Val Dumond

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Articles on Writing, Grammar, and Publishing
by Val Dumond

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Val writes articles on grammar, the art and science of writing, and publishing, for budding writers and seasoned authors alike. These articles are not only informative and educational, they're entertaining - written as only Val can. Enjoy this latest of her articles:

Use The Val Bump To Win Literary Contests:
A Dozen Ways To Improve Your Manuscript
by Val Dumond
© Copyright 2011

Plenty of literary contests are offered regularly by various writing groups, both on and off the Internet. In the Northwest, the BIG contest appears at the summer conference of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association (August 4-7, 2011). Time nears to submit manuscripts in a wide variety of categories. This year's deadline is February 18, and the prizes involve money. See: www.pnwa.org

You have your short story, article, romance, children's book, screenplay, or whatever, but you haven't received the Val Bump as yet. Do you want to improve your manuscript and thus improve your chances at the big money prizes in contests (whether you make this year's PNWA or not)?

Here are a dozen things that judges look for (shame on the writers who don't pay attention).

1. APPEARANCE Use white paper, at least 1" margins, simple type fonts (Times/Roman or Ariel/Helvetica), 12 point, and double-spaced. Pages should be numbered, with the first page meeting the contest criteria. Check Submission Guidelines for your particular contest.

2. FOLLOW GUIDELINES Place your name and full contact information where the Guidelines require them. Your submission will not be judged if your name appears in certain places, particularly a header or footer. Many scripts are eliminated because the writer neglected to follow the rules. Read and re-read the Guidelines to assure you qualify.

3. SPELLCHECK Do NOT depend on your computer. Spell Check to catch the errors. Too often homophones slip in and mess up the works (there/their/they're, peer/pier, pear/pair/pare, to/two/too, do/due, for/four) and all those words that change with just one letter (not/now, sat/set, at/it/is/as/in/on). Most errors are found in the little words, the ones the dumb computer can't distinguish.

4. VERB TENSE Read your manuscript aloud, slowly, and notice the verb tenses. Have you slipped from past into present without planning it? If you intended the tense change, will it make sense to a reader?

5. CHECK PROPER NOUNS Check capitalized names (titles, places, people) for consistency. Fiction writers especially should make sure they have given their characters consistent name spelling. Check the atlas (or dictionary) for spelling of place names. Remember that people's titles are capitalized only when used without the adjective (Tell Mom she's late; tell my mom she's late).

6. TRITE WORDS/PHRASES Comb your manuscript for the easy-to-grab words and phrases that could be replaced with original, creative words and phrases and replace them. "She smiled ear to ear" could become "her smile decorated my eyes". Include in that the obvious: "the rain is falling" could become "rain pelted the windows". Give your reader word treats.

7. WIMPY VERBS Nothing spoils a story more than the absence of vivid verbs. Please, please, please, find replacements for those wimpy verbs. For instance: is (be), do, go, get, give, take, make, put, have.

8. PUNCTUATION: COMMAS The comma was invented to give writers headaches. Use it sparingly; if in doubt, leave it out. Decide whether or not you want to use "the third comma", the one coming before and in a series of three or more. Use a comma following a modifying opening phrase or clause. (In summertime, we went to the beach.) Use a comma to set apart explanatory phrases or clauses. (The door, strawberry red, stood open. The door, painted red for all to see, stood open.)

9. PUNCTUATION: APOSTROPHES Please omit apostrophes from plural words. (The apples are for sale.) Save them for possessive nouns. (The apple's flavor is tart. Or The apples' flavors vary.)

10) PUNCTUATION: COLONS AND SEMICOLONS The colon consists of two dots (:); the semicolon consists of a dot and a comma (;). The colon is used in a way similar to headlights: it points to something ahead. The semicolon acts like a fast comma or a slow period, just like a California stop hovers between slow down and full stop. The semicolon also divides two full sentences that connect to each other. (The horn sounded; people jumped out of the way.)

11. AVOID SEXIST, RACIST, AGEIST (etc.) LANGUAGE Keep your words unbiased. Do not assume a person or animal is masculine until proven otherwise. People with dark skin are not all African, nor are all Norwegians blond. People age; they do not "grow old". All anythings are not anything. Avoid generalizations and assumptions; you do not know the biases of those judging your manuscript.

12. HIT THE DEADLINE BEFORE IT FALLS Arrange to send your manuscript as long before the deadline as possible. For one reason, you won't risk being late. For another, submissions tend to pile up at deadline time. Send in yours - with proper postage - well ahead of time. You'll feel better and you'll have a better chance of winning one of those prizes.

Good luck!

Val has three soon-to-be-published books: The JOY of Grammar, The Creative Instinct, and Ahlam, Story of an Iraqi Life.

Please feel free to contact me. I welcome your comments and any specific questions you may have.