Demystifying Writers’ Demons Sample Page

Demystifying Writers’ Demons©, U-5

Commonly Mispronounced Words: cavalry & congratulations

Transposing or reversing letters or syllables in a word is called “metathesis.”

Sound like a disease? Maybe it is contagious, so many people mispronounce

and misspell the following:

• Don’t confuse “cavalry” (military troops that use horses or armored vehicles) and “Calvary” (the place where Jesus Christ was crucified).

Example:

Too bad the CAV-alry couldn’t have charged in to save Jesus at CAL-vary.

• Don’t run “congratulations” (an expression of praise for a job well done) into “adulations” (slavish worship). No “d” in the former.

Example:

ConGRAT-ulations are in order for an accomplishment, but AD-ulations are too much!

Demystifying Writers’ Demons©, U-16

“like,” “as,” “as if” confusion:

The word “like” is a preposition, not a conjunction. Therefore, it should be followed by

a noun or pronoun object. Often confused with it are the conjunctions, “as” and “as if.”

EXAMPLES:

• Use “like”: “He drove the truck like a pro.” “It looks like rain.” “She sings like

an angel.” “Like many writers, I yearn to publish.”

• Use “as”: “He drove the truck as he drove his race car.” “As I said, he used the same

characters as he used in his last book.” [“As” can also be used as a preposition.]

• Use “as if”: “He drove the truck as if it were a race car.”

“It looks as if it might rain.” “She sings as if she were an angel.”

NOTICE: “Like” can also be a verb, meaning to favor - “I like asparagus.” “I like you.”

It’s a verbal tic when sprinkled indiscriminately through speech as a space-filler -

“Like you mean like you’re a writer?” or “Like you know it’s like I like asparagus.”

Demystifying Writers’ Demons©, W-7

Different verbs: lie and lay:

Confusion between them occurs because both use the same or similar words in different tenses. Getting the principle parts straight should help.

• To lie (an intransitive verb) means “to recline” and takes no object.

PRINCIPLE PARTS: Now I lie down. Yesterday I lay down. I have lain down

many times.

(To lie can also mean “to tell a falsehood.”)

• To lay (a transitive verb) means “to place” and does take an object.

PRINCIPLE PARTS: Now I lay the baby in her crib. Yesterday I laid the

baby in her crib. I have laid the baby in her crib every time she went to sleep.

Hens lay eggs now. Yesterday they laid eggs. They have laid eggs every day.

Memory tip: If you say, “I lied on the floor.” you’re admitting to fibbing. If you say,

“I laid on the floor,” can we assume you intend to hatch something?

(see also your/you’re and whose/who’s

apostrophes (’)

in contractions & plurals its/it’s and there/their/they’re)

Contractions show where letters are left out with apostrophes. (Contractions were originally accepted in written form only for dialogue to sound natural. Now they

often show up in informal prose to sound conversational.)

• common contractions: does not = doesn’t; of the clock = o’clock; 1996 = ’96

• unusual contractions: you have = you’ve; you would = you’d; would have = would’ve (not “would of”); you all = y’all (Southern colloquialism)

Memory tip: Put the apostrophe wherever the letters are missing.

Plural figures, letters, and words referred to as words may use apostrophes if simply adding s would confuse meaning. Examples:

Dot your i’s and cross your t’s. [Optional: Is and Ts; 7s, Fs, the 1990s;

Your 7’s look too much like 1’s. buts, ums, ahs]

There are no but’s about it, and I do not want to hear all those um’s and ah’s.