The best grammar tip I can give to any writer is: get your work professionally edited.
No matter how good a command of the language you have, you cannot edit your own work. You need fresh eyes to catch the mistakes yours gloss right over.
Why? You wrote the story. You know what the lines are supposed to say, so your mind fills in the blanks. (If you don't believe me, turn on the text-to-voice feature of your favorite device and let it read your story to you. I bet you'll catch six errors in the first chapter alone.)
That said, there are many things an author can do to polish his or her work him- or herself.
No matter how good a command of the language you have, you cannot edit your own work. You need fresh eyes to catch the mistakes yours gloss right over.
Why? You wrote the story. You know what the lines are supposed to say, so your mind fills in the blanks. (If you don't believe me, turn on the text-to-voice feature of your favorite device and let it read your story to you. I bet you'll catch six errors in the first chapter alone.)
That said, there are many things an author can do to polish his or her work him- or herself.
- Be cognizant of words and phrases you tend to use often. Make a list of those and do a document search for them so you can vary your wording, if it turns out they've been overused.
- Same goes for usage errors you're prone to. Make a list of those and do a document search for them so you can correct them.
- If something gives you pause, check it out. Keep both a dictionary and a grammar site open in your browser and check the definitions of words and the rules of writing as needed. More times than not, you'll be glad you did.
