I’m not a writer with many published works to my credit, but I have done a lot or reading—of books, articles, short stories, essays, even some poetry. I’ve read most every different kind of writing from published material to unpublished manuscripts from writers of all stages in their journey toward publication. As a result, I really don’t have a solid background to tell other writers how to write, and you can ignore what I say below if you want, but in my rather undistinguished career I’ve seen a lot of bad writing as well as good. I’m familiar with most of the best known “rules” of writing and I certainly don’t need to repeat those here. Any good textbook on writing will give you all that stuff if you want to know more about the craft. What I’d like to do in this post is present a few “rules” (better yet, “suggestions”) on writing that don’t come up very often (if at all) in writing books or courses on “good” writing. These are suggestions I’ve put together over the twenty years or so I’ve been writing, suggestions I’ve developed that I’ve noticed repeatedly in everything from well-known authors to rank beginners. Here goes . . . .
- The indefinite “it” as in “It was time to go.” This use of the word “it” has always grated on my mind. I keep wondering what “it” is. What does it refer to? A pronoun has to have an antecedent that it refers to, but in this construction, there isn’t any. I try not use “it” this way, and if I find myself using it, I usually attempt to recast the sentence. Instead of “It was time to go,” I might say “We left at 3:00 AM.”
1a. The same applies to the indefinite “There,” as in “There was no time left.” [I admit sometimes in these blog posts I use “There is,” or “It is.” But don’t do as I do, do what is best.] - Speaking of the antecedent of pronouns, always try and be clear to the reader what antecedent you are referring to. I’ve read many manuscripts and even some published works where a pronoun’s antecedent isn’t always clear. Occasionally I’m unsure of what antecedent is being referred to. This sometimes comes up in dialogue where more than two people are speaking. When the writer writes, “he said,” the person speaking should be absolutely clear.
- Use the past tense instead of the present participle. The present participle is characterized by the presence of the “ing” on the end of a verb. “He was speaking.” I find it simpler and more to the point to say “He spoke.” (Or, “He said.”) The present participle is useful if you want to emphasize that something is happening right now as in, “He was speaking when I entered the room.” But if your narrative is in the past tense, simply using the past tense of the verb is simpler and more forceful.
- Use “who” for people, and “that” for other things. I see and hear this all the time, in reading, conversation, or on television. I believe the proper construction should be, “The person who assassinated the President,” not “The person that assassinated the President.” Human beings are “whos,” not “thats.” Dogs and cats and bridges and washtubs and everything else are a “that.”
- This next suggestion is more a matter of preference than a rule. I like to use “more than” instead of “over” for dimensions and figures and other measurements. I would write, “We had more than a hundred people at the last meeting,” rather than “over one hundred people.” But I’ve seen other writers who prefer “over” to “more than.” The concept is a toss-up. Decide for yourself.
- And for crying out loud, learn the difference between “lie” and “lay”!!! See my blog post of December 10, 2015. https://rogerfloyd.com/2015/10/lying-and-laying/ This is probably the most common miscue I see/hear in all of the use of the English language. It’s on television, it’s everywhere. It’s not, “I’m going to lay down,” (lay what down?), it’s “I’m going to lie down.”
There’s always “there, their, and they’re,” and “it’s and its,” but what the hell, this is enough.