If a friend were to ask you right now, “How do you know whether to call a book fiction or nonfiction?” what answer would you give?
You think you have a pretty good idea of how to distinguish the two — until someone asks you to articulate the difference in your own words.
It sounds so simple, right? You could just say, “Fiction is imaginary, while nonfiction is true.”
But sometimes the two overlap.
Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration. The rest of us get up and go to work.
– Stephen King
“Do I really have to write every single day?” you may be thinking. “But what if…?”
So many things can get in the way — some we can avoid, others not so easily.
What are the best tips for writing a book? We have you covered.
Maybe you have a book idea, and you’re thinking it would make a great book.
The problem? You’ve never written a book before. And with all the information out there on the steps to writing a book, you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed.
You already know that having writing skills has the power to change your life and the lives of those who read your work.
So, it makes sense that writing better — more clearly, more fluidly, and more beautifully — has even greater power for both you and your reader.
Do you ever stop mid-sentence to ask yourself, “Should I italicize or quote book titles?”
It’s a fair question, and it deserves a thoughtful answer. Since you want to be a good writer, you need to know these things, and wondering, “Are books italicized?” means you are paying attention to the important details of your craft.
You might also have the following questions:
Hence this article. When it comes to any rule for writing, we’re huge fans of keeping it simple and easy to remember.
Strictly speaking, the question of whether to italicize or use quotation marks is a matter of style; the rules governing the usage of both can change.
But for some time — roughly since computers took the place of typewriters for word processing — writers have used italics (rather than underlines or quotes) to set off the titles of what the MLA (Modern Language Association) style guide calls “containers.”
Each container is a larger work made up of smaller components.
So, do you italicize book titles? The short answer is yes. The longer answer — the one with more nuance and some research — is just up ahead.
(Sidebar: If you’d like to learn our strategies for writing a bestselling book, then I suggest checking out our free checklist, which is the exact 46-point guide we’ve used to sell one million copies of our books.)
Even the most grammar-savvy amongst us benefit from a thorough proofreading of our work.
You may rely on an editor to check your work, or like many writers, it might be tempting to do a quick scan of your writing without thoroughly proofreading it.
But proofreading is as essential to your writing as writing is. It allows you to fix any errors that may obscure your intended meaning or distract your reader. It also helps you catch grammar and spelling mistakes, misused words, and punctuation errors.