"Why do we have to know how to be grammatically correct?" you might be asking. "Isn't that what an editor's for?"
Well, for those starving authors like me out there (I'm not literally starving, thanks be to God for that) we can't afford the fees of an editor. How much do they cost? A lot more than I've got, I can tell you. So for those of us who can't afford someone to look over our grammar and stuff, here's a crash course in what's proper.
First of all, conversation. It's a big part of my stories, and when writing conversation any spoken should be in quotation marks. Example: "Why shouldn't I be able to have some?" Another hint; each time a new speaker says something, start a new paragraph.
Example 2: "Why shouldn't I be able to have some?" I whined.
"It's too close to dinner," Mom answered.
Changing paragraphs helps readers know that the speaker is changing and all of the conversation isn't clumped together in a big heap. It looks better and makes the story flow better too.
Next, some punctuation courses. This is probably known by just about everyone, but bear with me. Declarations and statements should end with a period, and if they're being spoken, with quotations marks. "I'm hungry." and "Sounds good." are two examples. One thing about sentences that end in periods in novels. If you have "she said" or "he said" or a version of those after it, you end the sentence with a comma instead of a period. Example: "I'm hungry," Gina said.
Questions always end in a question mark. Example: "When are we leaving?" These cannot be ended with a comma instead of a question mark. Still, you can end them like this and not have to capitalize what comes after: "When are we leaving?" he asked. Names should always be capitalized, though.
Exclamation points are for yelling, shouting, screaming, stuff like that. "I hate you!" he yelled. Again, you don't have to capitalize "he".
To be honest, I've just learned the appropriate way to use semi-colons. Example: He drew his sword and prepared to fight; after a moment, his foe dropped his instead. I'm not really sure that's how they're supposed to work, so use good-old-fashioned Google for that.
Ellipses. Otherwise known as three periods in a row. I just Googled it and discovered something new; ellipses are supposed to have a space on either side of them. Example: "I can't believe he'd ... oh, never mind." Except when they're being used with a quotation mark after them. Example 2: "Why would he..." Be warned--I've heard people say these are being overused.
Colons should only be used for lists or explanations. Example: Well, the example is the example! If that makes sense.
That's all for today. More hints and tips will surely follow.
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