How's Camp NaNoWriMo?

How's Camp NaNoWriMo going for you? I want to know how you've been doing so far! Share it in comments below. Also share how you've been enjoying it and how you feel your novel is.

These are my stats so far for my Camp NaNoWriMo novel, Three Centuries Later (sorry if they look a little blurry):

Camp NaNoWriMo Prep

This post is to help give tips and preparation for the upcoming Camp NaNoWriMo.

Back in April, I was completely unaware that Camp NaNoWriMo was going on then (it was June and August last year!). Actually, that's okay; April was not a good month for it. The only problem was that I didn't write any get-ready post for that month.

But I know that in just over a week begins the July session of Camp NaNoWriMo 2013, and I'm participating. And getting you ready for it.

Preparation:

Get your plot written as much as you need to. I'm not a huge and fancy plotter, but I still write down plots. If you don't make a good plot, you don't make a good book.

Set a decent word-count goal as well; Camp NaNoWriMo allows for the setting of your own word count goal now unlike previous years. If you're up for a good challenge, do 50,000 words like the original Camp NaNoWriMo (and the adult NaNoWriMo in general). I'm doing 50,000 words. However, don't push yourself that far if you really think you can't do it. My first NaNoWriMo was 30,000 words.

Pick a good place to write the novel. I use Google Docs for novel-writing, but most people prefer to use an offline editor like Scrivener or Word.

During the writing process:

Make sure to meet your daily goal every day. There's one of the many keys to winning.

Don't burn out. If you're getting burned out, stop, get away from the book, and get back to it when you feel like it. Some days you may possibly feel like writing two thousand words, which is good. Some days you may possibly feel like writing four thousand words; I've done that, but rarely and when I'm in the mood. Other days, you won't feel like writing your daily goal; I've experienced it, and it's not fun. Just write as much as you feel you can during the day (but make sure to meet your goal by the end of July).

Write with good grammar. Okay, that's coming from someone who hates to see bad grammar, but just try to keep the good grammar going. If you need some help, I have a number of posts on this blog with grammar tips. Look around and see what you find. Who wants to read a great story yet be bothered by grammar error's? (I mean errors, not error's.)

Also, remember to validate your word count at the end of NaNoWriMo. People can go past their word count goal without validating the length of their novels. No fun to get past your word count goal without winning, right?

And finally, enjoy yourself! It's not fun to write a novel and not enjoy yourself. I mean, sometimes you won't enjoy writing this novel, sometimes you will. It happens to me during NaNoWriMo.

To wrap up this post:

Anymore questions or tips? I'd be happy to answer; just comment on this post. However, I'm afraid I cannot help with writer's block; I haven't gone through it. (I don't mean to brag about that.)

Have a good day, and enjoy writing.

Comma Problem

So many comma errors are seen in writing today. I wouldn't be surprised to look at one of my NaNoWriMo novels and find a comma error.

Commas are sometimes unnecessarily added, or left out. Some people use them for the purpose of "emphasizing".

But I recently got a little more acquainted with the rules of commas, and I'm here to help you familiarize yourself with them. These are the rules:

• Commas must set off long introductory prepositional phrases. For example: Throughout the day and night, birds continued to die. If I had left out the comma, the sentence may seem like it's talking about "day and night birds". Also, it makes the sentence seem like a compound sentence with a gramatical error (an incomplete sentence, "Throughout the day"). Read it without the comma, and you'll see what I mean.
• Commas must follow introductory adverb clauses. A comma must separate the two. For example: As the air grew hotter, Mike felt more and more tired. This is correct. If you take out the comma, it is incorrect. Another example: If this sentence has an introductory adverb phrase, it has a comma following that adverb phrase.
• Commas must be placed before coordinating conjunctions that split a compound sentence, unless the clauses are short and related. For example, The crew threw everything overboard, but the vessel still sank. That is correct. Again, if the clauses are short and related, no comma is needed. The bomb was lit and the house exploded. That is correct. But otherwise, include a comma before the conjunction.
• Commas must split three or more items. This does not include verbs, but things like lists (Beds, tables, picture frames, lamps, chairs, and sofas littered the junkyard) and compound sentences (The dust bowl approached, Ron screamed, and the dog ran away).
• Commas must separate descriptive adjectives. The long, narrow board cracked. This is correct. Any descriptive adjectives neighboring each other are separated by commas.
• Commas must separate direct quotations unless other punctation is present. "We'll be dead in five hours if we can't get free," Ethan said. You should already know this rule.
• Commas must separate nonrestrictive adjective clauses. This sentence uses a nonrestrictive adjective clause: The five-legged wolf, who had just walked five hundred miles, was finally at the required location. This sentence uses a restrictive adjective clause, meaning no commas are needed to separate it: The wolf who had five legs was finally at the required location.
• Commas must set off interrupted parts of sentences, like appositives, nouns of direct address, and parenthetical elements. Appositive "Thomas's neighbor": Harry, Thomas's neighbor, was indeed the thief. Noun of direct address "Britain": After all, you set the bomb, Britain. Parenthetical element "as everyone had expected": The weather, as everyone had expected, was cold.
• Commas follow mild interjections and other introductory words at the beginning of sentences. Mild interjections like well, so, and say are typically placed at the beginning of a sentence; therefore, they are set off by commas. This also goes for other introductory words, like yes and no.
• Commas separate digits of numbers every three digits and parts of dates and addresses. They also follow greetings of non-business letters and after closings of all letters. You should know most of this. Especially the number-comma rule.

Where Grammatical Errors Are Okay

Using gramatical errors in writing is a terribly common thing today.

But is there anywhere you can place bad grammar?

That's it: Dialog.

The dialog of books doesn't matter with grammar as much. A character could say "There's cows everywhere!" and that's okay. But if that were not dialog, it would be incorrect. For example, writing Loads of cows was on the farm is incorrect. But if Joe says "There's cows everywhere!", that is correct.

Always remember, though, that a set of gramatical rules still applies to dialog. You must still have your quotation marks, proper capitalization, and proper punctuation. Do not write: "theres cows everywhere! John said. Instead, use the proper marks and capitalization (even the apostrophe in the incorrect "there's"!): "There's cows everywhere!" John said.

Contest Ideas?

I would like to run some kind of contest or game on this blog, but I first need a few suggestions.

Ideas?

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.