Negotiables: These are rules thatexperts largely agree can be broken to good effect. In formal writing (such asdoctoral dissertation),strict rules would still apply. But in informal writing, such as writingautobiography, looser rules are acceptable.

Split infinitives: An infinitive isbasic verb form (to be, to do, etc.). “To boldly go where no man has gone before” may not sound as good as “To go boldly where no man….” Yet, many times, there simply is no other good place to putadverb but inmiddle ofinfinitive. Don’t contort your sentences just to avoid splittinginfinitive.

Endingsentence withpreposition: Prepositions are those little words such as in, on, to, for, with, by. The first step is to make sure you really needpreposition. In rise up, enter into, chase after, continue on (and others),verbs all function without any preposition. Also, if you can attachpreposition toverb, do so. Example: “I’m going to pick upkids” sounds better than “I’m going to pickkids up.” Onother hand, sometimes there is no other good place to putpreposition but atend. (How else would you say, “It’s freezing in here becauseair conditioning is on!”?) Don’t contort your sentences just to avoid ending withpreposition.

Fragments: A complete sentence requires bothsubject andverb; if one orother is missing, it’sfragment. Fragments can easily confusereader. Onother hand, if it’s brief, such as “Indeed.” “Perhaps.” “No problem.” “Probably not.” …it will be understood, and adding enough words to makecomplete sentence can make it too wordy. Or, iffragments followpattern, such as, “All ofkids in my neighborhood grew up to be successful professionals. Doctors. Lawyers. Airline pilots. Entrepreneurs.” Or “He walked away, and she never saw him again. Until today.” …again, it will be easily understood. Use fragments with care, and they can be effective.

Beginning withconjunction: We used to avoid starting sentences with But, And, So. You could substitute Therefore, However, In addition. But those are all bigger words. Andlittle ones work fine. So go ahead and do it.

Beginning with “However”: This one islittle different. Most experts agree that we shouldn’t, in sentences such as, “I hadgood time. However,movie was too long.”

Instead, say either, “I hadgood time; however,movie was too long,” or “I hadgood time. The movie was too long, however.” Usually, you can findplace to put however other than atbeginning.

In sentences such as, “However much we hurry, we will still be late,” you would put however atbeginning. The clue is whether or not however is followed bycomma.

“Hopefully”: Though exceedingly common, this is notgood word to use when you mean, “I hope….”, “It is hoped….”, “Withbit of luck….” or something like that. Hopefully does have its place, as in, “I ran hopefully to answerdoor, wanting it to be my son, home safe and sound.”

“He”/ “she”/ “they”: This one won’t come up much in autobiographical writing, because you will probably remembergender identities ofpeople in your life. But in other kinds of writing, you will have to decide.

Traditionally, when gender was unknown, we said he. A few decades ago, someone decided that’s sexist, and we must say he/she. This can be cumbersome if we must continue with his/her, him/her, and so on. So someone suggested we useneutral they, but I personally think this sounds lame when we are talking aboutindividual.

I thinkbest rule is, if you knowgender, say it. If it doesn’t matter, choose one. If you have more than one person in your narrative, alternate genders—the teacher is she,student is he, and so on.

Latin vs. Anglo-Saxon: We used to be told not to use Latin-based words when we can use Anglo-Saxon equivalents. That’s no longercase (and thankfully so, because I prefer Latin). Avoid, shun, and eschew mean essentiallysame thing. The origins are Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and French, respectively. Most people would choose avoid. But if you prefersound of one ofothers, by all means, use it.

Technique: Following are some things that are generally accepted as “best.” They are neither “right” nor “wrong”; some probably would not be used in formal writing, but can help informal writing be more effective.

Dynamic verbs are better than static verbs. Static verbs include all forms of “to be,” and all verbs that functionsame way (to look, sound, feel, taste, smell, seem, etc.). Example: “He was really tall” is not as good as “He towered over everyone else.” Reminder: static verbs are modified by adjectives, while dynamic verbs are modified by adverbs. Example: “His behavior was bad”; “He behaved badly.” Do not say, “I felt badly” unless you mean you were clumsy inway you touched something.

Active verbs are better than passive verbs. Example: “Everyone enjoyedconcert” is better than “The concert was enjoyed by everyone.”

Verbs arestrongest part of speech, followed by nouns, then adjectives; adverbs areweakest. If you can findgood verb, you don’t even needadverb.

Avoid weak modifiers such as very, really, extremely. Inexample above, if you say he “towered,” you don’t need any modifier.

“There is,” “there are,” “there was,” and “there were” are weak construction. Example: A River Runs Through It ismuch better title than There’sRiver in It.

Redundancy vs. repetition: Redundancy is when you usesame word,same expression,same construction too often, toboring effect. Repetition is when you do so intentionally to makepoint. The first is bad,second good.

Leave out “and” inlong list. Example: “Our farm had every imaginable kind of domestic animal—horses, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, eventame squirrel.” See howmissing and suggestslist could go on longer.

Ellipsis: In this context, it meansmissing word or words that do not cause confusion becausepattern has been established. Example: “My oldest child is sixteen; my youngest, nine.” Is has been left out ofsecond clause, but you understand it’s implied.

Cliches and metaphors: Don’t use cliches. Most began as meaningful metaphors but have been so overused they’re no good any more.

Don’t use metaphors unless you knoworiginal meaning. For example, if you say, “towline” (instead of “toeline”) or “a long road to hoe” (instead of “a long row to hoe”), you will sound ridiculous to readers who know better. Good metaphors can be very effective in giving flavor totime and place. Use metaphors carefully.

Bibliography

Writing Basics

The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White (indispensable!)

The Essential Writer’s Companion

Keys to Great Writing, Stephen Wilbers (more in-depth than Elements of Style)

Sin and Syntax, Constance Hale (also more in-depth)

On Writing Well—The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, William Zinsser

The Craft of Writing, William Sloane

ChooseRight Word, S.I. Hayakawa (far more detailed than Roget’s Thesaurus)

The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage, R.W. Burchfield (very helpful even if you

havegood dictionary)

A note about thesauruses—print versions are generally thought to be better thanones

included in computer programs

Life Story Writing

How to WriteStory of Your Life, Frank P. Thomas (full of wonderful ideas and

memory joggers)

Turning Your Life Into Fiction, Robin Hemley (helpful for deciding what’s important and

how to tie it together, even if you’re not planning to turn your life into fiction)

UnlockingSecrets of Your Childhood Memories, Dr. Kevin Leman and Randy

Carlson (wonderful for helping us find out who we are through recalling our early memories)

Writer’s Digest, February onenineninenine issue (available from Writer’s Digest, Back Issues, onefivezeroseven

Dana Ave., Cincinnati, OH fourfivetwozeroseven; one-eightzerozero-twoeightnine-zeroninesixthree; $three.fivezero each)

Anything published by Turning Memories Into Memoirs ™ www.turningmemories.com

Please see my related article, “My Favorite Expert Advice on WritingStories of Our Lives, Gleaned From My Favorite Books onSubject.” Happy writing!

This article was posted on December onefive, twozerozerofive