A bit of Advice–Take it or leave it!
Hello friends! I learned the hard way that it is crucial to have a grammar, spelling, and sentence-building program to help you on your writing journey. You might think, “Oh, I don’t need that. I know how to write, and I don’t want to spend the money.” Believe me when I say this, I was floored when I paid for Grammarly and ran my work through it. I had so many errors. It was humbling. But now, because I spent the money and educated myself with these resources, I have found a publisher, “Extasy Books,” and traditionally published my first novel and am about to publish my second. So, as I said before, take it or leave it. But errors in grammar, spelling, and sentence structure will continuously get you rejection after rejection if you are trying to go with a traditional publisher or agent.
For self-publishing, yes, purchase Grammarly or Pro Writing. But, also pay someone to edit your story. You need a professional to go through your story, point out the plot holes, and tell you if your story flows. If it doesn’t flow, your reader will become confused or bored and not finish your novel.
I am going to start listing some resources that helped me down below!
Happy Writing!
Grammar/Spelling:
Grammarly
ProWriting
https://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/commas.htm
http://www.chompchomp.com/rules/csfsrules.htm
https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/capital.asp
http://jodierennerediting.blogspot.com/2012/08/some-common-grammar-gaffes-part-i.html
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-eliminate-dangling-modifiers-from-your-writing/
https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/5-quick-tips-on-how-to-use-semicolons/
https://writingcommons.org/article/sentence-fragments/
Dialogue Tags:
http://theeditorsblog.net/2010/12/08/punctuation-in-dialogue/
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/keep-it-simple-keys-to-realistic-dialogue-part-ii
https://www.writing-world.com/grammar/said.shtml
https://litreactor.com/columns/on-dialogue-tags-why-anything-besides-said-and-asked-is-lazy-writing
Here are some good resources to get you started! Happy Writing and I hope to see you next time!
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