/a> and began focusing on novels, where I came to the opposite conclusion, and the one I believe today: ideally you want to be good at both wordsmithing and storytelling, but storytelling should always take precedence. Beautifully constructed sentences and imagery are great and all, but if they don\u2019t coalesce into anything meaningful it becomes tiresome after a while, like the O. Henry stories did for me; it\u2019s the literary equivalent of navel-gazing.<\/p>\n

In the end, words are tools you use to tell your story<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For a novelist, they\u2019re your primary medium, like paint to a painter. The individual brushstrokes aren\u2019t nearly as important as the completed composition. As such, grammar is important, but if that\u2019s your primary focus then you\u2019re doing it wrong.<\/p>\n

On that note, here\u2019s a quick list of the biggest supposed grammar no-nos people spend way too much time obsessing over instead of improving their storytelling craft.<\/p>\n

1. Who vs Whom<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supposedly you should use \u201cwhom\u201d when referring to the object of a preposition or verb. This is one of those rules grammar snobs LOVE to correct people on\u2014because that\u2019s how you know they\u2019re smart (otherwise, how would you know?)! However, the use of whom has fallen out of favor over the last few years, with most pro novelists opting to simply use \u201cwho\u201d in all circumstances since both words are functionally the same. And thank you Jesus for that! Having to stop writing and think hard about whether to use who or whom when there\u2019s no real difference between them is a waste of valuable brain resources.<\/p>\n

2. Passive Voice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Passive voice is putting the subject before the verb, ala \u201cBob was punched by Jeff\u201d instead of \u201cJeff punched Bob.\u201d Good writing maximizes economy, saying the most with as few words as possible. Passive voice violates this rule and is therefore looked down upon. It\u2019s also one of the easiest rules to understand, so the mostly-grammar illiterate will latch onto it to an obnoxious degree. There are, though, several reasons you may want to use the passive voice. For instance, if the subject is more important than the object, i.e. \u201cPresident Shot by Assassin!\u201d or if you want to be intentionally vague about the object of the sentence, i.e. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, ma\u2019am, your husband was killed last night.\u201d<\/p>\n

My favorite example of intentional passive voice: \u201cMistakes were made.\u201d
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Really? By who? I wonder why he isn\u2019t being specific.<\/p>\n

3.  Never use \u201cvery\u201d or \u201csuddenly\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

An author in my writing group told me they had an English instructor once who said any assignment with the words \u201cvery\u201d or \u201csuddenly\u201d was an automatic fail, to which I rolled my eyes so hard they got stuck in the back of my head for a moment. It\u2019s true bad writers can abuse these words to create flat prose, but banning words doesn\u2019t make someone a good writer, either. Good writers can use these verboten words to great effect; for instance:<\/p>\n

Sentence 1: \u201cHe was tall and black.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sentence 2: \u201cHe was tall and very black.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notice how the addition of one word adds another layer of meaning to the sentence? That\u2019s good writing, no matter what any English professor tells you.<\/p>\n

4. Kill your adverbs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s good to avoid adverbs. No, this doesn\u2019t mean you should forsake all adverbs. Remember, good writing prioritizes the economy of words. The reason this sentence: \u201c\u2018I\u2019m sorry,\u2019 John said sadly\u201d is inferior to this sentence: \u201c\u2018I\u2019m sorry,\u2019 John said, tears rolling down his cheeks,\u201d is because the second sentence gives us a vivid mental picture and therefore relays more information than the ambiguous adverb \u201csadly.\u201d However, some adverbs are vivid enough to stand alone. For example: \u201c\u2018I remember that,\u201d she said whimsically.\u201d Whimsy is a pretty specific emotion; no need to elaborate. Conversely, sometimes you don\u2019t need to be specific: \u201cJohn rose slowly.\u201d Unless there\u2019s something special about the way John slowly rose, there\u2019s no need to punch it up with an exciting verb or extra description.<\/p>\n

And there you have it. The point is this: if your prose says what you want it to say in as few words as possible, then go for it, grammar \u201crules\u201d be damned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This article first appeared in Night Owl Reviews] I used to wonder what was more important\u2014wordsmithing or storytelling. This was when I was on my O. Henry Prize kick, reading dozens of beautifully written short stories that received high praise despite lacking plots or any deep meaning (to me, anyway). As a result, for a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Most Misunderstood “Rules” of Writing, Part 2 – Grammatical Correctness”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[494,525],"tags":[367,366,371,363,369,370,368,193],"class_list":["post-1668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-wordsmithing","tag-grammar-rules","tag-grammatical-correctness","tag-kill-your-adverbs","tag-night-owl-reviews","tag-passive-voice","tag-using-very-or-suddenly","tag-who-vs-whom","tag-wordsmithing-versus-storytelling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Vyi8-qU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1668"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2365,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions\/2365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}