Georgia Writers Association - Serving a diverse writing community

Ask the Book Doctor: About Perplexing Apostrophes

Q: Which of these is correct?

The Magicians' council decided against it.

The Magician's council decided against it.

The Magicians council decided against it.

Note: The council has ten members.

A: I cannot answer the question until I know why the word "Magicians" or any of its variants would be capitalized. If it is not the title of an official body, it should not be capitalized. If it is the name of an official body, then "council" should also be capitalized. In addition, if it is the name of an official body, the punctuation and other treatment would depend upon the official title of the council.

If it not an official title and one magician actually owns the council (doubtful, but I'm making a point), then it would the magician's council. If two or more magicians own the council, it would be magicians' council. It's more likely, however, that no magician actually owns the council; it is a council made up of magicians, in which case the correct use would be this: The magicians council decided against it.

If you are writing fiction and made up the entire concept of the council, you also have the choice to use the word "magician" as an adjective. In such a case the correct use would be this: The magician council decided against it.

Capitalizing Seasons and Attributing Dialogue

Q: I read an article in the newspaper that referred to the season of autumn, which we also refer to as fall. In the article, the word “fall” was not capitalized. I have always wondered about this issue, usually capitalizing it, but never feeling sure of what’s right.

A: To answer your question, I'll quote from my own book doctor's desk reference book, Purge Your Prose of Problems. It is available through my website, www.zebraeditor.com.

Autumn, Fall, Spring, Summer, and Winter

Seasons of the year are not capitalized unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence or in a headline. Examples: I’ll see you in the spring. Fall weather dries my skin. The headline said Save Now on Winter Coats. Aren’t the autumn leaves beautiful?

By the way, you’re not alone in your confusion. Many writers incorrectly assume that seasons should be capitalized, and when no editor is on the staff to correct the error, the mistake makes its way into print. Others see it in print and assume it’s correct, if it’s in print. No wonder people get confused!

Q: I have noticed that in a lot of books, whenever you see a conversation, not every response ends with something like John said, John asked, John replied, etc. Sometimes the characters just talk, and that part is omitted. Many times there is a mixture. Could you please explain to me how this works?

A: Creative writers avoid any type of repetition, including patterns. When every piece of dialogue begins or ends with words that attribute the dialogue to that person (these words are called attributions or tags), the writing grows repetitious and boring. Some writers avoid repeating the words “said” or “asked” by using other attributions, such as replied, responded, requested, retorted, denied, agreed, and such, but those words stick out even worse than “said” does.

Attributions ensure that readers know who spoke. Because correct dialogue format calls for a new paragraph for each new person who speaks, when only two people are in a scene, writers need to attribute only the first couple of pieces of dialogue. After that, the format (each new paragraph) indicates that the other person is responding, so no attributions are necessary. Below is an example of a two-way conversation. Notice how the first two pieces of dialogue are attributed to the speakers, but after those first two attributions, readers clearly know who is speaking. Notice, too, that I put one attribution after the dialogue and one attribution before the dialogue, to avoid placing the attribution in the same place in both sentences.

“John, would you please take out the trash?” Mary asked.

John said, “I took it out yesterday. It’s your turn.”

“I just cleaned the whole house, while you read the newspaper. The least you can do is take out the trash.”

“Can I please finish reading this article? Why do I have to jump up instantly and perform every command you make?”

Another great way to reduce the volume of attributions is to use action that shows who is speaking, and again, correct format puts each person’s actions in a separate paragraph. Below is the same conversation using action for the attribution. Notice how the use of “asked” and “said” is no longer necessary, because we clearly see who did and said what, by the format.

“John, please take out the trash.” Mary pointed to an overflowing trashcan.

John dropped his newspaper into his lap. “I took it out yesterday. It’s your turn.”

“I just cleaned the whole house, while you read the newspaper. The least you can do is take out the trash.”

“Can I please finish reading this article?” John threw his hands into the air. “Why do I have to jump up instantly and perform every command you make?”

When three or more people are speaking in a scene, each piece of dialogue must be attributed to a specific speaker, so some form of attribution is required. In that case, interspersing tags with action keeps the repetition down. Below is an example.

“John, please take out the trash.” Mary pointed to an overflowing trashcan.

John dropped his newspaper into his lap. “I took it out yesterday. It’s your turn.”

Five-year-old Sammy walked into the living room with tears in his eyes. “Please don’t fight, Mommy and Daddy. I’ll take the trash out.”

Mary turned to her son. “You’re a dear, but I just cleaned the whole house, while your father read the newspaper. The least he can do is take out the trash.”

“Can I please finish reading this article?” John threw his hands into the air. “Why do I have to jump up instantly and perform every command you make?”

Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style (Union Square Publishing), and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Read more “Ask the Book Doctor” questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.

Ask the Book Doctor: About Essays, Turning Humorous Essays into Newspaper Columns, and Formatting Titles

Q: I just wrote up an account of an event that happened to me when we first moved to Georgia. I want to know if it qualifies as an essay. It is not a series of musings on a central theme, as in some essays I’ve read. It is the true story of what happened and what I learned from it.

I looked up how to write an essay, and the information told how to write a persuasive essay. Mine isn’t that type of writing, though. If I write a nonfiction piece without attempting to prove a point, is it an essay or an opinion? It would help to get clarification, because I usually don’t write nonfiction.

A: Essays come in many forms, including personal opinion, persuasive, and personal experience. Many humor columnists write in the form of essays that relate personal experiences combined with their personal opinions about what took place.

Personal experience essays concentrate on a specific event or related events, and they often unfold with action and dialogue, which sets them apart from a persuasive essay. If your story is shown through action and dialogue with strong writing, it becomes creative nonfiction. If you already write strong fiction, you should have no problem writing strong personal experience essays, too, and it sounds as if that’s what you have done by writing about your experiences when you moved to a new state.

Ask the Book Doctor: About Writing for the Market and Avoiding Plagiarism

Q: I've written a short story [synopsis deleted]. I had three people--one fellow writer and two avid readers who are not writers--read this story and provide feedback. They all love the story, except each one told me that she doesn't like the ending. Each offered suggestions for alternative endings that range from fairy tale to Barney the Dinosaur endings. (I love you; you love me; oh, how happy we will be.)

I ended it the way I did because it made more sense to me. [The protagonist] grew up a little and learned that sometimes it's okay to assert himself, even if it brings conflict. Our hero was content with the way the story ended.

I know I'm writing for a market, and I want my stories to entertain and satisfy readers. But I don't feel right ending a story in a way that I personally think is a cheesy cliché. Should I write something I wouldn't read myself, just because others like it? Can I even trust the response of such a small sample of readers, even though their independent feedback concerning the ending is resounding and consistent? I know this is a terribly subjective question, but I'd like to know what you would do.

A: You may be asking the wrong person. To be able to make a living writing, I have made it my motto that "I'll write anything for money." As a result I have written and/or edited many things that did not reflect my personal opinions.

Examine your motives. If indeed you are writing to sell your work, you do have to consider the market, and if you consider the market--your focus group sounds like a small but good specimen--you will change the ending to suit the market. If you write for yourself without hope of selling your work, you can write anything you want, including gibberish, and it won't matter. In that case, you can make the ending as unpleasing to the public as you wish, because in reality the public will probably never see it.

You are the god who created your story. You can control the outcome, depending upon your goals. As you know, the endings of many movies have been changed when focus groups did not like the first ending. As a result, some movies have become blockbusters that may have otherwise bombed, if the ending had not changed.

Q: With all the stories of plagiarism in the news, how do you keep honest when writing a researched article?

A: The plagiarism in the news tends to refer to fiction--stories allegedly created from thin air--not nonfiction, which is information gathered from various sources. In nonfiction, you can cite your sources within the article and reword information so sentences are not exactly as written in your sources. When you show where your information originated, you should be in the clear, as long as you do not copy information from another source and allege that you alone originated the material.

To clarify, in a nonfiction article, you may refer to other sources by writing something like this:

Has New Orleans recovered yet from its Hurricane Katrina devastation? Not according to the news and those who visited there a few months after the storm. In a Washington Post article, journalist Tom Calvert reported having seen a group of teenagers living without adult supervision under the Burlington Bridge in New Orleans.

Media Specialist David Baker with the Georgia State Public Library System attended a conference in New Orleans ten months after Katrina and said, "It looks like a third-world country that has been hit by a bomb. Nothing’s been done. I could just scream."

Bobbie Christmas, book doctor, author of Write In Style (Union Square Publishing), and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Read more “Ask the Book Doctor” questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.