Chicago Style Workout 40: Grammar, Part 4
This workout focuses on paragraphs 5.42–55 of CMOS 18, which cover personal pronouns, including their possessive and reflexive forms. There’s also one question about demonstrative pronouns (CMOS 5.56).
Making Word’s AutoCorrect Options Work for You
Microsoft Word does a lot of things automatically, and it does them by default. Some of these interventions are welcome. But to a copyeditor, Word’s meddling can be dangerous.
Preparing an Audiobook for a Narrator Who Isn’t You
Recently I read through a book to make notes for a professional voice actor who would be reading it for an audiobook production.
A Dash of Poetic License
One of the goals of Fiction+ has been to encourage writers and editors to leave the stylebook behind whenever it gets in the way of creative expression.
Do You Overstep When Editing Fiction? Three Easy Cures
The other day, I ran across this line in a recent novel by a best-selling American writer (key words are disguised): “His disposition warmed faster than did the gradually dawning day.”
Decades (CMOS 9.33)
This year isn’t over just yet, but when it does finally come to an end, the current decade will end with it. In other words, we will soon be leaving the 2010s and entering the 2020s.
“That hat!”: Punctuating How You Feel
When it comes to punctuation, there’s a difference between formal prose and creative writing.
Sure, You Got A’s in English—But Do You Know Where Commas Go?
A few months ago in a conference session, a group of novelists digressed into good-natured complaints about being copyedited. One writer drew a lot of laughs saying, “I mean, I got A’s in English! I know where the freaking commas go!”
Dot Dot Dot: A Closer Look at the Ellipsis
If you follow Chicago style, it’s a safe bet you know that a Chicago-style ellipsis consists of three spaced periods. You probably also know . . .
When Characters Speak: Formatting Dialogue
In novels and stories and other creative works, words spoken by a character are normally set off from the narrative with quotation marks, and the speaker is identified in the run of text by tags like “she said.”
