Common Writing Mistakes and Ways to Avoid Them · 10:30pm Oct 29th, 2013
Here is a list of common problems that a lot of stories seem to have.
1. Tense Switching
Twilight looked up as Spike walks down the stairs.
Twilight looked - past tense, something HAPPENED
Spike walks - present tense, something IS HAPPENING
These two do not go together. Most stories are written in past tense. If you can write in present tense, fine. It's okay to switch tenses between scenes, but don't do it within a paragraph or in the same sentence.
2. Random capitalization:
Twilight looked Up as spike walked Down the stairs.
While most words in a story's title should be capitalized (see blog title for example), don't capitalize random words in the middle of the sentence. Also, do capitalize all the words that should be. Writing with Microsoft Word or a similar word processor and then copying into FIMFiction will catch a lot of these. Don't have one on your computer? Use Google Docs, or any number of free online programs. Spell Check is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
3. The great dialogue comma/period debate:
Incorrect:
"Be quiet." Said Twilight, looking up as Spike walked down the stairs.
Correct:
"Be quiet," said Twilight, looking up as Spike walked down the stairs.
Also correct:
"Be quiet." Twilight looked up as Spike walked down the stairs.
This is because
Said Twilight, looking up as Spike walked down the stairs.
is not proper sentence by itself.
4. Dialogue formatting:
Incorrect:
"Sorry, Twilight," said Spike, reaching the bottom of the stairs. "I was a little busy." Twilight stared at him. "Too busy to help me?"
Correct:
"Sorry, Twilight," said Spike, reaching the bottom of the stairs. "I was a little busy."
Twilight stared at him. "Too busy to help me?"
New speaker, new paragraph. No exceptions.
5. Dialogue formatting II:
Correct, but untidy:
"Well," said Spike, pausing in thought. "I have to go over to Rarity's." He hesitated, nervously ruffling the scales on the back of his head and shuffling his feet. Something was clearly on his mind. "I was going to help her with some stuff."
Better:
"Well," said Spike, pausing in thought. "I have to go over to Rarity's."
Spike hesitated, nervously ruffling the scales on the back of his head and shuffling his feet. Something was clearly on his mind. "I was going to help her with some stuff."
Also better:
"Well, I have to go over to Rarity's." Spike hesitated as if something was on his mind, nervously ruffling the scales on the back of his head and shuffling his feet. "I was going to help her with some stuff."
All three are grammatically correct, but some methods are organized better than others. Try to only put speech at the beginning and/or end of a paragraph, not somewhere in the middle. Also, don't be afraid of proper names! In the first correct example, instead of saying "He hesitated," make it clear that it was Spike. Names are more interesting and less confusing than pronouns. Generally go for about one instance of name per paragraph that talks about that character.
6. Names:
Incorrect:
Rainbow dash
Pinkie pie
Correct:
Rainbow Dash
Pinkie Pie
First and last names are capitalized.
7. Names II:
Incorrect:
Apple Jack
Correct:
Applejack
Things like this are less obvious. You'll just have to do your research. But if you're writing about a specific character, why wouldn't you want to know everything you could about them?
8. The wall of text:
Don't do it. Paragraphs are your friend! Use them, and also figure out a way to show the space between. Some people like to put a blank line between paragraphs, and some people like to indent at the start of a new paragraph.
9. Story descriptions:
If your description isn't written carefully people might pass over your story, or worse, downvote without even reading it. Write the description with at least as much care as you would put into the story. Check it especially well for errors. Try not to make it so long that a reader has to click "more." And put author notes after anything related to the story's plot. Nobody wants to read about the author before they read about the story.
10. Military inaccuracies:
The Air Force does not fly jets from aircraft carriers. Despite usually operating on the ground, Navy SEALs are still sailors and don't have ranks like Sergeant and Corporal. What with NSA leaks, there should be plenty of information about our military out there for you to find.
I might have missed some stuff. Add it in the comments.
Sadly, there are a few students in my third-year novel writing class who are guilty of many of these. It drives me nuts. You should probably add a section about commas, because it seems like almost nobody knows how to use that punctuation mark.
In regards to number 10; if you don't know it, Wikipedia does.
B-but my new character is a Navy SEAL soldier who likes to fly his ME-262 with his wife Apple Jack! He works for the French Air Forcee (the second e makes it French) aboard their carrier the USS France with his friends Pierre and Jock! He comes down the stairs but before Rainbow dash can ask him "what are you doing friday." she left!
2. Unless you're Emily Dickinson, in which it's alright.
I have honestly no idea why I used to do this.
... Where did you see this?
Anyways, this looks to be a good general guide that might as well be linked in the TWG.
1464949
The inaccuracy in this hurts so much. The French have a military?!
10... jee I wonder what story you're talking about.
Pretty good advice my friend. Though you should have mentioned about capitalization of proper nouns such as "I". For the military part, the Navy doesn't have enlisted ranks, they have enlisted ratings, I don't quite what the difference it but I'm guess it has to deal with what job a sailor would be doing.
2nd person story telling, fuck the world!
When I read the military part, it reminded me of myself from a little while ago and of something I read today. It was about Aviators Sunglasses (my old pair from '85 broke, needed a new pair), and it said how they were standard issue to the Air Force in World War One. The USAF was not officially made a branch until 1947, it had been the Army Air Corps and the Naval Air Corps. I chuckled at the silly mistake.
I always typed "Applebloom". I've seen it spelled that way a lot, and I thought it was correct.
Besides, it's cuter.
1464954 I've seen more than one story that had Air Force jets from carriers.
1464956 Ratings are the sailor's job. For example, an Intelligence Specialist who is a Petty Officer Third Class would be called IS3. A Hull Technician who is a Chief would be HTC.
However, each rate can have lots of jobs. A Naval Enlisted Classification (NEC) is a four digit code that represents the specific thing that that person does, further subdividing rates. For example, there are four different kinds of Intelligence Specialists and eight different kinds of Hull Techs.
An NEC is similar to other services' MOS.
1464983 Here's one for controversy: Big Macintosh or Big McIntosh? Both are technically correct because Hasbro changed the spelling between early and more recent merchandise.
1464992 Big Macintosh.
1464946 In regards to number 10, wikipedia is wrong.
Anyway, TNaB, if you ever want a list of common military inaccuracies, feel free to ask. I guarantee that I can give you some. Maybe not so many for the navy, or the air force, but as a member of the Army, I can give you a shitload, that all annoy the living fuck out of me.
Such the difference between a magazine, and stripper clip. A magazine goes into the weapon (unless it's old, like a mowzer or something), and a clip is used to hold bullets so you can reload your mag.
Infantry tactics. If you don't know them, ask someone who does. Seriously, call of duty, and battlefield are not military simulators. They are games. Period.
Explosives and ballistics. Rocket launchers, do not actually fire a rocket most of the time, the M72 rocket launcher being a prime example. It has a short burn rocket that runs out of juice before it leaves the tube, and then just kind of... lobs the warhead at where you pointed it.
Grenades. They are really fucking loud. Like, really really loud. You can hear them from several kilometers away kind of loud.
Canadians do not use American weapon systems. We use similar weapon systems, but they are still different, and therefore, have different names.
A tank is not an all powerful super weapon. If you lack the logistic support for fuel and ammo... You're gonna have a bad time. you only have a couple hours of fuel in an abrams... and probably only 20 120mm shells (not 100% on that one, do your own damn research).
Radio chatter... There is so much that is always wrong with this. You don't use names. You don't swear. You don't say "Over and out", because it's stupid, and redundant. (Over, means you are waiting for the next speaker. Out means you are done the conversation. Only the conversation initiator can 'out' someone.) There are formats for reports (such as a situation report (SitRep), an IED report (9-Liner), a casualty report (CaseRep), etc.). The format isn't the same for every country, nor ever unit, but there is a format. Find one, and use it.
I feel like I'm rambling... Sorry TNaB.
1465115
That's an ignorant statement. Wikipedia often has more accurate information than plenty of sources, mostly because inaccurate posts are rare, and it always stays up to date.
1465144 Wikipedia is a good place to start your research.
1465169 Yes. Don't do everything there, but it's a good place to get a guideline for, say, ships in US service, Armament of the USMC, and the ranks of those organizations. Just be ready to back it up.
This kind of thing is sorely needed in this lovable cesspool we call Fimfic.
1465115
I tend to snicker when I see someone playing CoD or MW and the like since I see no one actually using any infantry tactics that a sane infantryman would use. No working as a team, no ducking for cover, no looking around corners, nothing. Speaking some of my classmates at school they agree with me, granted they tend to be either active duty military or retired (I go to school next to Ft. Hood)
Wikipedia is a place to start, and a smart person would follow the reference links.
I Don't Agree With Your Second Point.
That was incredibly hard to type-- how the hell do people type that like that out of habit?
1465298 I think that they unconsciously capitalize words that seem important in the sentence. I still have never really understood it, but I see it a lot.
1464992
I would regard McIntosh as wrong, if only because the strange capitalization in the middle of the word breaks immersion and makes readers pause to think, "Wait, what did it just say? Is that an error or- oh wait, it's just a different way of spelling it." As a reader myself, I hate it when my immersion gets broken, a story that I'm constantly being distracted from isn't one I can enjoy.
1465217 Lol. I'd like to see them try and grasp 'Up, he see's me, down.' And then realise just how accurate firearms aren't when in a live fire situation...
1465619
Huh? I only understood about half that
1465635 Up, he see's me, down, is section attacks. Covering fire and movement.
And when you are trying to A suppress, B not die, your accuracy drops... a lot.
Silly TNaB, it's totally spelt Applebloom.
Comma Splices
I have so much trouble with comma splices.
1465775
And you're right about the tanks, even in the anime Girl und Panzer which takes bit of a romantic view of tanks, mentions that they will have small supply of shells and that tanks are cramped
I dont make any of these mistakes (save for the comma problem) and my writing still sucks...
Maybe I need to throw a thesaurus at my writing and use big and obscure words nobody knows...
1465861
Same here. Those curved little bastards are the bane of my writing ventures. That, and writing a story that's interesting and doesn't suck.
About number 4. Isn't that a line break and not a new paragraph? Also, when both keep jabbering, they can share the Lineagraph?
3915573 In this case, it's both. A new paragraph always begins on a new line. Also, new speaker, new paragraph. No exceptions.
3915578 Good... Thanks... Actually wanted to argue some more but did reread your reply...