If you read no other section of this guide fully, let this be the one you go through thoroughly. No skimming here, only in-depth, between-the-lines, fully-concentrated reading. I'm dead serious.

Alright, maybe not that serious, but I will be addressing mistakes I see much too often in Warriors fanfictions in this chapter. It is my hope that we can educate all writers and, one day, eradicate all of these mistakes.

One of the most important things you can do to keep your readers following your story is give them proper grammar, correct spelling and nice white space between paragraphs. Misspellings can be incredibly distracting to readers, especially if the word is constantly misspelt and spellcheck (or a dictionary) could have clearly fixed the problem. And don't even get me started on novels that have a giant blob of text with no paragraph spacing...

I, like a lot of us, once started off that way too. But, with an investment in a dictionary and thesaurus, as well as countless hours spent researching punctuation, I have come a long way. Another great way to learn how to write properly is by doing that other thing we love doing best: reading! Yes, that's right, even reading a book and taking care to look at how sentences are formulated or how punctuation is used can help you write. There have been times where I didn't read for quite a bit and my writing suffered as a result, so do yourself a favour and sit down and read for at least 20 minutes a night to help keep up your writing skills.

<<>> <<>> <<>> <<>> <<>>

Let's start this part off with... Spelling!

The three words I see misspelt most often are 'prologue', 'rogue', and 'allegiances'. I understand that sounding out prologue and rogue is rather tough, but dictionaries (and spellcheck) exist for a reason - not to mention the original Warriors books! All it takes is a moment of your time to notice that the 'u' and the 'g' are reversed, and only a second more to fix it. 'Prologue' looks much better than 'prolouge', and I bet a whole bunch of readers will think so too. Same goes for 'rouge' (which is either a colouring powder for your lips and cheeks, the word 'red' in French, or the name of a high-end restaurant). Allegiances is also tough, but every Warriors book has it. Crack one open and check your spelling before posting!

The next word misuse I have a problem with is 'your' and 'you're'. 'Your' is a possessive adjective and is often followed by a noun - the use of 'your' signifies someone's ownership over something. In Warriors, someone might say:

"these are your herbs", or
"can I share your prey?", or
"your tail is on fire!".

'You're', however, is a contraction, which means it is actually two words condensed into one - 'you' and 'are'. This is often followed by a present participle (or, more simply, a verb ending in -ing). So, you might say

"you're running away", or
"you're not going to get away with this!", or
"you're sleeping again?".

The simplest way to figure out which you should use is first figure out whether the word that comes after is a noun or a verb. If that poses a problem for you, just try saying the sentence out loud, saying 'you are' in place of 'you're'. If 'you are' doesn't work, then the correct word to use is 'your'.

Another common mistake is 'their', 'there' and 'they're'. Like with 'your' and 'you're', 'their' and 'they're' follow the same rule: 'their' signifies possession of a group of others, while 'they're' breaks into 'they are' and is usually followed by a verb. 'There' likes to follow it's own rule and describes a place in the setting.

"Where are you headed?"
"There."

Simple as that.

<<>> <<>> <<>> <<>> <<>>

The next thing I would like to address is syntax, which is the grammatical formation of a sentence. In English, you need two things in order to have a complete sentence: a verb and a noun. (Note that this might not apply to dialogue, in which one word sentences are allowed to mimic realistic speech patterns).

Saying "I ran" is a complete sentence. All I needed to put that together was a pronoun (I) and a verb (ran). This verb happens to be in simple past tense but saying "I run" (simple present), "I was running" (past continuous), or "I will run" (simple future) are all still correct. Those four tenses seem to be the ones most commonly used in writing, so I'll stick to them and avoid confusing anyone with the others (there's 16 tenses in the English language...). But, for those of you who like learning, there's a nice little image at the beginning of the chapter just for you, though it only includes 12 and is missing the conditional 4.

While I'm not sure if this falls under grammar, it was brought to my attention not too long ago on a different writing website that writing with too many iterations of 'was' or 'had been' (the past continuous and past perfect continuous) served only to slow a lot of the action and cause the story to drag. This includes all forms of 'was', including 'am', 'are', and 'were'. While I don't quite agree with getting rid of 'was' altogether, as this person was advocating, 'had been' certainly does slow the action and should be reserved specifically for events that have happened in the past that are being brought to light. For example, a character might reminisce about when they and a certain cat they had a falling out with were still the best of friends.

As a general rule, though, I now try to limit my use of 'was' and 'had been' simply because it gets very repetitive if used too often. There are also more lyrical ways to describe settings that do not require the use of those words, meaning I can save them for times when I have trouble phrasing sentences differently.

(This is definitely not a hard set rule, and I'm still not sure if I quite agree with it. But apparently the advice came from a published author and it makes my writing flow more nicely, so it can't hurt, right?)

Another common problem I see that disrupts the flow of writing is the improper use of punctuation (specifically, commas). Commas are meant to provide a pause within a long sentence, giving it room to expand instead of separating the sentence into two with a period between.

The sentence above could also be phrased like this: "Commas are meant to provide a pause within a long sentence. This gives it room to expand instead of separating the sentence into two with a period between."

See the difference? In the first example, two clauses that could be independent of each other are linked with a comma. In the second, the two clauses stay independent with the use of a period.

But, at the same time, using only commas and having only long sentences will not help with story flow either. Having a good balance of longer and shorter sentences is key and will keep your readers from, 1) getting too distracted when trying to follow a long sentence and, 2) keeps things more interesting.

Another way to use commas is to add more information in the middle of a sentence. This can be done with parentheses as well, but most writers opt for commas. In this case, commas would be used on either side of the 'extra' that is inserted into the sentence to, such as in this case, signal that the sentence would still make sense without the inserted statement.

Key words to watch out for with commas are: 'which', 'that', 'but', and 'and'. Commas are commonly inserted before these words but only if they are at the start of an independent clause. So that little tip above where two separate sentences were joined into a longer one? If you can take apart your sentence at the joint ('which', 'that', 'but', or 'and'), you can put a comma there instead of a period.

If you don't want to use a period or a comma, why not try a semicolon? They are rather scary at first but they can be incredibly effective! Semicolons, like commas, can link two independent clauses as long as no conjunctions (but, nor, yet, etc.) are used. When using a semicolon, however, make sure the clauses relate or contrast each other; there is simply no point in joining two sentences if they do not relate.

More information on semicolons can be found at theoatmeal.com, where they have an adorable comic that explains the use perfectly. Since I don't want to take up any more room with talk of punctuation, this is probably where I'll leave that.

<<>> <<>> <<>> <<>> <<>>

The final mistake that drives away readers is lack of spacing. Having your writing in one giant paragraph makes it unappetizing - I think that's really the best way to put it. Opening a fanfiction and seeing a block of text is the easiest way to drive most readers away.

Simple ways to prevent this loss are:
- starting a new paragraph each time a new character speaks
- starting a new paragraph each time you change from one topic to another
- making sure to double space between paragraphs rather than single spacing; the app doesn't recognize single spaces as single paragraphs and smashes everything together

Dialogue is a fundamental part of any type of writing, which means that you will be starting new paragraphs often. If you want to include character movements or thoughts in between passages of dialogue, make sure to start a new paragraph each time a new character does anything. For example:

"I'm going hunting," Lightfeather said. "Would you like to join me?"

Pheasantclaw's stomach growled. "I don't think I have a choice!"

"Well, come on then," she replied with an amused purr. She disappeared into the trees, the tom staring after her.

Even though Pheasantclaw does not speak immediately, he has an action attached to his dialogue, which means that a new paragraph should be started.

My second point refers to changing topics between paragraphs, which can sometimes be a little daunting. At points, long paragraphs are completely alright and make perfect sense. At others, one line paragraphs are fine as well. But, yet again, having a mixture of the two makes for the best reading experience. The easiest way to tell if you should start a new paragraph: Does this sentence somehow pertain to what I was talking about in the previous one? If yes, continue; if not, hit that enter button!

<<>> <<>> <<>> <<>> <<>>

I hope this incredibly long lesson (nearly as long as one of my regular chapters...) on spelling and grammar makes some sense and will help you in your future writing endeavours. If you ever need more information on any of these topics, the internet is a wonderful place and Google your best friend. There are many credited websites (even writer's circles!) that have published easy to understand articles on all of these topics.