The First Wednesday of Fall

Grammar Anyone?

I’m still waiting for Because No One Noticed to come out in paperback. Book clubs are asking me when they can buy the hardcopy version, but since this is out of my hands, I don’t have an answer. Soon is the best I can come up with.

If you’d like a Kindle copy, however, I’m giving two away this month. Let me know in your comment or email me if you’d like a free copy!

Available on Amazon

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Thanks, Alex. Great group to be a part of.

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The awesome co-hosts for the September 4 posting of the IWSG are Beth Camp, Jean Davis, Yvonne Ventresca, and PJ Colando!

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Remember, the question is optional!

Since it's back to school time, let's talk English class. What's a writing rule you learned in school that messed you up as a writer?

I’m not sure any rule messed me up as a writer. By the time I was into writing stories, I’d finished my master’s in Linguistics and understood that there are no absolute rules if you’re a descriptivist and that rules change quite frequently.

However, as a writer, I believe it’s important to KNOW the current rules before you BREAK them. That way you can use those MISTAKES for a purpose rather than risk appearing to be ignorant about what the prescriptivists set down as correct.

Here are some rules that have shifted since most of us started school:

• Split infinitive

• Ending a sentence with a preposition

• The use of hopefully as an adverb

• The agreement of “they” with a singular precedent noun

• Starting sentences with conjunctions

• The use of fewer v. less

Certainly, the pronoun system as we once knew it is shifting—at least in spoken English. Me and him/her seem to be on the way to replacing S/He and I in the subjective case. That still shivers me timbers, but it does give me a lot of opportunity to quickly show the difference in generations between my characters.

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Quote of the Month:

“From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.” Winston Churchill