Westley

Can we split infinitives?

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Along with Singular They and End of Sentence Prepositions, this is one of the ‘rules’ of English Grammar that needs some discussion. As we’ve discovered, many grammar ‘rules’ aren’t just invalid, they are also misleading to new writers. Many began as misinformation and just got passed on—this time we’re going to take close look at one of them: Split Infinitives.

So, what is a split infinitive? An infinitive is a verb of the form ‘to go’, and splitting it involves adding words between the ‘to’ and the verb in question. A famous example is “To boldly go…” where the word ‘boldly’ splits the infinitive ‘to go’. Some infinitives are split by more than one word: “We expect the population to more than double in the next ten years.”

History

Many claim that Robert Lowth mentioned it in A Short Introduction to English Grammar in 1762, but no such comment can be found in any of his writing. In fact, there is nothing in print until 1803, when John Comly said, “An adverb should not be placed between the verb of the infinitive mood and the preposition to, which governs it; as Patiently to wait—not To patiently wait.” Others echoed this new ‘rule’ throughout the rest of the 1800s and into the early 1900s as part of a movement to transfer Latin rules to English. (In Latin, infinitives can’t be split because they are single words e.g., “amare, cantare, audire”.)

Is English Latin?

Some linguists disagreed with this Latinisation of English. (Even Robert Lowth objected to “forcing the English under the rules of a foreign Language.”) Otto Jespersen said “‘To’ is no more an essential part of an infinitive than the definite article is an essential part of a nominative, and no one would think of calling ‘the good man’ a split nominative.” Unfortunately, the 1907 edition of The King’s English concluded: “The ‘split’ infinitive has taken such hold upon the consciences of journalists that, instead of warning the novice against splitting his infinitives, we must warn him against the curious superstition that the splitting or not splitting makes the difference between a good and a bad writer.”

Things might have been easier if English had had a controlling body…akin to the:

  • Euskaltzaindia for Basque
  • Académie française for French
  • Foras na Gaeilge for Irish
  • Pontificia Academia Latinitatis for Latin
  • Ve’e Tu’un Sávi for Mixtec
  • Rada Języka Polskiego for Polish
  • Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg for Welsh
  • or even the Logical Language Group for Loglan.

Unfortunately, English has never had any kind of regulation, so we just have to do with authorities who often disagree.

Currently

Most modern English usage guides have stopped objecting to the split infinitive.

  • Oxford Guide: “no such rule” and “never wrong to split.”
  • Phillip Howard: “most remembered rule from school” and “great Shibboleth of English.”
  • University of Chicago Writing Program: “linguists snickering at it for decades, yet still this false ‘rule’ is taught.”

Our only conclusion can be that this problem is a part of the English language and arguments will continue. As long as you present your ideas clearly, we feel that there is no need to change.

BISAC Codes

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There are a lot of terms that authors should know, but two of the most confusing are ISBN and BISAC codes. Most authors have at least heard of ISBNs, but BISAC codes are just as important, if not more so. Where an ISBN will allow readers to buy your book, it may be the BISAC code and category that will help them find your book, so that’s the one we’ll tackle in this post. (ISBNs were covered in a previous post.)

BISAC is a list maintained by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and is an acronym for Book Industry Standards and Communications. Basically a detailed list of genres, BISACs make it possible for book sellers to place your book on the right shelves in the store and for book buyers to find the books that interest them. Currently, there are 53 major headings, only one of which is Fiction, but under the Fiction heading, there are 65 subheadings, with additional sub-subheadings totalling over 200 individual categories, so you’re more than likely to find the right one for your book. (I find it helpful to identify the BISAC code early on in the writing process, so as I’m writing, I can refer to it…thus keeping me on the right track.)

As the genre is often printed on the back cover in the upper left corner, that’s a good place to put the actual BISAC descriptor (but not the numeric code itself).

BISAC code examples:

  • CGN004210 COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS / Manga / Yaoi
  • CKB040000 COOKING / Specific Ingredients / Herbs, Spices, Condiments
  • EDU029080 EDUCATION / Teaching Methods & Materials / Language Arts
  • FIC042120 FICTION / Christian / Romance / Suspense
  • FIC009070 FICTION / Fantasy / Dark Fantasy
  • FIC014070 FICTION / Historical / Colonial America & Revolution (new in 2019)
  • FIC022110 FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Cozy / Cats & Dogs
  • FIC027460 FICTION / Romance / Historical / Gilded Age (new in 2019)
    (almost 50 other Romance categories!)
  • FIC028010 FICTION / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure
  • FIC031060 FICTION / Thrillers / Political
  • HOM012000 HOUSE & HOME / Do-It-Yourself / Masonry
  • JNF013070 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Concepts / Size & Shape
  • MAT007020 MATHEMATICS / Differential Equations / Partial
  • SPO043000 SPORTS & RECREATION / Swimming & Diving

As you can see, there are plenty to choose from and more than enough detail to identify your specific book.

Windows key

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In a previous post, we introduced the Menu key. Now we’re going to cover the Windows Key. As expected, it interacts with the entire Windows operating system, rather than any particular program. Similar to the Ctrl, Alt, and Shift keys, it is pressed along with another key to accomplish various tasks, but pressing it by itself will open the Start menu (or screen). Here are a few useful actions:

Windows Key

  • Win-M – Minimize all windows (clear the screen and relax)
  • Win-Shift-M – Restore minimized windows (put it all back)
  • Win-Space – Hold to preview the desktop, release to return (take a quick look)
  • Win-E – Open File Manager, starting at the top: Computer
  • Win-L – Lock your computer (in case you need to walk away) or switch users (if you share)
  • Win-Up Arrow – Maximize
  • Win-Down Arrow – Restore from maximize, Minimize from non-full screen

If you have a single monitor, here’s a good way to tile two windows side by side:

  • Win-Left Arrow – Snap window to left half of screen
  • Win-Right Arrow – Snap window to right half of screen

If you have multiple monitors, you may have had to un-maximize a window, drag it to the other monitor, then re maximize it, but here’s a quicker way:

  • Win-Shift-Left Arrow or Right Arrow – Move a window from one monitor to another

When you’re doing a presentation to a group, here’s a quick way to access the external display:

  • Win-P – Choose a presentation display mode

Best Windows Key Shortcut

Using Alt-Tab to cycle through programs, or even Ctrl-Alt-Tab, forces you to go through a bunch of non-related programs until you get to the one you want, BUT here’s a fix for that: use the Windows Key and a number to get directly to the programs you need. For example, in my case, with nothing running, the Task Bar looks like this:

You may have other programs in a different order, but the concept is the same.

Here’s how it works: hit Win-1 and File Manager opens, Win-3 opens OutLook, and Win-8 brings up NotePad. That’s pretty neat, but it gets better. If NotePad is already open, to get a new one, use Shift-Win-8. Same with the others—Shift-Win-1 opens a new File Manager.

All right, so now with multiple instances of a program running, how do you pick the one you want? Easy enough: hold Win and keep typing the appropriate number until the instance is highlighted, then release Win. In other words, if I have a bunch of Word documents open, I can choose the one I want with Win-444… No need to use Alt-Tab and go past all the Excel sheets or File Managers or NotePads I have open. I get to pick from ONLY the Word docs!

But wait, that’s not all! Instead of right-clicking a program on the Task Bar to get the Jump List, just use Alt-Win-number.

That Windows Key can be helpful…you just need pin your Task Bar in an order that makes sense to you.

Writing and Editing Terms #2

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We’re going to continue our listing of various terms used in the writing, editing, and publishing industry. If you missed last month’s entry (Writing and Editing Terms #1) or are more interested in Printing Terms or Grammar Terms, you might want to check out those posts. Here we’re going to continue listing expressions that may be new to some writers, this time with addressing how writers write, then a few expressions that focus on story internals, finally finishing off with a few more items to avoid. As the list seems to be even longer yet, we’ll have to save the last few for next month (Writing and Editing Terms #3).

Writing Approach

  • Style—Author’s manner of expression including word choice, grammar structures, literary devices, and language use
  • Tone—Attitude of author to reader, characters, or events in the story, may be sarcastic, pessimistic, cheerful, etc.
  • Voice—Persona author adopts to tell story
  • Plotter—Writer who creates a story in a general outline form before filling in the details
  • Pantser—Writer who creates a story without pre-thinking (by the seat of the pants)
  • Outline—Short bullet points summarising content of story, often used to create TOC

Story Flow

  • Beat—Important event or turning point in story, also pause in speech or action
  • Action Beat—Description of movement by speaker of dialogue, included in the same paragraph as the dialogue
  • Dialogue—Spoken conversation between characters, denoted by quotation marks
  • Internal Dialogue—Thoughts of POV character, denoted by Italics
  • Dialogue Tags—Indication of who is speaking, may also include Action Beats (also Speaker Tags or just Tags)
  • Transitions—Control of flow through story, no action happens without reason

Problems to Avoid

  • Mary Sue or Marty-Stu—A character who is able to do everything with unrealistic abilities, usually a stand in for the author (autobiographical, ha!)
  • Burly Detective—Over use of reference to characters by description (“the burly detective”) in a futile attempt to avoid using character’s name or pronoun, involves the use of multiple different terms to refer to the same character: Frank, he, her boyfriend, the driver, the sergeant, or the tall, slim man
  • On The Nose—Writing style that is too straightforward, also characters that reveal in dialogue exactly what they are thinking or feeling
  • Cliché—Over used and trite term or phrase that has lost its power
  • Dead Metaphor—Similar to cliché, a metaphor that has lost its intensity due to over use

That’s quite a list, but there’s more to follow. See you next month!

How to write a novel

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Perfect timing for this topic, considering that NaNoWriMo starts this weekend. Whether you decide to participate or not, it’s a good excuse to start writing…and keep writing. Setting the habit of writing every day is one of the most recommended activities in writing of any sort, but is that even possible? Of course, it is. As with any other habit you plan to develop, it will take a bit of effort, especially at first. Think back to your first visit to the gym. Painful, wasn’t it? And you never wanted to do it again…but you did.

It may not be a daily habit for many of us, but you still go stretch those muscles every so often—do the same for your mental muscles—the more you do it, the easier it gets. As with the gym, set aside some time…each day. As little as twenty minutes can work, but if you manage to get a full hour, you’ll accomplish much more. The first few days, you may end up just sitting there staring at a blank screen, but once the ideas start flowing, it will amaze you how much you’ll accomplish. The trick is to stop at the end of the day in the middle of a scene…in the middle of a paragraph…in the middle of a sentence. When you return the next day, you’ll be impatient to get back and finish that bit.

Write, just write

Now, all you are doing is writing. Don’t scroll back to read…at least not farther than needed to get back into the scene. Reading…and editing…are far off in the future. Worry about them later, much later. Don’t concern yourself with perfection either. Completion is your goal, not a wonderful book. It’s reasonable, even probable, that your novel stinks. That’s normal. In fact, if you accept that your novel won’t be any good, all the better! When you get to the slow spot in the middle, give it a kick. Add in something you hadn’t planned on—a car crash, a talking dog, a lover from the past—just keep writing

If you follow the NaNoWriMo plan, you should be done with 50,000 words by the end of the month. Don’t worry if you don’t get that far…or if it takes you a bit longer. The plan is to finish. If your story is shorter than some, that’s fine. If you take three or four months to get to the end, that’s outstanding as well. Just finishing and you are ahead of 99% of the world. How many of your friends can say they’ve written a novel? Odds are, they are the ones who will soon be bragging that they know someone who has: YOU.

Done, now what?

The next step is to put that novel in a box and hide it somewhere. Don’t look at it, don’t share it, don’t even mention that you have it. Instead, start writing the next one. Yes, start your second novel right now. You have the habit of writing daily—use it! Keep those mental muscles active—you’ll find it to be much easier this time. The words will come with ease, the plot will unfold before you, when you get to that sticky spot in the middle, you’ll continue because you’ve done it before. You know you can do it…again.

In six months or so, after you’ve finished the second one, you are allowed to pull out that first one and gawk at all the problems you used to have. If you feel like it, you can go over that first one and clean it up, but that’s not necessary…just having it in hand gives you the strength and will power to continue, and if you toss it, you’ll still have learned from it. Take your second one and move forward. Congrats!

Singular They

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This is going to be a touchy topic, so hang in there, and we’ll see what we can do with it. Agreement in count is important in English. We don’t say, “He are there,” because ‘he’ is singular and ‘are’ is a plural verb. For the same reason, we don’t say, “Friends is good.” Again, one is plural (‘friends’), the other singular (‘is’).

Agreement between nouns and verbs is good, but nouns and the pronouns referring back to those nouns need to agree as well. In “Lisa is happy because she won the prize,” ‘she’ is referring back to Lisa, so the pronoun agrees with the noun in count (and it also happens to agree in gender, but we don’t care about that now).

The problem is that English doesn’t have a non-gender singular pronoun referring to a person. (The word ‘it’ usually refers to non-people…unless used in a derogatory manner, such as referring to an ex-spouse.)

History:

Part of the problem is that English is such a mishmash of other languages. We took many of our content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.) from Latin, but grammatical words (pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, etc.) came from other sources, one being Old Norse. The Old Norse pronouns their, theira, theim can be traced back to about 1200, where they replaced the existing words hīe, hīora, him (which could have been confused for the remaining pronouns of ‘he’, ‘her’, and ‘him’).

The plural form of ‘they’ was around for about 100 years before being used to refer to singular subjects, and all was well with the world. For example, in 1375, singular ‘they’ appears in the medieval romance William and the Werewolf. Here’s the Middle English version: ‘Hastely hiȝed eche…þei neyȝþed so neiȝh…þere william & his worþi lef were liand i-fere.’ In modern English, that’s: ‘Each man hurried…till they drew near…where William and his darling were lying together.’

It wasn’t until the Prescriptivists of the 18th century got a hold of English that it was frowned upon “because a plural pronoun can’t take a singular antecedent” (along with a few other ‘rules’ that no longer apply: End of Sentence prepositions and Split Infinitives for example). The Prescriptivists proposed to avoid using plural ‘they’, encompassing singular as well, by using ‘he’, which encompasses females as well—trade one globally misused word for another. They clearly forgot that singular ‘you’ used to be exclusively a plural pronoun. If they had noticed, we would probably still be using ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ for singular second person instead of ‘you’. No one complains about using ‘you’ to refer to a singular subject, so why worry about ‘they’?

Modern:

All right then, enough history. Consider these modern sentences:

  • “One of your girlfriends phoned, but she didn’t leave a message.”
  • “One of your boyfriends phoned, but he didn’t leave a message.
  • “One of your friends phoned, but they didn’t leave a message.”

Any problem with ‘they’ referring to a singular subject? Not if you’re speaking, but written English is a bit more formal…though it is not so formal as to require “he or she” all the time, so relax and converse with your readers.

ISBN

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Ah! Good ol’ ISBNs. How much do we know about them…how much do we care? Everyone talks about them, but what do we really know of them? Why are they so important? Do we really need them? What do we do with them? And what do all those dashes mean? …Don’t worry, we’ll get to all of that right now.

First off, it’s an acronym for International Standard Book Number (so it isn’t right to talk about an ISBN number, just say ISBN). It has a few cousins, too, the main ones are the ISSN (for serialized publications such as magazines and newspapers) and the ISMN (for musical scores), but our focus is on books. The ISBN is used to identify books…or book-like items—including ebooks and audio books.

As an international standard, the ISBN has a lot of information, and the first part is what ‘country’ we’re in: 978 (and the new 979) is BookLand. (Yes, they really set up a separate country just for us.) The next part is called the Registration Group Element…but we just call it the Language group. (In 978, a 0 or 1 in this position indicates English, 2 French, 3 German, 4 Japan, 5 Russian, 7 Chinese, etc.) The next part is the Registrant Element…we say Publisher. Then follows the Publication Element. The last digit is a checksum just to keep the computers happy.

Hyphens:

The hyphens are important, too, and have certain places to go, but the problem is that two of the elements aren’t fixed in size: the publisher and publication. Together they have to occupy a total of 8 digits (in the main language groups), but it can be 2&6, 3&5, 4&4…down to 7&1. Obviously, the fewer digits used to identify the publisher, the more digits there are available for publications. In the 2 digit publishers, each one can have a million publications…and in the 7 digit publishers, although there is room for ten million publishers, each one can have only ten publications.

Yes, ten publications is the smallest you can go, but why so many? What if you only have one book to share with the world? You’ll still need a few ISBNs: one for the paperback, one for the hardback, one for Kindle ebook, Nook ebook, and don’t forget your audio book. It needs a separate one, too. The ISBN identifies each different type of media, because if the reader wants to have a book in hand, you don’t want a CD to arrive when your book is ordered!

What that means is that when you put your ISBN on the copyright page and the back cover (along with its barcode), you need to make certain the hyphens are in the right places. Forgetting them is either a sign of ignorance or an attempt to obscure the size of your publisher. These days, you have nothing to hide. If you’ve been picked up by one of the Big 5, let the world know by putting your hyphens in the right place…and if you’ve gone the self-publishing route, be proud of that fact and boast to the world by putting your hyphens in the right place—between each element!

Non-fiction Keyboard Shortcuts

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Some aspects of non-fiction just don’t apply to fiction, and we’re going to address a few of those, along with their keyboard shortcuts. Although some fiction books may have a Table of Contents or even an Index, most do not. On the other hand, almost all non-fiction books have both. It’s a way for the reader to find the specific information needed. Other than building up a TOC with Heading styles, you can mark selected text to appear in either the TOC or the Index (or in a Table of Authorities).

Table of Contents

  • Mark table of contents entry – Alt-Shift-O
  • Mark index entry – Alt-Shift-X
  • Mark table of authorities entry (citation) – Alt-Shift-I

Along with your bibliography, you’ll want to have explanatory notes for some sections. Footnotes and Endnotes are perfect for that. Footnotes will move to the bottom of the page where they are referenced as you make changes to the text. Endnotes will appear the end of chapters (with section breaks), also moving around as needed.

  • Insert footnote – Ctrl-Alt-F
  • Insert endnote – Ctrl-Alt-D

Fields

Using fields is definitely an Excessive topic level. Few will need them, but those that do will enjoy the capabilities they afford. You can have fields that automatically show the correct page numbers of figures, tables, and other sections of text, despite rearranging everything all around. Here we will introduce only a few field shortcuts. We will cover how to use them later.

  • Insert empty field – Ctrl-F9
  • Update selected field – F9
  • Update all fields – Ctrl-A, F9
  • Switch between selected field code and result – Shift-F9
  • Switch between all field codes and results – Alt-F9
  • Go to next field – F11 or – Alt-F1
  • Go to previous field – Shift-F11 or Alt-Shift-F1
  • Open Bookmark Dialogue Box – Ctrl-Shift-F5 (set bookmark to reference later)
  • Insert PAGE field – Alt-Shift-P (shows current page number)
  • Insert LISTNUM field – Ctrl-Alt-L (increments a list count)
  • Insert DATE field – Alt-Shift-D (updates to show current date)
  • Insert TIME field – Alt-Shift-T (updates to show current time)
  • Lock field – Ctrl-F11 (prevent field from updating)
  • Unlock field – Ctrl-Shift-F11 (allow field to update)
  • Unlink field – Ctrl-Shift-F9 (remove field and replace with field value)

One point about Bookmarks: If you select hyperlink when you create references to them, then readers of electronic copies of your document will be able to click on them and be taken to the bookmark’s location. That would be true of web pages, PDFs, and your original Word document.

We’ll leave off with this list for now, although there are a few more shortcuts we’ll check on later…those that apply only in Tables or Outline View.

Writing and Editing Terms #1

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A lot of jargon and quite a few abbreviations exist in the writing, editing, and publishing industry, so we’re going to take a moment to dispel some of the fog and shed light into the crevices. We have a whole post on just Printing Terms and another one on Grammar, so this time we’ll focus on the Writing process. Rather than have an alphabetical list, we’ll start off with a few abbreviations that may be new to you, then delve into the writing process itself, and finally finish up with a short list of things to avoid. As the whole list is too long to include all here, we’ll continue with this topic next month (Writing and Editing Terms #2).

Abbreviations

  • MC: Main character—central character whose actions and adventures the reader follows
  • ms: Manuscript (usually lower case)—unpublished, final copy ready for editing
  • mss: Manuscripts (plural, also lower case)—in case you have more than one going on at a time
  • WIP: Work in progress—the story currently being worked on
  • AKYB: As You Know, Bob—a method of info dump via dialogue, often stilted and awkward for the characters
  • TOC: Table of Contents—occasionally used in fiction, almost required for non-fiction

Creating the story

  • Pre-writing—Steps taken before starting to write the story itself, can include Brainstorming, Researching, Mapping, and Outlining, often used to create characters and build the story world
  • Brainstorming—Collecting ideas without regard to feasibility, hopefully some will become useful later
  • Researching—Discovering facts to create story environment
  • Mapping—Drawing the story world to envision any distances, locations, or natural obstacles that may become relevant
  • Outlining—Listing short bullet points to summarise content of story, can be used later to create TOC
  • Creating Characters—Listing details of characters, often written up on a sheet inspired by Role Playing games
  • World Building—Creating the story world (whether fictional or not) to give the reader a feeling of actually being there, can include culture, language, landscape, and history to allow consistent backdrop for story—important for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Historical stories where the story world may not be familiar to the reader
  • Zero Draft—Writing step that precedes First Draft, total story dump without regard to practicality
  • Rough Draft—Early draft of work that has not yet been re-read by author
  • Draft—Sequential versions of story as revisions are made, numbered as work progresses

Problems to avoid

  • Info Dump—Excessive description, backstory, or other information that doesn’t push the story along
  • Head Hopping—Changing POV character mid-scene
  • Purple Prose—Excessively descriptive writing, overloading the reader with irrelevant details (also Flowery Writing)
  • As You Know, Bob—Characters being forced by the author to discuss things they would already know in the story world for the benefit of the reader

These are just a few terms…we’ll continue the list next month. See you then!

Punctuation and Quotes, Logical or Not?

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This topic falls just shy of the Oxford Comma in raising intense discussion amongst editors: Where does the punctuation go relative to quote marks? Yet another issue where the US and the rest of the world differ. Fortunately, it only affects commas and full stops (periods). Everyone agrees with how colons, semi-colons, and dashes are placed, and question and exclamation marks are fine, so we’re going to only touch on those, then tackle the tough stuff.

Everything Except Commas and Periods

As rare as colons, semi-colons, and dashes are, they always* go outside the quotes:

  • Alan loved to quote from the TV show “Star Trek”: “That’s not logical.”
  • Betty’s favourite poem was “The Jabberwocky”; she spent weeks memorising it.
  • Carolyn leaned out of the treehouse and said, “It’s sturdy enough”—right before the branch creaked.

Question and exclamation marks go where they belong—if part of the quote, then inside. If part of the whole sentence and not the quote, then outside:

  • David whined, “Can I have an ice cream now?”
  • Mom waved her wooden spoon at him. “Not right before dinner!”
  • The professor opened the lecture with a question: Who said, “I came, I saw, I conquered”?
  • You have got to see the show “Alien Artefacts”!
  • You actually like the show “Mystery Hunter”?

Fairly straightforward—no problems here.

Logical Punctuation

In the US style, commas and periods always goes inside—a simple rule but less logical. In the British style (also known as Logical Quotation), they go where they belong (same as question and exclamation marks)—inside if part, outside if not, similar to many other languages.

It’s that simple.

Of course, there’s a big exception to the US style: If the quoted material is technical, then the punctuation goes outside (same as the Logical style).

  • My user name is “All.for.it”. (final period not part)
  • Did you use the password “it,is.a;BIG!1”? (question mark not part)
  • To put a non-breaking space in HTML, use “ ”. (period not part)

So Why Do We Do It?

Some of the arguments for why we’d want punctuation inside the quote mark are based on a quote from The Elements of Style: “typographical usage dictates the comma be inside the marks, though logically it seems not to belong there”—to avoid an unsightly gap? These days, with digital fonts, it isn’t needed.

Another contention, also based on typographic issues but a physical one, says that the small pieces of metal were delicate and could break. That may have been true at one time, but the British switched over when they wanted to make it more logical and less mechanical.

Either way, the typographic reasons no longer apply, so we are free to put punctuation in the logical place.

*When I say “always”, please keep in mind that there are exceptions to every rule, but the exceptions in this case are so rare, that I can’t think of any, so I feel justified in using that term. As we’ve noted, there are two words you should always remember to never use: always and never.