Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

http://lifehacker.com/5966826/the-mos... Useful:)

Great article, thanks for sharing! I think the comments were almost more useful than the article. And now I'll be self conscious of what/how I write all day. They probably wouldn't like that I started a sentence with the word 'and'. Or that I ended the next sentence with the same word. Forget it. I give up.

Regarding the "walla"/"voilà" comment under the article:

It's probably taking grammar a little too far, but one thing I think is also worth paying attention to is the use of foreign speech. I've seen my lot of books in which the author had some character speak a line or two in French, and it looked/sounded completely wrong, or, at best, as artificial as a sentence right out of a middle-grade school book. (Now, I don't claim being perfect in that regard either, but I'm positive that at some point, we can all find someone to proofread such sentences for us.)

I'll never forget the first time I saw someone use "Walla." I didn't understand and thought at first that it was a nickname for Walter, but it didn't fit. I reread the sentence several times until I finally figured out that the writer was saying "voila." I though to myself, "She's heard someone say "voila" and thought they were saying "walla."" I got a real kick out of it.

While I agree with most of what the article's author had to say, he did also give some potentially bad advice. Many magazines and book publishers still require underlining in a manuscript where the author intends to have a word or passage italicized. Always read submission guidelines to see which the publisher prefers.

Also, even though abusing passive voice is definitely a bad thing, passive voice can actually be a useful tool if you know how to use it. For example, when a character feels desperate or lacking in control over a situation, passive voice can help to reflect that sense of helplessness onto the reader (i.e. sometimes a less powerful sentence is appropriate for the circumstance). It's one of many devices authors use to marry structure and content. Another example is in technical writing, where there are many instances in which passive voice is the more appropriate choice for a sentence.