Writing tip: Write the unexpected in an expectable way

When a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat, the audience says it's magic, but when a writer does it, the audience asks where it came from. Anyone can write something that was unexpected. What makes the unexpected brilliant is that the audience could have expected it, if only they'd been paying more attention to what went into the hat.

Prepare the audience for every shock; uncover a few bones before you dig up the corpse; and foreshadow extensively, without being predictable. It'll make you seem smarter than you are, which is better than being smarter than you seem.

Subjunctive tense

The subjunctive tense (also known as subjunctive mood) in English is found in clauses following a verb that expresses “a doubt, a wish, regret, request, demand, or proposal” (englishplus.com). Moreover, the subjunctive tense most commonly follows in a clause starting with “if.”

Only the present tense third person singular conjugations of verbs, and the conjugations of the verb "to be" are required to change when the subjunctive tense is used. In the case of the verb "to be" the subjunctive tense requires that you use “be” for the present tense, and "were" for the past tense, regardless of whether the subject is “I, you, she, or they.”

FOR EXAMPLE (past tense):

If I were richer, I'd be able to afford a better car.

NOT:

If I was richer, I'd be able to afford a better car.

AND:

He spends as though he were the richest man in the world.

NOT:

He spends as though he was the richest man in the world.

ALSO (present tense):

If I be the one to fulfill the prophecy, then let it be so, but if not, then let another step forth before I fail.

NOT:

If I am the one to fulfill the prophecy, then let it be so, but if not, then let another step forth before I fail.

Finally, the present tense third person singular of all verbs drops the “s” or “es” ending when the subjunctive tense is used.

FOR EXAMPLE:

I suggested that she give as much to the cause as possible.

NOT:

I suggested that she gives as much to the cause as possible.

AND:

I would prefer that each waitress pool her tips with the others, so as to be evenly divided at the end of the day.

NOT:

I would prefer that each waitress pools her tips with the others, so as to be evenly divided at the end of the day.

According to Englishplus.com, the following verbs are often "followed by clauses that take the subjunctive:"

ask, demand, determine, insist, move, order, pray, prefer, recommend, regret, request, require, suggest, and wish.

It is also important to note that only subordinate clauses may be subjunctive.

Source

How to use "I" and "Me"

It's easy to tell which of "I" or "me" to use in some sentences, for example:

I am going to the beach.
You wouldn't say, "Me is going to the beach."

He told me he didn't want to go.
Nor would you say, "He told I he didn't want to go."

When you combine other nouns, however; the choice becomes less clear. I was taught always to say: "my brother and I" not "my brother and me," but as it turns out, this is often wrong. An easy way to determine the right pronoun is to remove the other noun and see if the sentence reads correctly. If it does, you chose the right one, if it doesn't, you chose the wrong one.

For example:

The teacher told my brother and I to wait for him in the hall.

Test:

The teacher told I to wait for him in the hall. (Doesn't read correctly)

The teacher told me to wait for him in the hall. (Correct)

Thus write:

The teacher told my brother and me to wait for him in the hall.


Another example:

Me and my brother were waiting for the teacher for almost an hour.

Test:

Me was waiting for the teacher for almost an hour. (Incorrect)

I was waiting for the teacher for almost an hour. (Correct)

Thus write:

My brother and I were waiting for the teacher for almost an hour.

Note: the convention when using "I" with another person's name is to write/say that person's name first. Never write "I and Jacob," or "I and my brother."

Also, if you like to get technical, the reason for all of this is that "me" is the objective case of "I," meaning that the same rules apply as for "who" and "whom" (objective case of "who").


Source

Some rules about Numbers in writing

The rule is:

If a number is 10 or greater, use numbers, and for zero to nine, write it out. 

Thus write:

We have just 15 minutes until then.


You've got five seconds left.

Exceptions:

Never start a sentence with a number. Thus, write:

Fifteen minutes have passed.

Not

15 minutes have passed.

Also, this is a matter of style and preference, but I prefer to write out all numbers and abbreviations (except Mrs. for which there is no commonly accepted spelling) in dialogue. Thus, I would write:

"We turned onto one hundred and forty-second street twenty-five minutes ago!"

(Notice, hyphens were used. For the numbers twenty-one to ninety-nine, use hyphens to join the tens' place to the ones'.)


"Good morning, class. My name is Mister Collins, and I'm going to be your Algebra teacher for the foreseeable future."

Comprehensive rules, according to Sarah of EssayForum.com (her source being the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association):

Use numbers (numerals) in these instances:

1. For all numbers 10 and above: "There were 17 students in class."
2. All numbers below 10 that are grouped in comparison to numbers 10 and above: "Ony 5 of 17 students passed the course."
3. When using numbers immediately before a unit of measure: "a 5-minute wait"
4. Numbers that represent statistical or mathematical functions or formulas: "a ratio of 12:1"
5. Numbers that represent time, dates, ages, sizes, scores, money, and points on a scale: "It happened 5 years ago"; "a roomful of 6-year-olds"; "$40."
6. Numbers that represent a place in a series: "week 7 of an 8-week diet"
7. In a list of four or more numbers: "We had 1, 2, 5, and 8 pieces, respectively"

Sources:

http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000125.htm

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-rules-for-writing-numbers-and-numerals/

http://www.essayforum.com/general-writing-questions-13/use-numerals-spell-out-words-694/

Formatting a Character's Thoughts

Treat a character's thoughts just dialogue, but without the quotes. Use italics in place of the quotes. In the case below, note that the character's thoughts are capitalized even though they don't seem to be the beginning of the sentence (the same is done when a dialogue attribution comes before the actual dialogue). Also note that "she" is not italicized, because italics are also used for emphasis, to make a word stand out, and in order to achieve the same effect in a character's thoughts, the writer removes the italics from the emphasized word.

She thought, What's she doing here? (Hambly 131) 

NOT

She thought, what's she doing here?

Source

Hambly, Barbara. Star Wars: Children of the Jedi. NY, NY:
    Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, 1996. Print.

Subject-verb agreement

For words that indicate a partial amount—some, all, none, etc.—if the noun is plural, use a plural verb, and if the noun is singular use a singular verb.

Examples:

None of the chickens are good.
None of this chicken is good.

Some of the pies are good.
Some pie is good, some pie is not.

All of us are going.
All of this pie is good.

In each case the plurality of the italicized noun is matched by the verb.

Disclaimer: advice on this (especially the sometimes plural use of "none") varies, see my source for details.

Source

Ellipses, and the proper format

In the final revisions of my first book, one of my readers/editors thought I'd incorrectly formatted ellipses, and I had to check the current rules, so here's what I found:

First of all, what are they?

Ellipses are the ". . ." you often see in writing which indicate material was omitted from a quote, or in creative writing, sometimes they are simply used for a long pause.

Formatting:

-Put a space on either side and one between each dot
e.g. He was going to . . . do something, but what?

-If the Ellipses occur at the end of a sentence, include the period and add the ellipses at the end.
e.g. That's what I was going to do. . . .

-With exclamation points and question marks:
"It was going to get me . . . !"
"He didn't . . . ?"

Remember the space between the last dot and the question/exclamation mark.

Source