A/Effect

Dear Fellow Sufferers,

You are not fakirs attempting to achieve English nirvana. You are writers, story tellers, and the expectation of perfect English is an impediment.

In point, quite a number of years ago, a fellow I respected and who had been Editor of a small newspaper declared to me simply that, “Affect is a verb. Effect is a noun.”

I have lived and written successfully for 20 years since. But just now, I was knocked-over by reading in John Wyndham’s 1951 sci-fi novel, “The Day of the Triffids,” this: “...a matter of the pair of us digging the grave and effecting the whole business.”

Of course, in the fine print of the American Heritage Dictionary, I find out that(as a transitive verb), “Effect means to ‘bring about or execute.’”

Write the story however your skill can effect the whole business. Then sell it.