The Serial Comma

Do you know what the serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma) is? Some people use it, some people are against it, and it's used less and less as time goes on.

I personally use it and think it should be used everywhere.

The serial comma is a comma placed before the final conjunction in a list of three or more items/phrases. For example: My favorite fruits are pineapple, strawberry, and watermelon. I used a comma before the final conjunction (and in that sentence) in the list of my favorite fruits.

The reason you want to use this comma is because it makes listing three or more items make more sense. If you write "The cheeses on the table are swiss, cheddar, gouda and parmesan," you could mean "The cheeses on the table are swiss, cheddar, with gouda and parmesan mixed together." It's better to have a comma after the second-to-last item listed.

And from what I know, it's grammatically correct.

So instead, you should write "The cheeses on the table are swiss, cheddar, gouda, and parmesan."

But note something. Do not use the serial comma when listing fewer than three items. Don't say, "This book is written in English, and Spanish." The comma doesn't work there. Stick with writing "English and Spanish."

Also, use the serial comma should be used in a list of phrases or sentences. My favorite fruit is pineapple, my second-favorite fruit is strawberries, and my third-favorite fruit is watermelon.

Make sense? If not, ask me about this in the comment form below.

Making Sense with Pronouns

When you're writing a novel, you want it to make sense. You want the readers to know what you mean. And one thing is pronoun usage and making sense with them.

"John and Clyde saw what was in Leo's house. He screamed."

Who screamed? Did John or Clyde scream at what was in Leo's house? Or was Leo there and did he scream?

Always make sure that when you're naming someone with a pronoun that the reader knows what's going on. "When Katy saw that everything was okay, she sighed with relief." This makes sense, because we're only talking about one person in the sentence. We can say "she" because we named Katy and no one else before we used "she." Also, don't write "When she saw that everything was okay, Katy sighed with relief." Now someone else saw that everything was okay, and Katy sighed with relief.

Now, if someone already knows that Katy is doing something, if she was mentioned just a few words ago, saying "When she saw that everything was okay, she sighed with relief" should easily make sense to the reader.

But with the John and Clyde sentence, we're talking about multiple people but only one person screams. And the exact single person who screamed isn't defined. If you mean that just John or Clyde (or possibly Leo) screamed, name the person. "John and Clyde saw what was in Leo's house. Clyde screamed." Or "John screamed."

If you're going to use a pronoun when talking about multiple people, only use it if more than one person is doing something. "John and Clyde saw what was in Leo's house. They screamed." This makes a lot more sense.

Hope this helps.

Similes and Metaphors: What And What NOT To Do

My favorite holiday Christmas was a week ago already. I miss it. But Happy New Year!

As you should know, a simile is used in a sentence as figure of speech comparing something with another. It's used chiefly in describing something. The tomato soup was as red as blood. And a metaphor is also figure of speech describing something, except that the word is applied to what it's describing, but is not literal. He was a tree. In other words, he was really tall.

But, as with all prose and poetry, there are many things you should and should not do when using similes and metaphors. Let's get on with it.

Use similes and metaphors sparingly. Don't use similes and metaphors every time you describe something. That makes bad writing.

Make sure that your similes and metaphors make sense. Obviously, you don't want to write, "The computer looked like a ceiling." How in the world would a computer look like a ceiling?

Do not name. Obviously. Similes and metaphors describe, not name. They are not literal. "Mars was like a planet." And it would be even worse if you wrote "Mars was a planet." That's not a metaphor anymore. That's telling you was Mars was (and still is.)

Do not go cheesy. Seriously. Don't go over the top. Don't say "Her face was as red as red construction paper." No over-exaggerating either. "The man was a skinny mountain." So the man was tall and thin? Why not stick with "The man was a tree."

I hope this helps. This is very important when writing your novels. I don't write poetry, but I can tell you that a lot of these tips apply to poetry. If you have any other tips, let me know in the comments.

Book Review - "The Kill Order" (No spoilers)

(This book review doesn't give any plot information about the book.)

I got the fourth book in a series called The Maze Runner, The Kill Order. It's a prequel to the first three, set 13 years before the first book. I got it for Christmas and started it the day after. I finished it in 3 days, that's how much it sucked me in. The entire series (The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, The Kill Order, respectively) was written by James Dashner.

The Kill Order is the latest book. It was released this year. And that's what I'm reviewing.

A basic premise: The Earth suffered terrible sun flares a year ago. Mark and Trina survived them. But now, a virus is beginning to spread all across the eastern United States. A disease of absolute madness. And it's mutating.

Pro - The book was very intense and action-packed. Any book that's like that will suck me in.

Pro - The characters were likable. He did a good job of making me care for the good people.

Con - The author's writing style sometimes annoys me. He will often write "the boy," "the girl," etc. in reference to the person he's writing about, instead of using "he" or "she." Why there shouldn't be anything wrong with doing that, he does it all the time.

I'd recommend picking up the first book, The Maze Runner, at the library, and giving it a go.

PARENTAL INFORMATION:
I'd rate this book PG-13. It is very violent. Very violent. The entire virus part may especially affect young children. The language is okay, only uses a slight bit of the least inappropriate profanity. There is only a little drug mentioning in the book.

All relationships are appropriate.

Before the Year Wraps Up...

2012 draws to a close in a few days. But before it ends, I want to mention some highlights from this year.

This blog was created, first of all.

And second of all, the world didn't end on December 21st. I didn't really expect it to.

So, coming into 2013, I'm going to make it a goal to write posts on this blog more frequently. As a matter of fact, I'm going to start writing ideas down after I finish this blog post.

To all readers of this blog, you all are really awesome people. Really.

NaNoWriMo: Final Words

I completed NaNoWriMo on the 28th of November. Yes, I wrote a 50,000+ word novel. But for some people, they had a comeback story, or some other exciting finish of NaNoWriMo. Some didn't even finish.

If you didn't finish, good job for attempting! Not many average people would say "yes" to writing a novel in a month. Hey, maybe next year!

For those who did finish, great job for what you have accomplished! Whether it was hard work or easy work for you, whether you came back from almost not winning, good job!

If you had a comeback or some other interesting story of how you won NaNoWriMo or almost came back but just couldn't win, come here and share it! I'd love to hear them!

NaNoWriMo November 2012: ADVICE

NaNoWriMo is coming November 1st. And I'm here to help you get your novel done before December 1st.

First off, before the event begins, you'll want to write down a plot. It can be just a simple list of things behind the story or an entire 70-sheet notebook filled up entirely with the story.

Secondly, if you have a busy schedule, put in 1-2 hours of writing every day.

Thirdly, if you are on the YWP site, be sure that you have set your goal.

When the event is going on, take the steps I'm about to give you. It's important not to burn yourself out when writing. If you are feeling worn out by your writing or can't seem to write for the time being, take a break and get back to it later. Usually a short walk around your neighborhood could do.

How to complete the challenge in a simple way:

If you are on the adult website, the word count goal is automatically 50,000 words. If you are on the YWP website, you can set your own goal.

Divide your word count goal by 30. Whatever your result is is the amount of words you have to write per day. I'll just call it your daily word count goal in this post.

Next, find out how much time to fit into your day to write. Do this by taking a typing test. You can find them online. Divide your daily word count goal by the amount of words per minute that you can type, and that is how many minutes it would take to get your daily word count goal done.

HOWEVER, you will also want to tack on 30 - 60 extra minutes to that amount of minutes, because sometimes you might type something out and you decide to change it, you will probably make frequent typos, etc. Mistakes and quick edits will add up the amount of time you have to take to write.

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EXAMPLE:

Let's say your goal for the month is 50,000 words. So you would do the math: 50,000 divided by 30. You wound end up with a decimal number, but just round it up to the nearest one. You'd get 1,667.

Next, let's say a typing test says you type 30 words per minute. You divide 1,667 by 30 and get a number with decimals, but you round it to 56. So. 56 minutes to get to 1,667, but then there will be extra time taken with fixing errors and all, so add another hour.

In total, you'd have to take 2 hours every day to get your 1,667 daily words done.
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Hope this advice helps!

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My history of NaNoWriMo:

When I first heard about NaNoWriMo almost a year ago, it was already 3 days into NaNoWriMo, but I did it anyways. I got past my goal of writing a 30,000-word novel. In August this summer I did a 50,000-word novel in Camp NaNoWriMo.

I'm about to write my third NaNoWriMo novel, called "Derrick And Fame." My word count goal is 50,000 words. You can find me on the YWP NaNoWriMo website as Gillman329.