Fundamentals

Spelling and Grammar

No matter how well thought out, no matter how moving, a story with multiple spelling and grammar mistakes is a bad story. Typos happen, even with the best editors, but confusing they’re, their, and there or when to use too, to, or two is a sure way to turn off most readers. Likewise, juxtaposing a letter here and there is common, but you should be able to spell words that you intend to use. The number of resources to help you with basic grammar and spelling approaches infinity, and so this course will not cover those fundamental skills.

Adjectives and Adverbs

To put it simply, adjectives and adverbs are "modifier words." They help describe things or actions, and when used judiciously they are valuable tools that help paint a vivid picture in the mind of the reader.

The catch with adjectives and adverbs is that they are easy to overuse, and this is a common flaw in budding writers - in an effort to paint the most vivid, detailed picture, they will often use redundant or unnecessary modifiers. While there are no “hard and fast” rules dictating how many you should use or when to use them, it is recommended that all aspiring authors give them careful consideration. Quantity doesn’t necessarily equal quality.

Adjectives are words that help describe or modify a thing/noun: “the yellow light of the sun” or “the heavy briefcase.” These are valuable words that help the reader visualize a more detailed picture, but they are easy to overuse. Without going into specifics of types, the sentence below is an example of overusing adjectives.

“The incredibly bright yellow, eye-searing light of the sun shone down harshly on the tropical planet.”

In this case, “incredibly bright” and “eye-searing” are effectively the same thing, and so one or the other is redundant. Additionally, since sunlight never shines up on a planet, modifying it to shine down is unnecessary.

Adverbs are words that modify the verb or action in a sentence: “the yellow light of the sun shone harshly on the planet” or “I struggled mightily to pick up the heavy briefcase.” As with adjectives, they can help actions become more specific or emphasize an action, but like with adjectives they can be overdone.

“The eye-searing yellow light of the sun strongly shone harshly on the tropical planet.”

In this case, “strongly” and “harshly” aren’t exact synonyms, but they are close enough that the sentence feels clunky.

Judicious use of adjectives and adverbs is one of the hallmarks of quality writing.

As you improve as a writer, you will find that adjectives and adverbs are a huge part of your writing style. Some writers will tend towards using more esoteric, unusual words; others will find their style runs to more everyday vocabulary. Just remember:
There is no “right” style.

Some styles work better for certain objectives, but a good writer can modify their style to suit the topic or find creative ways to suit the topic to their style. That being said, you should know that mixing up styles in a single work can create a somewhat disjointed experience for your readers, so it’s a good idea to try to be consistent stylistically throughout a story.

Regardless of your style, there is an important rule for using adjectives that you probably already know, but don’t know you know - the order of adjectives. The order of adjectives is how you arrange multiple adjectives, and it will ensure your descriptive wording works.

Whenever you use more than one adjective to describe a thing, you’ll want to follow this order:
Opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, qualifier.

For example, “the brown amphibious old massive Hutt” doesn’t really flow well, even though the adjectives are being used correctly. However, when you arrange them according to the order of adjectives above, you get "the massive old brown amphibious Hutt" which just flows better.

This is so ingrained in most native English speakers that you probably already do it, but being aware of it is useful to new writers or those for whom English is a second language.

Note: "The massive old brown amphibious Hutt" is technically correct and useful as an example for order of adjectives, but it is also an example of overuse of adjectives in a single sentence. This is the kind of overkill that leads to run-on sentences, so be judicious in their use.

Run-on Sentences and Comma usage

One of the biggest traps that new writers tend to fall into is the run-on sentence. You know what they look like:

“Timmy felt that he, and he alone, had the training and skills to perform this very, very difficult task, a task that so many like him had failed before, one way or the other, in every attempt since the early days of the Empire, when Palpatine was merely a chancellor, and before he dissolved the Senate and took on the mantle of Darth Sidious.”

There are no errors, technically speaking, in this sentence. Spelling and grammar are correct, modifier words are used sparingly, and yet it’s almost painful to read.

There are a couple of common reasons for people to write run-on sentences. First and by far the most common reason is that writers tend to write as though they are speaking to the reader. This can be a valid stylistic choice, but more often than not it requires the reader to interpret the pacing and pauses of verbal communications, and falls flat when the reader doesn’t match the writer's intent.

The second most common reason for run-on sentences is that writers simply try to cram too much into a single sentence. This often can include overdoing it with adjectives and adverbs, although that's not the only reason. In the example above, there is a lot of extra information that doesn’t really add substance to the statement:

Timmy believed that he was the only one since the early days of the Empire who could accomplish this difficult task.

The original example sentence is 64 words; the pared-down version is 21, but communicates essentially the same information. A second sentence could be added to give the reader more information and avoid the run-on:

Timmy believed that he was the only one since the early days of the Empire who could accomplish this difficult task. His training and skills were unique, and no one had successfully performed the task since the fall of the Galactic Republic.

The second sentence added content without unnecessarily cluttering up the first, and is much easier to read. Note that the reference to Palpatine was replaced with a shorter reference without changing the meaning of the reference.

Commas are useful tools to separate thoughts, but like adjectives and adverbs, they can be overused. A good general rule that will help you avoid run-on sentences:
One thought = one sentence.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use compound sentences or avoid commas altogether. Rather, make sure that your sentences are structured in such a way that they form one complete idea. Broadly speaking, if you find yourself using more than two commas in a sentence, it's likely headed into run-on status. If you need more than one sentence to complete an idea, well, that’s where the paragraph comes in handy! Speaking of which…

Formatting

Formatting is literally how you use space on the page, and it tends to be a challenge even for the most skilled writers. Often overlooked, the margins and spacing you use can make or break your work.

Margins are typically set to 1”, which means there is 1 inch of empty space at the top, bottom, and sides of your page. You will likely not need to change this.

Spacing is much more important than margins, and will determine whether your reader stays riveted to every word or skims across the dreaded “wall o’ text.”

Line breaks, paragraph breaks, and page breaks are all tools that you should be using regularly.

A line break simply starts a new line directly beneath the current line. This is typically most useful for dialogue between two or more characters, when a paragraph break would leave too much empty space on the page.

A paragraph break starts a new line two lines below the current one, giving a space between lines of text. This is the most useful of the breaks, because it gives the reader a chance to separate the paragraphs and breaks up a long stretch of text.

A page break skips to the top of the next page, and is useful for keeping the sentences of a paragraph together (so the reader doesn’t have to split the thought). This is a relatively rare break to use unless you intend to print your work.

Fonts are literally the design of the lettering used in your work. While it’s tempting to use exotic fonts to spice up your work, in truth most readers prefer an easy-to-read, “typical” font like Times New Roman, Arial, Century, or Verdana. If you must use an unusual font, make sure it is easy to read. If you want to look professional, avoid cartoony or overly complex fonts.

Additionally, font size should be an important consideration. You can fit more words on a page with a smaller font, but that makes it difficult to read for some, especially on mobile devices. Most legal documents in the United States are font size 12, big enough to read easily but small enough that there’s still plenty of room for information.

A vital part of formatting is justification (or alignment), or how your text is aligned on the page. Most books are left aligned, where each line of text begins at the same distance from the left side of the page. Short pieces with short, individual lines (such as poetry) will often use centered alignment, which centers each line on the page. Right aligned is only really used in languages that read right-to-left, such as Arabic or Hebrew. Center justified aligns the text with the left margin, but then will “stretch” each line so that it lines up neatly with the right margin as well. It is often used in magazines or newspapers, or when columns of text are desired. Virtually all text programs will default to left alignment.

Finally, indentation is using an indent to begin new paragraphs. Most indentations are as simple as using the tab key to indent the first line of a paragraph, and most programs will do it for you automatically after you’ve done it once or twice. Alternatively, you can choose to not indent at all. There are at least half a dozen different rules on indentation depending on which source you use, but the important thing to remember is to be consistent.

Planning and Research

Planning

Most of the good writers in the world use some sort of planning structure before ever setting pen to paper (so to speak). Successful writers first address the key elements overall, then flesh out their stories, making changes as the story evolves from their initial vision. When planning, it’s a good idea to identify the things that are crucial elements, and be ready to change the details as needed. "Crucial elements" may include specific plot points/events, characters, themes, basically anything that you feel are absolutely vital to telling the story in your head.

If for example you are writing about Lambda squadron, you may feel that having the Ewok pilot crash landing somehow is a "crucial element" to the story. So you make a point of identifying that early in the planning process. Or perhaps it's crucial that your character discovers a clue to their past. Whatever you decide is crucial, decide on it early so that you may plan your story around those elements.

Research

One of the biggest mistakes new writers make is failing to take the time to do their research, yet getting details right is a huge part of quality writing. No one can be expected to remember the TIE/sa bomber is equipped with P-s4 ion engines, but that detail can be a nice touch when describing the ship.

For the purposes of Emperor's Hammer fiction, your best sources will be the EH wiki and Wookieepedia (links below).

Remember, you can always stop writing to go and look something up. Little details can add a lot to a story, but missing or making up big points can actually harm your story, for those well-versed in the lore.

Things that are important to look up when crafting a story for the Emperor's Hammer include ships, squadrons, pilots, locations, and existing NPCs. All of this is relatively easy to find, and can ensure that you are putting the right pilot, from the right squadron, in the right ship.

• Wookiepedia
• Emperor’s Hammer TIE Corps Wiki

Don’t be afraid of Google, using creative resources to flesh out your ideas. For example, if you’re writing about a world torn apart by tectonic forces, you may want to Google “how do tectonic forces work” to gain a better, more scientific (and thus more believable) understanding to use in your writing.