Time Warps. Misplaced Modifiers. Beware the “ING” Construction.

Time Warps. Misplaced Modifiers. Beware the “ING” Construction.

You don’t have to read science fiction to run into a time warp. At the very first writer’s conference I attended, an agent said she would reject a query with more than 1 sentence beginning with the “ing” construction. Her explanation—it’s too easy to make mistakes with that sentence structure.

But is it wrong? No. You have to be careful, and you have to pay attention. There are different reasons to avoid, or minimize use of those...