Tricky Edits Column for June 2026

Tricky Edits

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Most Writers Are Feeling Guilty 
About Something They’re Doing Right 

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the newly released
Third Edition of The Frugal Editor

Did someone once recommend a book called The Elements of Style to you and you’ve been experiencing some kind of guilt ever since? I’m going to cure your guilt. Read the title! (-:  It’s about style. Strunk, the first author of this popular book that has been through many editions, was a professor who knew what he wanted to see in papers submitted to him and was letting his students know about those preferences. They weren’t rules unless you are aiming to write another Declaration of Independence. If so, crack it open, have at it, and be glad you did. If not, there might be no rule you can’t break and few you don’t need to break. You’ll even find the breaking of some improves the piece you’re working on. And you encounter a bunch of those when you write dialogue or anecdote because even nonfiction writers are using a little storytelling into their reporting these days. Why? Because, Lisa Cron says in her title, we’re all Wired for Story.

I’m going to give you a few of my favorite rule-breaking situations today and then turn you over to my The Frugal Editor from Modern History Press and my How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically for some related tips related to the promotions you have to do as a writer—like sell sheets, media kits, and synopses where it’s better when your voice shines through. So here are a few that will let you sleep easier tonight.

1. I love to use both em dashes and ellipses. When you use them, console yourself with knowing that nobody talks in complete sentences all of the time. 

2. Have some fun with starting a sentence with “And” or another conjunction and feel good about using that capital letter there. Why? Because sometimes your voice demands it. Other times, your sentence is way too long and And is an easy way for you to start a new one and readers to easily shift gears without going away.

3. Use incomplete sentences. At least once in a while. I bet you have a character in you (or in your book) who uses them. Try firing a few short ones fast like bullets. Feel free to use periods after each one. And see how it can move a story along.

4. Another rule I love to break is the one that says I must follow the dictionary (or Word’s spelling suggestion!) exactly, and never write two words as one when it tells us that they should be separated. No, no, no. Occasionally pushing two words together can be a poetic choice. In fact, when I’m writing poetry is when I usually decide to do that.

Break rules not only because there is no such thing as official blog cops who will fine or incarcerate you if you get it wrong, but because you really can break rules and sometimes should.

So, the point here is that blogging may be the motivation to go back and review our grammar and spelling rules. But it may also be a liberating force. Finally, we get to think of ourselves as writers. Writers who can make style choices. Writers who can make up words. Writers who are free to be creative.  

Fun, huh?

MORE ABOUT CAROLYN

Once a month Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares something writer-related she hopes might save some author from embarrassment (or make the task of writing more fun or creative). The third edition of The Frugal Editor from Modern History Press includes a chapter on some of the words most misused by the very people whose business it is to know them. It is the second multi award-winning book in her multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers. The Frugal Editor has been fully updated including a chapter on how backmatter can be extended to help readers and nudge book sales.

This article is an excerpt from a new vocabulary book written especially for career-minded authors that WinningWriters.com will give to those who enter their 2024 #NorthStreetBookPrize. Carolyn has been a sponsor since that contest’s introduction. This book is among the several value-added benefits Winning Writers contestants and winners are offered at no extra charge. Carolyn’s book will be released in early 2026 by Modern History Press. Find the entire series on a special Series Page offered by Amazon.

Carolyn blogs sporadically on editing at The Frugal Editor and at her SharingwithWriters blog on other aspects of the publishing world and welcomes guest posts with ample author credit lines and links and welcomes guest posts complete with credit lines and ample links for her guests. She also tweets writers' resources and tips at her Twitter account using #FrugalBookPromoterTips hashtag.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program where has found a little humor can decidedly make a lot of learning easier on one’s disposition. 

The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That series includes both the third editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and my The Frugal Editor.Published by Modern History Press, they have won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, Dan Poynter’s Global Ebook Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethicallyis still in its first (very frugal!) edition but please wait for the second edition from Modern History Press. 

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts.