Can you hear it? Take your hands off your keyboards for moment and listen … that’s the sound of thousands of writers muttering to themselves, “It is contest time again … contest time …” Think MBT Frasier. ACFW Genesis. And the hundreds of other writing contests sponsored by other writing groups and blogs.
Writers are zeroing in on hooks. Heroines. Heroes. Villains. Dialogue. Storyworld. But today I’m fast-forwarding to that final draft, that last bit of polish and shine. (Don’t you wish it were possible?)
When you run your editorial fingers through your manuscript one last time, do you even consider fine-tuning your mechanics? Most writing contests have a category rating your spelling, punctuation and grammar skills. And even if mechanics isn’t an actual category, submitting a contest entry without typos, formatting flaws and punctuation and grammar mistakes sets you above the average entrant.
Receive any Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift cards for Christmas? Here are a few suggestions on how to spend those and up your game as a writer:
- Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript by Chuck Sambuchino
- The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grammar and Style by Laurie E. Rozakis, Ph.D.
- Webster’s New World Pocket Misspeller’s Dictionary (because how can you look up a word if you can’t spell it to begin with?)
- Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’ Conner
- Writer’s Digest Grammar Desk Reference by Gary Lutz
Into this for the long haul? Than invest in the online version of The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), which is the standard for editorial book style and publishing practices. As both an editor and a writer, CMOS is my go-to-guide for questions about ellipses, commas, quotation marks, capitalization … you name it. A one-year CMOS subscription is only $35 – and worth every penny.
Do you have any favorite resources to help you with writing mechanics? Please leave a comment and tell me – and the other MBT Voices – about them.
Special Teams Blogger, Beth K. Vogt
MBT’s Skills Coach, Beth K. Vogt provides her readers with a happily ever after woven through with humor, reality, and God’s lavish grace. Her debut novel, Wish You Were Here, will be published in May 2012 by Howard Books. She’s also written Baby Changes Everything: Embracing Her and Preparing for Motherhood after 35 for Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) International and is a consulting editor for their magazine, MomSense, and a bimonthly columnist for MOMSnext, an e-zine for moms of school-age children.
Comments 7
Thanks for taking the time to “arm” us with editing resources!
Aw, man, the CMOS is the only one I haven’t worked with extensively (I’ve used AP, APA, and MLA until I was blue in the face). Guess I need to go buy a copy… 😛 Thanks for the heads up, Beth!
Lindsay,
I highly recommend going with the online version.
Barbara, glad to help you out. If you have any questions, email me via my website!
Anybody else notice the punctuation error that I had to fix in the post?
Sheesh.
Yes, contest prep. excitement (& near panic) are suddenly in the air. Thanks for the great tips!
Good references. Thanks for sharing, Beth.
Appreciate the tips. The best one for me was to actually use gift cards to buy them. Maybe I’ll ask for one of these for my next birthday gift.
This was helpful, Beth!