Eva’s Byte #332 – Bending the Rules

Five years in the making, I’ve finished drafting the manuscript of my novel in the genre of Contemporary Women’s Fiction. I’m currently in the throes of my second round for giving 104,073 words a thorough going over.

In the process of reading it aloud to proofread, edit, and revise—pesky flies in the manifestation of grammar peccadilloes have been bugging me.

For instance:

Marital title abbreviations in writing dialogue

Paraphrasing The Chicago Manual of Style--the fact that dialogue is spoken doesn’t mean everything has to be spelled out for the reader. If the word is normally abbreviated, and the reader would know how to speak the line, go for it: Ms. Smith; Mrs. Smith; Mr. Smith etc.

Representing numbers in dialogue

This stemmed from my quandary over whether to write 911 or nine-one-one.

Paraphrasing The Chicago Manual of Style—in order to be rendered in speech, an expression must be spelled out. Numerals should not appear in dialogue.

In view of the fact that doing the right thing often seems wrong, this piece of Chicago advice works for me:

The general idea is to bend a rule if it isn’t working well—a useful tenet for all writing.

For me, consistency is key, even when bending the rules to my own justification.

*When deemed necessary, may bending rules of grammar better our efforts in conveying the story we aim to tell.

My sincere appreciation if you’ve read this far.

Eva’s Authors Den Page: https://tinyurl.com/yycm7d2w