Tricky Mistakes to Avoid in Our Manuscripts

Since early December, my manuscript has been in the hands of several precious beta readers and critique partners. One of the things I love to see when I receive feedback is how each person has different strengths and areas of focus when critiquing. Some catch the punctuation and grammar mistakes. Some catch the inconsistencies in characters’ actions or dialogue. Some question the inclusion of a scene or chapter. And while I don’t agree with every suggested change, I do consider each one, because it forces me to have a “why” behind every word choice, every action beat, every included scene. As long as we don’t let the critiques define us or our ability to write, they can be instrumental in honing our craft.

With that encouragement, allow me to share some common mistakes we writers make from time to time (and which hopefully get fixed before publication!).

Then/Than

First up, we have then and than, which I’ve seen misused on social media, ebooks, advertisements, and more. Depending on the sentence, then can parade as an adverb, adjective, or noun, and refers to time or consequence. “We ordered a pizza and then watched a movie.” “If I run this morning, then I can enjoy some chocolate this afternoon.” Than is used as a conjunction or a preposition indicating comparison: “I’ll get a response to you no later than Wednesday.” “You want to go skiing rather than ice-fishing?”

Than can be tricky, however. If I say “Diane is stronger than me,” or “Diane is stronger than I,” which one is correct?

Turns out, they both are, although many people—readers and writers alike—will say that the first one sounds wrong. To help alleviate grammatical discomfort, we could expand the sentence to say, “Diane is stronger than I am,” and call it good. 🙂

But which one of these is correct? “Diane likes Mike more than me,” or “Diane likes Mike more than I”?

Again, they both are, but they’re ambiguous, since the reader doesn’t know if Diane likes Mike more than she likes me, or if Diane likes Mike more than I like Mike. To please our readers, it’s best to, once again, expand our sentences for clarity’s sake. “Diane likes Mike more than she likes me.” “Diane likes Mike more than I do.”

Past/Passed

Once in a while, I come across the incorrect use of past and passed. These are not interchangeable. The first can occur as an adverb, adjective, or noun, while the second is the simple past tense of the verb to pass.

“Jane passed the ball to Greg.” Here, passed is the verb. 

“Jane tossed the ball past Greg.” Here, tossed is the verb, and past is the adverb. Past is never used in conjugating the verb to pass.

Lie/Lay

The confusion around these two separate verbs is the bane of many a writer—and English teacher, too, no doubt—since lay also wears the hat of the simple past tense of to lie. As its own verb, however, lay requires a direct object (DO). Here are several examples to show you the differences:

“I douse the candle and lie down to sleep.” Present tense of to lie.

“I douse the candle and lay the child down to sleep.” Present tense of to lay, which requires a DO (the child).

“I doused the candle and lay down to sleep.” Past tense of to lie.

“I doused the candle and laid the child down to sleep.” Past tense of to lay. (This is the tense that gets most of us confused, as we tend to incorrectly say “I laid down to sleep” in real-life conversations.)

And the pluperfect (the past-past tense) is as follows:

“I had doused the candle and had lain down to sleep.” To lie.

“I had doused the candle and had laid the child down to sleep.” To lay.

I wish I had a trick for helping you remember the differences, but I think this one’s going to take pure memory power. That said, if you know a trick, please share with us in the comment section! 🙂

What are some other common mistakes you wrestle with in your manuscript? (And is it just me, or have you, too, found that your ability to spell has decreased over the years thanks to Spell Check?!) 😉