A Guide for Young Writers

Wordsmithing 101 presents a set of rules for crafting sentences and paragraphs. Some of the rules are controversial, but we must all agree a true artist knows when to break the rules. This handbook is divided into four sections.

The Science of Fiction Writing provides rules to help craft better sentences, paragraphs, and believable dialogue. It will not make your characters more likeable or your plot more dramatic, but it will present your characters and plot with well-crafted sentences.

Verb Tenses and Usage sorts out the multitude of verb tenses in the English language and provides samples.

Punctuation will help you decide if your ellipsis needs three dots or four and will guide you through the rules for using the n-dash. One would think punctuation use would be straight forward; after all, we do have the Chicago Manual of Style. But there is always that pesky Oxford comma and several other questionable uses. Always remember that punctuation is there to help the reader understand the written word.

Easily Confused Words: Who doesn’t have trouble with immigrate and emigrate? Capitol and capital are another pair of similar words that are easily confused. There is no shortage of easily confused words in the English language. Fortunately, with an e-book without an ISBN, it will be easy to update this handbook.

This truly is a handbook and is not intended to be read from cover to cover. The table of contents usually found in the left upper corner should guide you to the appropriate information. As mentioned, many of these rules will be controversial. Feel free to leave negative comments (with justification) in the review section. If you have a rule you think should be included, e-mail me at LSBuege@aol.com