Authors are always being given advice. By beta readers, by other authors, by grammar pundits, by readers, fans, bloggers, editors, publishers-the list is endless. Most of it is well-meant, qualified advice which can go a long way to making your book better- or worse. It depends on how you, as the writer of said story, see things. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on what I’m going to say, and that’s their prerogative, of course.

Take me for example. I once submitted a book to one of my very good and trusted beta readers. As a good beta reader, it’s her prerogative to point out a few things that I might like to think about, in case I want to shake things up.  One of them was the use of adverbs. Now, I have defended the poor misunderstood adverb on many an occasion, simply because I like them. I understand the whole ‘show not tell’ thing but honestly, if adverbs were undesirable, they wouldn’t be in the Oxford Dictionary would be, waiting there for the right moment to slyly jump out and say ‘Hi there, reader!’ (See what I did there?)

Anyhoo, she mentioned that I might like to review my MS and check I wanted these little buggers in there. To which I said, ‘You betcha.’ I don’t believe I overuse them (if I do, I’m sorry but as I said, I like ‘em) and I do feel they have a place in writing. That’s my prerogative as the writer. I see so many do’s and don’ts when it comes to writing that quite frankly, keeping track of them and people’s preference is exhausting. Good grammar -absolutely. Nit-picky issues- meh, not so much.

This beta reader also said that recently there had been some forum discussion about the use of message or text speak in stories. You know, this sort of thing…

SusieWrites         I’m in the mood to go out to dinner tonight. Fancy it too?

SusiesSpouse      Sigh. You just don’t want to cook, do you? It’s your turn 🙂

 Apparently there is the view that it brings the reader out of the story and doesn’t add much and people don’t like it. Hmm, okay. See, again, I like this sort of thing in a story when I read, as long as it doesn’t go on for ages (like Mr Grey and whatsherface via email). If it’s being used at the right place, to tell the reader something he or she needs to know, then okie-dokie. So my short bit of message speak will be staying. Unless my editor decides it has to go and gives me a very valid reason. I will argue the toss though.

Another point of contention for me is dialogue tags. I saw this article a little while ago –

On Dialogue Tags: Why Anything Besides ‘Said’ And ‘Asked’ Is Lazy Writing

Are you kidding me? I like dialogue tags. I use them when I need to and I enjoy reading them as long as they aren’t used in abundance. I prefer show not tell, too, but sometimes, a dialogue tag is just useful. I’m of the opinion words wouldn’t exist unless there was a good reason to use them. People still buy and enjoy my books and I haven’t suffered a whole ‘Burn them, they are an abomination!’ event yet.

Of course there are places where I do listen to people (my family no doubt will fall flat on their backs at this comment). One reviewer said I used the word ‘bloody’ too much in one of my books. I checked and yeah, maybe I had. So now I watch the use of this word. If something you are doing is blatantly wrong or grammatically incorrect rather than simply being a preference – it will be fixed. Readers expect a story to be the best it can be and as writers, we have an obligation to ensure it is.

So as a final thought on this subject- write what you want to write, in whatever way you feel is right for your story. As long as you’re comfortable with it, and thinks it adds value or says what you want to say, it’s probably right for you and your book.

And now I’m off to partake in a creamy cappucino…

About the guest writer

Susan Mac Nicol writes steamy, sexy and fun contemporary romance stories, some suspenseful, some gritty and dark and others that hopefully make you think. She’s also Editor in Chief at Divine Magazine, an online LGBTQ e-zine, and one third of the deadly trio of Cover Thoughts. You can find out more about her and subscribe to her newsletter at http://www.authorsusanmacnicol.com