Which Is Right? Style Vs. Grammar

Because I've been a copyeditor for a long time, people often ask me whether x or y is "correct."

Sometimes I can give an absolute answer because the question is a matter of grammar. For example, it is always wrong to say "neither x or y." It is always correct to capitalize the first letter of a person's name (although you can make exceptions if you like for e. e. cummings and other people who are widely known by a lowercased name). Sentences should always end with a period or question mark.

Grammar is not always this clear-cut. If someone asks me whether a clause should be preceded by "which or "that," I have to ask some questions before I can give an answer. Ditto if someone asks whether "none" takes a single or plural verb; the answer depends on subtleties of meaning.

Some questions, though, have no correct answer. They are matters of style. That is, different publishers or editors do things differently. My answer to, "Should I spell out the number ten?" is, "Who are you writing for?" In Associated Press style, which is used by many periodicals, the numbers ten and above are given as numerals unless they begin a sentence or are a date or a page number. But The Chicago Manual of Style (used for books) has complex rules, and one rule is that the numbers zero through one hundred are spelled out. Scientific style guides have yet more styles for numbers.

Here are a few of the probably thousands of variants of style in American English. All of the following are correct in some publication or another:

• X-ray; x-ray
• 10000; 10,000; 10 000; 10⁴; ten thousand
• 70°; 70° F; 70 °F; 70 degrees Fahrenheit
• 4:30 p.m.; 4:30 pm; 4:30 PM; 1600; four-thirty p.m.
• ten percent; 10 percent; 10%
• Down's syndrome: Down syndrome
• α-interferon, interferon-α, alpha interferon, interferon alpha, IFN-α, interferon alfa

With so many ways possible to write such things, how do you know what to do?

• Look at previous issues of the publication you're writing for.
• If you write for a publication regularly, ask what stylebook they use.
• If you regularly write in a certain academic field, get the stylebooks used in that field, such as those put out by the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the American Chemical Society, and the Council of Science Editors.
• Google different versions of your word or phrase and see how many hits you get for each. Go with the majority.
• If you write often for newspapers or magazines, it makes sense to own the most recent edition of The Association Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. If you write short stories or books, own the most recent Chicago Manual of Style.
• Buy some grammar and general style books so that you can tell whether the question that stumps you is a matter of grammar or a matter of style.

I'll be blogging at Novel Spaces again on September 21. Hope to see you then!

—Shauna Roberts

Which Comes First, the Title or the Story?

What's in a Title? Hopefully a lot of careful thought.

It is said without a good title your book will never make it off the shelf. But which comes first, the title or the story?

I'm wondering if, in the case of this cover image, the hilarious title came first. Seems it may have been an actual humorous, emotion-based thought that caused a light bulb moment in the writer's head. With a title like "If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet?," readers would have an excellent idea of what the book is about, surely without needing to read the back copy. Obviously it is targeting women, and the reader would think self-help, humor, dating, breakups, relationships. Plus the cover itself is an illustration, much like a comic book, so the feeling is that you can expect to laugh. And the publsher made sure to note that the author wrote Sex Tips For Girls. Sold!

With the books I've written thus far, the titles usually come first. I enjoy selecting titles, and have a titles list on my computer, which I sometimes share with author friends. But I admit, I never would have thought of the "If You Can't Live Without Me ...." title. It is long, but it speaks volumes.

There was a time recently when song titles were popular as book titles. The title would hopefully ring a bell or spark memory of a time and place in the reader's mind - A Love of My Own and Basketball Jones by E. Lynn Harris. Some authors put a clever spin on a T.V. show, like instead of using Desperate Housewives, one very successful title was called Desperate Hoodwives. And some reuse a title that has proven to work for them, adding in the volume number, i.e., The Cartel 3, or Little Black Girl Lost 5.

And then, even though using cliches has been a considered a no-no in the story itself, cliches have become popular as book titles. I Second That Emotion, Never Say Never, and Be Careful What You Pray For, among others, come to mind.

It has been recommended that an author give his or her WIP a title as soon as possible, (at least a working title) so that it can be felt and owned and imagined, seeing the title in writing each time you open your document.

A lot of thought goes into deciding upon a final title. Editors and authors ponder whether the title is catchy, marketable, memorable, will it grab the reader's attention, is it too long, too short, difficult to spell, does it relate to the story or theme? Sometimes it's good to use a significant line from the story, maybe even purposefully hiding the title inside of the drama in a way that ties it all together.

It helps to run some final choices by a group of readers to get their opinions. My working title for the sequel to Hot Boyz was The Ladies of Ladera, and then I changed it to Housewives of Ladera, but after taking a reader poll, majority won, and the title is now Hot Girlz.

I think titles and writing go hand in hand. A great title is as important as great writing. I just purchased the book used in the image above. Can't wait to see if the writing lives up to the phenomenal title.

Have you ever decided against a title simply because someone had already used it? Which comes first for you, the title or the story?

Lessons I Learned from my Uncle

September 2 is a birthday I shared with my uncle, Allen Drury. And it was on his 80th birthday, in 1998, that he passed away.

Uncle Al was a writer. And though he never taught me a thing about style or structure or dialog or plot, much of what I know about being a writer I learned from him.

Al's house was a lesson. Al lived in California, in a marvelous little house of only about 1300 square feet high above Tiburon. Every room except his office had a view of Oakland, Angel Island, or San Francisco. Okay, the house was also an ideal to strive for; the lesson was his office. Because his office did have a window that overlooked Angel Island; Uncle Al just put a bookcase in front of it. Other office furniture included another bookcase, six filing cabinets, a utilitarian desk, and one wooden armchair. Items of interest relevant to whatever he was working on -- postcards, photos, maps, menus, -- were tacked to the walls in an ever-changing collage. No luxuries, no creature comforts and no distractions -- nothing irrelevant to his work could be found in his workplace.

If ever we were visiting Uncle Al –- or if Al was visiting us in Florida, particularly the week every summer when we rented an electricity-free cabin on Sanibel Island (try doing that since they built a bridge to the place), or if he was staying with friends in New York, or if he was back in his beloved Washington DC –- none of us saw him before noon. Oh, we'd hear him. Sometime just after five he'd be puttering in the kitchen –- brewing coffee, poaching eggs, toasting toast, and juicing oranges. On the rare mornings I'd cross his path, he'd ignore me –- beyond absent responses to morning greetings. With breakfast done and the dishes washed, he'd disappear into his office at 6AM. And from that moment until noon, the only evidence of his existence was the sound of his typewriter. Six hours a day, six days a week, he was at the keyboard writing. Thirty-six hours a week, fifty-two weeks a year of butt in chair work went into everything he wrote.


Back in the days before internet, Uncle Al had a research assistant who would scour libraries for books he needed. Then Al would go through them, doing all his own research and clipping metal tabs to pages with information of use to whatever he was working on. He avoided digests or encyclopedias, going as near to the source as he could in search of unopinionated facts. When writing a series of novels, he'd use those tabs to mark pages in earlier books that had information he wanted to carry forward –- keeping continuity and developing multi-volume arcs. (I use paper stickies instead of metal tabs, but Uncle Al's system stands me in good stead)

I learned two lessons from Uncle Al about listening to others about your work. First, listen to editors. As Al became established as a writer he became less and less amenable to the criticisms of his editors. His books became longer and heavier as he resisted their input and all his research –- attention to detail that made his work so involvingly real –- became an impediment to storytelling. (His Pentagon is perhaps the most telling example of this. A fascinating story about the inner workings of the political heart of America's military is diluted and buried within an exhaustive textbook about the inner workings of the political heart of America's military.) Second, don't listen to family –- or to nonwriters who mean well. My mother was so upset by the brutal, downbeat ending of Decision that she didn't just cry, she was furious with her brother for doing that to her. For her sake he lightened the ending, blunting its impact.

Which speaks to one last lesson I learned from Uncle Al. Every single one of his novels was about something he cared about. More than just the story, his personal beliefs and passions informed how he told his tale. Everything he wrote was infused with his convictions. And I don't just mean his politics –- which were about 180 degrees from mine and which, due to the lack of editors, came to dominate his later fiction. What made his novels work was his commitment. If you as a writer are not fully invested in what you're writing, the reader will never care enough to be moved by your words.

What about you? What lessons have you learned from writers who have gone before? What lessons would you like to pass on to writers who will follow?

Writing Quirks, Anyone?

A lot of writers have music playlists for their WIPs to get them in a writing mood.

Me too. Well, kinda…

For each of my books, I’ve had ONE song that I replay over and over (and over) again until the book is done. My guestimate is I play it a bazillion times to get through 300 pages. Less for shorter anthology stories.

The Pros: The song instantly gets me into the mindset of my WIP.

The Cons: It annoys everyone around me – hence, the headphones.

Here’s a quickie list of my books and the songs that helped me write them:

Operation Prince Charming - “Fascination” by Kem

Dreaming of You in the Live, Love, Laugh anthology - “Put Your Hands on Me” by Joss Stone

By New Year’s Day in The Holiday Inn anthology – “Lonely” by Jaheim

A Moment on the Lips – “I Can Change” by John Legend.

Okay, I’ve shared a bit of my writing weirdness with you. Now it’s your turn:

Tell me your quirkiest writing quirk????

Celebrating Another First

Novel Spaces is a group blog, so I try to stay away from shameless self-promotion as much as I can. But when my debut novel with a brand new publisher is being released on the same day I’m required to post, I just have to talk about it. Today is all about celebrating the release of HUDDLE WITH ME TONIGHT, the first novel in my New York Sabers football series with Kimani Romance.

I’ve experienced several first in this decade or so since I first decided to pursue writing: typing “The End” when I finished my very first novel, receiving my first rejection letter, selling my first book, reading my first review. They were all a reason to celebrate—yes, even that rejection letter. All of those experiences marked a significant stop along this journey that continues every day I step up to the computer and choose to write. But today’s stop is extra special as it marks the first book with my dream publisher.

Harlequin is synonymous with romance novels. My dear aunt Lois, who encouraged my love of reading, had a collection of Harlequin romances that rivaled any I’ve ever seen at a local library. As I celebrate this major milestone in my writing career today, I think about how she must be smiling down on me and beaming with pride that her niece is officially a Harlequin romance author.

HUDDLE WITH ME TONIGHT is available in stores and online, in both print and eFormat. I hope you give my New York Sabers a try! However, because this is a celebration, I'm going to give an autographed copy of the book to one lucky commenter!

And if you have even more time to kill, hop on over to my fellow Austin RWA member, Army Captain Jessica Scott's blog where I talk a bit about how I came up with the idea for my Sabers series and share a short excerpt from the novel. I'm also giving away a copy of HUDDLE WITH ME TONIGHT at Jessica's blog, so leave a comment there to double your chances!

Guest editor Marco Palmieri: Deal With the Devil

Marco Palmieri is the editor behind Otherworld Editorial, a recently launched private consultation service for both aspiring and experienced authors. He is a former Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster, Inc., where from 1996-2008 he acquired and developed over 200 titles of fiction and nonfiction.







Make friends with your editor.

It sounds elementary, doesn’t it? That’s why I’m perplexed whenever I hear about authors who regard their editors as adversaries rather than allies. And while I’m pleased to be able to say I can count on one hand the number of times I met this attitude in my own fourteen-year career as a professional editor, the few occasions on which it did happen stand out vividly in my memory, for the simple reason that they were all so unnecessary.

From where I sit, the fact that some writers believe editors are evil incarnate has always struck me as odd. I might understand it if a particular editor had already proven himself to be damaging to an author’s work. Honestly, I have nothing but sympathy for writers who were once burned and have promised themselves never to let it happen a second time. But to then conclude all editors are clueless agents of darkness, lacking souls or sensibility, whose suggestions must be fought at every turn – well, that’s just plain silly.

Some experienced authors, especially if they’ve enjoyed great success, come to believe they’ve outgrown the need for an editor, or that they’ve earned the right to be published without one – as if being edited was something they had to “put up with” early in their career, but which is now no longer required of them because those dues have been paid. This belief, in my opinion, has never failed to backfire on a writer, resulting in books of noticeably diminished quality from their earlier, edited work.

There are also cases when a writer is so committed to maintaining the “purity” of his or her art they view any editorial suggestion beyond correcting a misspelled word or an inverted apostrophe as corruption. I can appreciate the desire to be able to offer a book to the world and declare, with pride, “For better or worse, these words are mine, no one else’s.” But no artist creates in vacuum. We’re influenced in innumerable ways by innumerable sources, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we realize it or not. To draw the line at an editor is, frankly, absurd.

It’s true not all editors are created equal. There are some pretty lousy ones out there, to be sure, and there are lousy writers, too. But just as no author sets out to write a bad book, so too no editor wants to do harm to one. The goal of each party should be to get the other’s A-game, and therein is the delicate balancing act of the editor-author relationship, and the attitude of each party toward the other can have a big influence on how a book turns out.

The most important thing to remember is that editors and authors have responsibilities to each other. It’s the editor’s obligation to offer the author another perspective on her work, and to suggest ways a manuscript may be improved. But he also has a responsibility to listen to the author, and to allow her to come up with her own solutions to any problems he has identified.

An author has the right to refuse any editorial recommendations she doesn’t agree with, but also a responsibility to carefully consider those recommendations first, with the understanding that these suggestions come not from a callous disregard for a manuscript’s identity or integrity, but from an earnest wish to see it succeed on as many levels as possible.

In my own experience, these considerations more often than not come naturally to authors and editors, and the majority of such working relationships are fun, energetic creative partnerships, built on honest communication, mutual respect, and a shared excitement for work being undertaken. But even then, no author or editor should expect to agree on everything – it would be a poor and stagnant collaboration if they did. That’s exactly what makes the editor-author dynamic work, when it’s at its best: the willingness to disagree without becoming contentious or adversarial. Such partnerships invariably lead to better books…and sometimes even enduring friendships.

—Marco Palmieri

Dreams and Nightmares of Book Signings

I think that most writers dream of having that line-around-the-corner type book signing as a show of fan support, book sales, and to be made to feel celebrity like special. At least for one signing on one particular day in the life and times of a writer.

Of course, most of us realize that scenario is often easier said than done. Unless you are fairly well known, have a publisher willing to devote the resources and effort to promote the book, can gain enough local interest through your own efforts, and other intangibles, having a standing room only gathering or otherwise group of fans who will allow you to empty the table by signing books for paying customers is difficult at best and nearly impossible at worst.

This notwithstanding, I have been on both ends of the book signing journey and believe that it is always worth pursuing at the end of the day, if book signing constitutes part of your criteria for having "made it" as an author.

On the dream side, I have had a few book signings in which due to a combination of my own labors and serious publisher involvement, have been enormously successful in terms of creating a buzz and signing every available copy and then some.

In one such, example, it occurred at a bookstore inside a flea market. The signing happened to be on a Saturday afternoon when the market was packed with bargain hunters. It was a two hour reading and signing event and was announced over the PA system every fifteen minutes or so. The result was that I ending up signing 150 books (or three cases of books), with enough time to spare that the bookstore owner actually went to a nearby chain bookstore and bought up another 50 books they had on hand (they were happy to cooperate and replaced their stock by ordering an even larger amount for their store). I signed that extra 50 books as well and headed back home (another state) grinning from ear to ear and wondering how I could package that success for other signings.

Alas, signings vary from bookstore to bookstore and sometimes no amount of preparation, publicity, or celebrity status can keep a book signing from being decidedly a flop. I have been at some major bookstores (both publisher sponsored and through my own initiative) and, in signing only a comparatively few copies of book, been little more than a mannequin for patrons passing me by. In some instances, customers will go in the opposite direction or avoid eye contact to keep from being solicited for signing by me or a desperate store representative trying to unload books the bookstore has no desire to keep.

In some (make that most) cases, timing is everything. There are instances where the bookstore only has an opening (or willingness to allow signing) at a time or day where not a lot of traffic is likely to be generated, all but guaranteeing that the turnout will be weak and book sales/signings far less than ideal.

Other times, the lack of bookstore preparation can doom a book signing from the start. In one classic example, I arrived at a chain bookstore signing and after announcing myself to the store manager, she did some checking and realized apologetically that the assistant manager had mistakenly had signing for two days later (at which point I was to be in another state for another signing). There were no posters up (as has been the case for some of my signings) and no author info in the store newsletter for either day.

The manager hastily hand wrote a sign to put in window, pulled out a table near front door and stacked books on, and we went with it. I managed to sign maybe fifteen books for actual customers and another twenty-five for the bookstore. The rest (about sixty or so) were returned to publisher.

Anyway, in conclusion, book signings are always a good thing for a writer's ego, even if some signings fail to live up to their potential. Going into them without overly high expectations and taking it all in stride whether a good or bad experience and go a long ways in keeping things in a proper perspective. The most important thing in being a writer is to write the best you can, which is within your control. Book signings, on the other hand, can often be a hit or miss, but always interesting and a testament to your ability to at least put yourself on the book signing map right alongside bestselling authors and others whose signature on a book can do much to brighten someone's day!

What are your thoughts on book signings in general? Share some of your good or bad signing experiences as an author.

As a reader, do you enjoy going to book signings? Or would you rather have an author mail you a signed copy of book?