Author: Siren Allen

http://dailywritingtips.com – If you have not subscribed to receive their daily newsletter you should; it’s like totally awesome! LOL.

Today’s email I received from DWT was about over usage of the word Like. I am guilty of this crime. DWT provides a few suggestions to keep us away from using like in every other sentence we say or write.

Hope this helps someone,
xoxo Siren

“Like” Serves Nouns and Pronouns, Not Verbs

Like is associated with various uncouth usages — “They were, like, all over the place”; “I was, like, ‘Really?’” — common in speech but easily avoided (except for comic effect) in writing, but many people are unaware that another widespread usage is considered improper in formal writing.

As a preposition meaning “similar to,” like is associated with nouns (“She entered the room like an empress”) and pronouns (“I don’t know anyone like him”). However, when the word connects one clause (a segment of a sentence that includes a subject and a verb) to another, it impersonates a conjunction: “He started dancing like his pants were on fire”; “I arranged the furniture like it had appeared before.”

Note, though, that this usage, though ubiquitous in conversation and in informal writing, is not considered acceptable in formal writing; like should be replaced, respectively, by “as if” (He started dancing as if his pants were on fire”) or as: (“I arranged the furniture as it had appeared before”). Replacing as with “the way” is also acceptable: “I arranged the furniture the way it had appeared before.”

(But beware of hypercorrection; as is erroneous when, with the same intent, it precedes a noun: “She entered the room as an empress” means that the subject literally became, rather than merely resembled, royalty. But “She entered the room as an empress would” is correct, because the emphasis is then on the subject’s action, not on the type of person the subject is compared to.)

In the case of a sentence such as “Like many first-time visitors do, I stared, dumbstruck, at the vista before me,” either change like to as (“As many first-time visitors do, I stared, dumbstruck, at the vista before me”) or delete the verb at the end of the introductory phrase (“Like many first-time visitors, I stared, dumbstruck, at the vista before me”).

I will begin by saying that I am extremely nervous when it comes to allowing my family and friends to read the stories I write. But, this week I decided to go ahead and let a co-worker read my story Christmas Confusion.

SHE LOVED IT, (I’M SO EXCITED)

Okay I will stop yelling now. But I am glad that she liked it because I love it. It’s not an Erotica, which is what I usually write. It’s a New Adult and it’s very sweet and funny. I never thought I would like writing for that genre – but I enjoyed writing this story very much.

I so wish I could share a snippet of it with you but I don’t think that would be wise since it is currently in the publishers hands and they frown upon that. Fingers crossed, hoping they will enjoy reading it as much as my co-worker Shawn did. (She asked me to say her name, it makes her feel special, lol)

The point of this post is – Share! Share your story with people you can trust and who will give you an honest opinion. Shawn pointed out a few places in my story that confused her and a few run on sentences, (I am the worst when it comes to run on sentences.) But she helped me catch things that I missed, thanks Shawn.

Writing Tip: Share.

xoxo Siren

Does anyone other than me struggle with word usage? Sometimes I struggle with which word to use in certain situations; especially in the case of Who vs. Whom. Thankfully my friends over at dailywritingtips.com have the answer. Check out the email they sent me on the subject of when to use who or whom. Hope this helps someone, xoxo Siren.

How Do You Determine Whether to Use Who or Whom?

Posted: 18 Mar 2013 09:03 PM PDT

Even the boldest, most confident writers can cower in fear and sob with frustration when confronted with the problem of whether to use who or whom in a sentence. Heck, I know it confuses me.

Here’s the distinction: Use who to refer to the subject of the sentence (“I am the person who you are looking for”) and whom to refer to the object of the sentence (“Whom have you invited?”)

If you’re still unsure about which form to use in a sentence, try this test: Restate the sentence with a personal pronoun, or, if it is a question, answer the question with one word. If the personal pronoun in the restatement or response is he or she, who is correct. If it’s him or her, whom is correct.

Statement: “I have a friend who can help.”
Restatement: “He can help.” (Who is correct.)

Question: “Whom have you invited?”
Response: “Him.” (Whom is correct.)

Note, however, that sometimes you can avoid the problem of determining which form to use by omitting a relative pronoun altogether, and the result is often an improvement. For example, the sentence “I am the person who you are looking for” is better rendered as “I am the person you are looking for.”

Also, beware of these pitfalls: “They’ll complain to whoever [not whomever] will listen” is correct, because whoever is the subject of “will listen.” However, “Whomever [not whoever] you hire is fine with me” is correct because whomever is the object of hire.

Furthermore, use of whom in a sentence such as “It was Smith and Jones whom we had to contend with” is a hypercorrection. (“It was Smith and Jones who we had to contend with” is correct, though the sentence is better with the pronoun omitted: “It was Smith and Jones we had to contend with.”) Append a phrase containing the same pronoun to realize how awkward this form is. (“It was Smith and Jones whom we had to contend with, whom some among us feared.”)

These complications, and others, make traditional rules regarding use of whom problematic; when even experienced writers have to repeatedly pore through a grammar text to remind themselves about the details, the distinction has ceased to be practical. The fusty who/whom distinction is fading in conversational usage, and it is my fervent hope that the use of whom except in unambiguous “to whom” constructions will likewise atrophy.

I’ll let legendary language maven William Safire have the last word: Of this issue, he said, in effect, when the question of whether to use whom or who arises, revise the sentence so that you don’t have to puzzle over which form is correct.

Happy Monday, fellow writers (published and unpublished).

You are probably thinking, ‘Siren, It’s Monday. Why are you in such a good mood?’

Well i’m in a great mood because I entered a writing contest a few weeks ago, the results are now in and guess what – I LOST. 🙂

Yep you heard me correcty, I lost, I didn’t even make it to the finals.

BUT: I did receive positive feedback from one of the editors and you know what? Her feedback has helped me alot. I see places in my story that need a lot of work and places that need to be strengthened. I didn’t lose the contest because i’m a bad writer, I lost because my story was weak. The plot wasn’t heavy enough. There wasn’t enough conflict to keep my damsel and hero apart and not enough romance to bring them together.

But I love the story line of my book and I believe it can become a great story, but it’s up to me to make it a great story!

So i’m going to take the editors advice and work on it, have others read it, work on it some more – then resubmit it.

The moral of the story is: Losing is not always bad. It’s what you do with the loss that makes it bad. I plan to use my loss as motivation and work harder and study the craft of writing more.

Remember – never give up.

Have a great day all!!
xoxo Siren