Another potential source for grammar mishaps involves pronouns — the he, she, and they words — and their antecedents, the noun to which each pronoun refers. For a sentence to be grammatically correct, pronouns and antecedents must agree in three ways:

• Person — the pronoun must match the specific person being referenced; Tom handed Bob the file. He smiled. If the writer's intention is that Tom is the one who smiled, the sentence has a problem, since the pronoun he refers to the last masculine noun before it, namely Bob. Replacing the pronoun with Tom or changing the sentence to Tom handed Bob the file and smiled removes the problem.

• Number — the pronoun must match the specific number implied by the noun; The man raced across the yard. They tripped over an exposed root and fell. The pronoun they refers to the noun man, which is singular.

  Since they is incorrect, it should be replaced with he.

• Gender — the pronoun must match the gender implied by the noun; Jennifer walked down the hall. He stopped. The pronoun he refers to the noun Jennifer, which is incorrect. The correct pronoun should be she.

Making the pronoun agree with the antecedent when the pronoun refers to a person is probably one of the most common mistakes made by new writers. This is especially true in the romance genre since most novels are written in third person. Many writers hesitate to use the hero or heroine's given name when writing from their POV because it can distance the reader. As a result, authors rely heavily on the use of pronouns.

While it's true that overuse of your character's given name, especially when writing from her POV, can distance the reader, having an incorrect pronoun-antecedent agreement is worse. After all, if a reader becomes confused while reading your novel, she may decide to put it aside … and never pick it back up again.