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Thank you to Cia and Nephy for providing this weeks Lesson. GRAMMAR WORKSHOP – HOMONYMS By Cia So… grammar lessons, in a nutshell, don’t make much sense if a person quotes lots of things that you haven’t used or thought about since you first learned them at primary school, years ago. I could quote rules and give you definitions, but that doesn’t help anyone. I do have a few tricks for some of the most common mistakes used with homonyms. The list goes way beyond these few I’m sharing so, if you’d like to read up on more, or quiz your knowledge, check out the links I’ve provided! Commonly misused homonyms: 1. There versus Their versus Th ey’re. Okay, so - there is a noun. Their is a pronoun. They’re is a contraction of a noun and verb. Lost yet? To figure out which one you should be using - try thinking of it this way: A. Does the sentence indicate a ‘here or there’? If so use t(here). B. Are you talking about an object that someone owns? Then is it ‘hers or his’ or ‘th(ei)rs’. C. Try the sentence and see if they are performing an action and use ‘they are’ instead of ‘there’ or ‘their’. Does it make sense? If yes. . .use they’re. 2. Your versus You’re versus Yore. Well, I throw the last one in there mostly because I’ve seen it from really bad spellers. Yore is an old way of saying times past, quite specialized in use really. For the most part it isn’t relevant. As for the most common mistake, there is an easy way to know which one is right for almost every case. Just substitute ‘You are’ in the sentence; if it makes sense, you should use the contraction ‘you’re’. The other ‘your’ indicates possession. 3. Its versus It’s. One of the most common mistakes made, I do it all the time and it drives me nuts. One shows possession and the other is a contraction. To check your sentence if you’re not sure of the right usage, substitute ‘It is or It has’. If it works, use the contraction, it’s. 4. Except versus Accept. This is another easy one with a little trick. Accept is a verb-hence action. So I just remember if the word are indicating an action, use the word that starts with an a. 5. Affect and Effect. I remember this one in a similar way to #4. Affect is a verb-the action taken to do something. Effect is the result, often from whatever affects you, lol. So to remember the difference, look at your sentence. If you’re indicating an ‘a’ction happening, use ‘a’ffect. A for action! 6. Hear and here. You’d be surprised how often I see this one. Just remember, if it’s going in an ear, use h(ear). Two other major confused and misspelled words that aren’t homonyms: 1.Than or Then. Than compares, then indicates a time or sequence of events. So, if your sentence should indicate tim(e), such as ‘I had a cookie, then a bowl of ice cream’, use th(e)n. If your sentence compares such as ‘My cookie was better than a bowl of ice cream’ then use than 2.Lose or Loose. Lose means to misplace something, Loose means not tight, free, that sort of thing. So, think of it this way. If you mean something is lost… lose that extra o! Okay…too much of a good thing makes your brain overload, so I’ll stop now. If you are interested in looking up more homonyms check out this site, http://www.grammarbo...ds-letter-a.asp It’s a very comprehensive grammar website, I actually enjoy perusing. If you want to test your knowledge on homonyms, check out this quiz: http://www.usingengl...uizzes/100.html I got a 97%, can you beat me? GRAMMAR LOOPS By Nephy One of my pet hates is when someone opens a grammar loop, and doesn’t close it. I have no idea if this is the right name for it, but it works for me, so tough. A grammar loop is where a particular phrase had to be succeeded or preceded by another one An example of a grammar loop If… then If the weather is wet, then you should take an umbrella (Succeeding). You should take an umbrella, if the weather is wet (Preceding). It doesn’t make sense if you just say… If the weather is wet. Other examples Although… Although the weather was wet - he didn’t take an umbrella He didn’t take an umbrella – although the weather was wet. Because… Because he hadn’t taken an umbrella, he got wet. He got wet, because he hadn’t taken an umbrella. Until… Until he saw the weather, he didn’t think about taking an umbrella He didn’t think about taking an umbrella, until he saw the weather. Under/over. It was dry under the bridge Under the bridge, it was dry. By and large, the italicized phrases don’t stand alone, although. of course there are exceptions. For example, in dialogue, in answer to a question etc. There is an added dimension to some of the loops in that the second half has something implied into it, such as an opposite. For example :- Although the weather was wet… he was wet? NO Although the weather was wet… he was dry? Yes. When writing a sentence that includes words like - Although, because, if, when, how, consider carefully whether the sentence has opened a loop which needs to be closed. It helps if you read it out loud.

Creating a Credible Villain When creating a villain for your story, there are many things that need to be considered. Villains are not ALL bad. While they will have mostly flaws, they most likely will also have something about them that is good. This could be anything. A serial killer could also be a devoted family man. Your villain could be the go-to guy of the neighborhood, the one who watches the neighbor’s dog while they’re on vacation. When creating your villain, you need to decide your villain’s depth of evilness. Some plots will require your villain to have more depth and loftier goals. If the goal is complete domination, then chances are your villain is going to have to be more complex, more evil. If the goal is to simply make everyone’s life miserable, your villain could be someone who is just a bully. A school bully who takes younger kids’ lunch money, or a corporate CEO who fires people for a single minor mistake. Make sure the degree of evilness is relevant to the plot of your story. Also, keep in mind, that the more demented your villain is, the more likely he will be to succeed in what he sets out to do. Another thing to think of is, unless of course your villain is a demon that from the time of birth was evil, or a robot that was created to destroy a world, chances are that there is something in their past that was the turning point for them. What was this point for them? Maybe they watched their parents or spouse be brutally murdered. Maybe they were bullied in their teenage years. Be creative, but make this turning point be something that is believable. Whatever this point is, it's going to be the driving force behind your villain. When creating your villain, you need to decide what the villain’s purpose is. What is his overall goal? Does he focus on people like your hero and just set out to thwart them? Or does he hatch plots and set forth to make his goals a reality while the hero’s job is to thwart him? Essentially, the question here is: who is trying to do the thwarting? Once you have all of this, you need to decide what the outcome is going to be. Is your villain going to be evil until the end, by rejecting redemption, or does he end up being redeemed somehow? There should always be a chance of redemption, so you need to think of that throughout the story, because you will need to plant things throughout the story that show he is redeemable, especially if you plan to redeem him. Otherwise, a villain just suddenly becoming a good guy, it’s not going to believable to your readers and may leave them feeling confused at the end of your story. Think also, about what fears and weaknesses your villain has. These are what is going to allow your hero to win in the end, if that is your ultimate goal. Even if you are going to have your villain win in the end, everyone has some sort of weakness. It might not even be something that the villain will readily admit to, but these are things that you can use throughout the story for the villain to overcome. If you are going to allow your hero to win in the end, then these are things that he will be able to exploit to ultimately win the day. In the end, how you create your villain is up to you, but the above guidelines will help to create a believable villain. A couple other things to keep in mind are: your villain doesn’t have to lose every battle, your villain may hold a view that others can sympathize with, and with the exception of demons and things like them, many villains will have some good qualities as well as bad. Your villain is going to drive the story as much, if not more than, your hero. Good luck with creating your villain!!! I would like to invite all Mentors and Mentees to share an example of a part of this lesson. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

How To Recognize a Head Hop Some of you may be asking, what exactly do you mean by a “head hop”. Head hopping is something that many of us have been accused of at one time or another. In this lesson we are going to look at how to recognize a head hop and ways in which to correct it. What is a head hop? A head hop is when you have a chapter or story that is from one characters point of view but you find that you have unintentionally included things such as thoughts of another character. These are things that your main narrating character couldn’t possible know unless they are a mind reader. Perhaps the easiest way to show this is by an example. I have taken this example from my own story, Chance Encounters. The one way that it’s not considered head-hopping is when the story is 3rd Person Omniscient (see POV Lesson 2). The below story is supposed to be 3rd Person Limited. So now we are going to look at what possible corrections could be done. I have shown both the original and what the rewrite COULD be. Head Hop #1: Old: "Not at all, have a seat Simon," Richard answered before nearly kicking himself as he realized that he had slipped up by using Simon's name. New: “Not at all, have a seat Simon.” Richard cringed and motioned to the seat across from him. Simon wondered at the slight tension, but shrugged it off. Head Hop #2: Old: "A couple weeks ago," Richard answered as he avoided meeting Simon's gaze. He hadn't planned on reminding Simon of that night two weeks ago, but once he had slipped up and called Simon by name he didn't know any way around it. It never occurred to him to make up something else, in fact, he didn't know enough about Simon to make up anything plausible. New: “A couple weeks ago.” Richard stared at something behind Simon, not meeting his eyes. Simon glanced over his shoulder but didn’t see anything that would hold the other man’s attention and turned back to Richard. Two weeks ago would have been when he’d gone to the club. Maybe… Head Hope #3: Old: "Not really," Richard answered, purposely not mentioning exactly what had happened. New: “Not really.” Simon felt like Richard was holding something back, but wasn’t sure what it could be. His non answers were beginning to get annoying. He wanted the answers to his questions and he wasn’t about to give up before he got them. Head Hope #4: Old: "I'm not so sure you want to know," Richard answered and was slightly taken aback to see the sparks in Simon's eyes as he rested his elbows earnestly on the table. New: “I’m not so sure you want to know.” Richard took a sip of his drink and stared down at the table. Simon glared at his companion and felt a slight satisfaction when the other man flinched. He wouldn’t have asked if he didn’t want to know. He needed to know even if he was slightly apprehensive about the answer. So, as you can see from the above examples, fixing head hopping can be fairly easy. It can also be very easy to recognize. Simply ask yourself while reading through your work if what you’re reading is something that your main narrator could possibly know. If it’s not, then it’s probably a head hop. Feel free to ask any questions and I will do what I can to answer them.