The Difference Between Good and Well

This is going to be another short (and late) post due to the fact that I am moving, but one that I feel very passionately about.

Here’s a bit of information that might be a bit of a shock to some of you.

The word “good” and the word “well” are different.

And sometimes you want to use one instead of the other.

Shocking, right? Who would have thought?

I’m not usually a big Grammar Nazi, but there are certain grammatical mistakes that drive me up the wall. This includes but is not limited to “funner/funnest”, “I vs me”, and “good vs well.”

And before anyone start arguing about not needing your novel to grammatically perfect that’s what editors are for, just don’t. Most editors don’t even deal with grammatical or spelling errors or anything of like. They’re mostly focused on your characters, or your plot, or your flow. Some of them will correct stuff like that, but most editors, especially in a big publishing company, won’t bother at all. In big companies, they can usually get copy editors to go through and fix all of that.

So to a degree you’re right. But more to the degree of “Worry more about your plot than your grammar”, not “Who cares about being grammatically correct?”

No one wants to read something with horrible grammar or spelling. I’ve never been employed by a publishing company to read, edit, and oversee the publishing of a book. I’ve never had to read a ton of manuscripts. But I have read and edited a lot of stories and essays… and it’s painful when they make a lot of grammatical and spelling mistakes. Believe me when I say that it automatically makes you think certain things about the author and those certain things are not always kind. That is a really bad way to start of a relationship with anyone, let alone someone who has to really like something you wrote over the dozens/hundreds other submissions s/he’s gotten in the past few weeks.

Also, when there are a lot of grammatical/spelling mistakes, it’s hard to focus on fixing those rather than issues that might be more important like characters and plot.

Not to mention that if you ever want to consider self-publishing, that you have to make everything absolutely perfect yourself.

So yes, you do have to pay attention to this when you’re writing.

(The easiest way to avoid making the mistake in your writing is by avoiding making the mistake when you talk. That also has the added bonus of not annoying people like me.)

The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is that good is an adjective and well in an adverb.

Good always refers to a noun and well always refers to an action.

I did a good job.

I did my job well.

See the difference?

Job is a noun, and the job was good.

Doing a job is an action. To do is a verb. The job was done well.

In math the other day, my friend told me that she thought she was going to do good on the test we have next week.

This was incorrect unless she was planning on using the test to do some act of good in society like teaching a high school dropout off of it.

Do is a verb. Use well.

She runs (runs is a verb) well.

Fun fact: Disney teaches children incorrect grammar.

At the end of Mulan after Mulan has saved China and been honored by the Emperor, Shang runs up to her and says what? “You… you fight good.”

Wrong. He should have said you fight well.

There are a few exceptions. When you’re talking about your or someone else’s health, always use “well”. When talking about emotional state, use “good”.

I don’t feel well today. I feel sick.

I don’t feel good about cheating.

Please, please make an effort to keep these correct. Believe me; it will make you look a lot more intelligent in your writing and talking to other people.

(Here’s a little secret though: To avoid having to make a decision about good vs well, use the word fine or great ;))

World Building 101

So, Author Forward real quick - I wrote this ages ago and let it waffle because I didn't like how it turned out. However, since I haven't posted anything in forever...I hope it does give you some aid and advice, you guys.

Hello there fellow writers! This is Margaret of the Vinshire Sisters, and I’m sure you’re all asking ‘who?”. Yeah…so, I’m the master (mistress?) of procrastination. If there was an Olympics for it, I’d get a Gold Medal.

Except I’d drag me feet in showing up and miss the medal awarding.

So, incase you hadn’t figured it out yet, you’ll probably be seeing more of Amanda.

Let’s jump right into today’s subject – Basic World Building 101: Why You Need World Building.  World building is something that more and more authors have begun to neglect. Now, before I say anything, no you do not need Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones level of world building…but I kindly point out to take a close look at how popular those books are.

As to how I know what I’m talking about…well, I am a massive fan of world building, for your information. The current story and characters I’m working on have been running around in my head for 4 – possibly 5 – years and I’m still not done with world building. As I’m writing this, I’m working on an extensive family tree that goes back several hundred years and leads up to my main character.

I am also mildly psychotic.

But, we won’t talk about my debatable sanity today.

Now, a recent favorite of authors recently is that they don’t thoroughly explain the what’s or why’s of why something would occur in this world, or they don’t give enough background so something will make sense.

This leaves readers confused and irritated, and in my case, frothing mad.

“But!” You protest “I write fantasy/sci-fi/mad ramblings of an insane mind!”

It doesn’t matter. You still need to make some sort of rhyme or reason or sense. Just squeeing “Science!” or “Magic!” whenever something doesn’t make sense or – even worse – not explaining anything at all and throwing it out there, expecting the readers to accept it, is more likely to make them want to take the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language, and promptly beat you into unconsciousness with it.

There’s an awesome quote by that neatly sums it up like this: “The difference Between Fiction and Reality? Fiction needs to make sense.”

This is unfortunately true – sometimes it doesn’t matter if it’s happened in real life, no one’s going to believe it if you put it down in a book.

Now, I will admit that sometimes you can’t explain everything, and that’s alright: all readers, when picking up a book, will have to ‘suspend disbelief’ in order to read it…but if they ‘suspend disbelief’ so much that they can no longer read the book as a story because it’s too dang ridiculous…well, you’ve failed. Sorry. No other way to say it.

I know this seems like it should be pretty obvious guys, and almost all of you are most likely rolling your eyes, but there’s been innumerable times where I stare at a book and go like “…Whaa? Did I miss something?” and flip back several (hundred) pages, trying desperately to find something that didn’t exist in the first place.

So, summary: World Building – DO IT.

How To World Build

World building isn’t actually that complicated. Time consuming to the max? Absolutely. Hard?

No. All it requires is a few simple questions.

The simplest way to world build is to ask questions. Why, What, When, Where, and How are the most basic ones. Know how the government works, know what the culture requires, know when/why people die, know what’s socially inacceptable and acceptable, know the creatures, know the foods, know the jobs, know the history, the legends and myths, know the wars.

To sum it up neatly, know almost everything that’s different in this new world you’re creating. Know it like the back of your hand.

(This is, after all, world BUILDING. You need layers, you need depth, you need a hefty dose of reality to make it believable.)

It’s going to be difficult at first, but the questions will come easier as time goes on. Even now I ask questions about my world.

Something I also recommend though, it is – again – time consuming, is to write a guide book to the World, so you can A. Remember it, and B. See if it makes sense. Think of it like your textbook on Ancient Civilizations. Anything that would be mentioned in a standard textbook about Ancient Greece, you should know about your world.

Amanda is of the opinion that, "History is perhaps one of the best things you can come up with for your world. If you can come up with a history for your world, it will make everything a lot easier to come up with. Partly because almost everything we have in our world related back to history. Our culture, our politics, the types of jobs we do, the things we eat, the way we interact with foreigners... Pretty much everything stems from the past. It doesn't require something extensive, just a basic timeline—the major events. But it can do a lot in the long run."

And that’s pretty much how you world build. As stated before, it’s simple.

It’s also incredibly hard. And Time consuming.

And required, frankly.

So  yes, it’ll take time. Yes, it’ll take work.

But if you’re afraid of that….

Then why are you writing in the first place?

-Margaret V.

P.S. Don’t feel too bad, you guys. Even Amanda is guilty of the “Not Enough World Building” charge. 

So You Have An Idea...

"I tend to daydream quite often, and those tend to be a combination of the more recent shows or concepts that have got stuck in my head. I've tried to write them down a couple times before, but I only manage to finish a couple of paragraphs or pages before I become restless and do something else. Do you have any advice for getting it down? Do I just need to stick through it?

Also, I don't how some people can write/keep a concept on one subject for so long. I frequently want to through more characters or ideas into my head when I do get an idea or plot. I don't know how authors just stick with certain stuff for a while."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is our first comment! So, we decided that these questions (okay so the second one wasn’t exactly a QUESTION, but it was still a subject to address) were important enough questions to actually address in a post.

Part of this is sort of going to be follow up to the last post because this was a comment on that post. I am writing this post a) because it was a comment on a post I made and b) because Margaret would be completely unhelpful in this situation. She had troubles getting her characters OUT of her head. They’re honest to goodness like a jealous girlfriend that won’t even let her look at other characters. Now, getting her to focus on writing the book itself about them is another story but… okay, so maybe she could write something about sticking through things past a few paragraphs/pages XD

My first word of advice in response to your first question is to really think through what your idea is and make sure that it actually IS something you would want to dedicate possible years of your life to. Some ideas are like people in that regard. You may love them and love hanging out with them, but if you had to be their roommate you would want to smother them with a pillow in the night. I can think of at least ten people off the top of my head that that would end up happening to me with. Before you try to dedicate any serious time to it, make sure that you would be able to stand having this idea and set of characters as a roommates in your head.

The second thing to do would be to think through the whole idea and come down with an actual plot you can work with. That’s the reason my brother’s never written a novel. He has a *brilliant* concept and main character, but he had no idea what to do with him (he has specifically requested that I not explain this character or concept). He’s started to try to write about him at least three times to my knowledge but he’s never gotten past a first chapter. Before you sit down and try to hammer out the first 1000 words that come to you, figure out exactly where you’re going with it. My suggestion would be to go full blown chapter outline if you’re really serious. If you’re protesting that you don’t need to write a chapter outline visit this post here: How To Lasso Your Story and Avoid The Brick Wall From Hell

From that point on, I’m sorry, but to my knowledge at least, all there is to it is to just stick through it like you said. If it really is a keeper idea and you’re sure this one’s for reals, you should have the passion *winkwinkhinthintnudgenudge* to continue with it, even when you want to throw your computer against the wall in frustration. Something that I try to do that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, is to try to set a schedule for yourself. For example, writing a chapter every week or every day if you’re more ambitious. Try to give it some teeth though. Tell someone that that’s your goal so that they can keep you honest. When you only make goals with yourself unless you have great self-discipline, they usually fall through.

As for your second problem… that’s something that varies person to person. Some people like Margaret, who get so attached to their character’s it’s like they themselves are standing over her mind glaring down any other characters who try to attach themselves to her brain. She doesn’t have much problem coming back to the same characters.

In my own experiences, I find that it really does help to take small breaks sometimes. When I’m really frustrated or bored I find that it does help to take a short break and play around with another set of characters or plot. That’s one of the reasons a lot of authors suggest having more than one project going at a time. When you’re going to rip your hair out over one of them, you can go to the others. That being said, you have to be very careful not to take ‘break’ into ‘abandonment’. That can easily happen. Once again, it kind of comes down to just pulling through.

I hope this was helpful!