Common Edits - Farther, More Than, Each Other

The rules for farther/further, over/more than, and each other/one another are pretty clear, and if you get them memorized, you should be able to apply them correctly with ease. (My example sentences aren't great writing; I'd suggest edits for each of them! But we're just hamming it up to highlight differences.)

Farther/Further

Deciding when to use "farther," ask yourself if you're going an actual, measurable physical distance. How FAR is it going? FARther. 

And if it helps with when to use further, think of FUR, how it's something growing out from deep within, like an internal to external, and let's have it represent abstract measure. Use further to mean in-depth, abstract, thought/feeling-dimension movement; to a greater degree; in addition. Warm and furry thoughts and feelings and the like.

• Let's further discuss this farther down the road.
• Don't let the evil seep any further in your heart.
• My father didn't let me walk farther than the front door before he further drilled in the consequences if I missed curfew.

Over/More Than

Basically you're going to use "over" for anything except when it's countable, when it's a "greater than" situation. "Over" will include abstract concepts and not just physical movement--but of course not exclusively. Hopefully it will feel intuitive which to use when, but if both sound okay and you're talking countable objects or subjects, I'll likely edit "over" to "more than" in those instances. If it's in dialogue and that's how it sounds when someone/your character speaks, we don't have to edit to adhere to grammar rules. Correct verbiage can sound worse than common usage.

• I'm over the moon that we found more than three moons orbiting that planet.
• I have more than thirteen years of editing experience.
• I'm more than happy to help you get over your illness that you've suffered more than five times over the past month.
• We haven't had you over in more than a year!
• She's over seventeen, so she gets more than seventeen kisses. (Age is abstract number vs countable number of kisses.)
• Don't go over twenty minutes, okay? (What we're not saying here is "don't go over [the time limit I'm giving you]"; so even though "minutes" are countable, the abstract use of time is our focus, not the actual minutes.) You could also say, "Don't let more than twenty minutes pass after eating before you take your pill," and there you're focused on the numbered minutes indeed, so you'd use the "greater than" meaning of "more than."
  

Each Other/One Another

There's a difference to these? Sure! But it's not extremely important in most cases. Simply put, "each other" is used when it's two entities interacting, and "one another" is correct when more than two are involved. I think of "I've got one in each hand, so I have two" as my memory device. This "rule" is very much another case of "my character wouldn't say it that way" so we then don't force grammatical accuracy and leave it be.

• As I have loved you, love one another.
• The delegates from each country couldn't agree with one another.
• I know we thought they'd make a good match, but it seems like they can't stand each other.
• The survivors hadn't spoken with one another since the incident where the ships crashed into each other.

If this helps you, happy day! Hopefully a quick and clarifying lesson. As ever, focus on your story craft. Do your best, don't let Grammarly lead you blind (the unnecessary second-guessing it forces upon you will stress you out more than it's worth), and I'll see to the rest.

Common Edits - Lay/Lie

Don't sweat the commas, quote marks, and em dashes—oh my! I take care of those, while you focus on the writing. But I thought some posts about a few common words or rules I often see misunderstood could be useful. If you get these down, you save that much more time on revisions—plus you feel smart.

At the top of the list is the use of lay/lie (as in recline, not fib). I really just had to memorize this, but lots of practice has made noticing and fixing these errors instinctual. 

One memory trick that might be helpful is thinking of a chicken. After laying an egg a hen needs to lie down. Lay will include an object (egg). Lie happens to the self (chicken thighs help her lie).

Click to see source—and an incorrect use of "lay" in post title!

My brain's shortcut is focusing on the "a." If I see lay or laid I ask: Can I replace this with "put"? If yes, then it's right as lay/laid and we'll also find an object in use. If not, I know the correct word will be in the lie/lay/lain/lying group.

"I lay on my bed with my hands behind my head." 
Brain: "I [put] on my bed with my hands behind my head." Nope. So "lay" is correct. (Not "I laid on my bed...")

"I laid my doll down on my bed with its arms behind its head."
Brain: "I [put] my doll down..." Yep! (Again, the presence of an object being placed/put somewhere is a big clue for lay/laid/laid.)

I'd say the main reason the use of reclining lie/lay/lain is so tricky is because the past tense is "lay," which is, obviously, the present tense of "lay." Plus everybody just uses "lay" incorrectly, so it sounds right because of usage.

THESE ARE WRONG (parenthetical is right):

• Just go lay down and stop whining. (Just go lie down...)
• We gotta lay low and stay quiet. (We gotta lie low... Sounds so wrong, right? But "lie" is right in this case! If you wanna say "lay low" it's for "this flu laid me low" and "the wind will likely lay low the trees"—notice those objects again that you always see with "lay." Wait, Emily, "me" can be an object? To the flu, indeed. Also to yourself! "Now I lay me down to sleep...")
• Can I lay by your side? (Can I lie by your side?)
• You were laying there for two hours without sunblock, you dense lobster. (You were lying there...)
• You laid right next to him and didn't even realize? (You lay right next to him...)
• If you had laid there any longer, you'd be toast. (If you had lain there...)

The verbs group in these tenses (present/past/past perfect/past & present participle): 

lie/lay/lain/lying—the chicken's body is reclining (she's lying in the coop)
lay/laid/laid/laying—the chicken causes an object to transfer to resting (lays an egg)

Let me show the difference for each word in similar sentences.

You're not well. Go lie down on your sleeping bag.
You're not well. Go lay down your sleeping bag and rest.

He lay awake for four hours before he gave up, got up, and shuffled to the bathroom.
He laid his phone on the bedside table, leaned out of bed with a groan, and shuffled to the bathroom.

There was a rusty stain where the body had lain.
There was a rusty stain where the killers had laid the body.

I wanna get laid, man.
I want to lie with her, if you catch my drift.

You're going to lie around all day? // You're going to lay bricks all day? 
You were lying about all day. // The hens were laying eggs all day. 
You lay about all day yesterday. // You laid yesterday's mail on the counter. 
Your chores would be done today if you hadn't lain about all day yesterday. // Your chores would be done today if you hadn't laid bricks all day yesterday.

Finally, if you don't like how it sounds, reword it! Because "He follows my lead and lies like a starfish next to me" sounds weird, try this: "He plops down beside me and spreads out like a starfish." In my opinion, almost every instance of "lay" that I correct would sound better/stronger reworded. So go ahead and do a global search for your " lay" and " laid" instances (note the space between the word and the open quote; include that) and see if you can find a stronger way to word it. And if not, then make sure you've got the correct word by following my tips! 

Setting the Scene - The 3 Walls

A frequent issue I encounter when I'm content editing is a weak setting for a scene. For every scene you open, I want you to “set the stage” with what I call the “three walls.” A reader’s view of your page of words is like the theater stage. A stage is the backdrop and two wings where details come in and out to move the scenes forward. All things must happen within that view, and your words have to do it all.

Wall 1 is the time of day and the lighting. Making sure this is instantly and clearly understood will give everything to follow its proper feel, whatever happens. For example, if it’s dark, readers mentally squint and creep through the story with the actors, hungry for details and clues, and suspense is heightened. If lighting isn't set when the scene begins, it’s almost as though the scene hasn’t begun—the curtain hasn’t lifted. A stage is nothing without its strategic lighting. It seems so simple, and that might be why it's so easy to let go unsaid. The lighting switch can flip in as few as two flickering words, or it can build up in a paragraph if you wish, but I make it my first requirement to anchor your readers.

Wall 2, enter the structures: the props, buildings/walls/borders of the scene, the obstacles, hills and vales, instruments—in short, everything surrounding the actors/your characters and scene. If we don’t know the limits of the space, we can’t picture closeness or distance, and action becomes harder to follow. Make sure your actors interact with their setting, and anything they interact with must have a clear relation to the surroundings or anything else they interact with. Specific setting anchors give characters clear points of reference for the action to flow effortlessly.

Wall 3 is built from as many senses as you can reasonably appeal to in the scene. Could be one, will likely be more. Does something smell? Is there pain (and how much pain? Will it constantly affect the action?) or pleasure? Does it appear rich or shabby? Taste divine or disgusting? And what’s that constant buzzing? Add these to make your reader feel your story, not just read it. Interact with their imagination, not just their hand turning pages.

If there’s one more view a novel can add to this hypothetical stage that a brick-and-mortar theater can’t as easily, it’s perhaps the ceiling, which is what’s going on inside characters' heads. Your story’s narration, point of view/voice, and tense all work together to direct your scenes within your three walls, and it makes for great writing.

Go back to one of your trouble scenes and apply these tips. Track down what details the stage is missing, pump it full of sensory detail, and watch how your revisions bring new life to a tired scene.