The Writer's Chatroom

I know it sounds like a silly question....but have come across this hurdle, word-wise.....which is it...toward or towards? have tried reading the sentence and still don't have a good grasp on this...sometimes one seems to work better, then here comes another sentence where the OTHER one reads smoother...sigh

Well this is just my opinion but Towards sound more poetic, prose-ful, old english-ish. Like what you'd see with Thee, Thou, Thy and such. While Toward is more modern, like "It was coming toward me." very crisp and clean, while "It was coming towards me." is more informal and playful. That's just the feel I get from them, like when I write, dat or tis or s'not or gonna, you know? It's just the tone and flavor of the writing. Toward is dull enough to be factual and clean cut while Towards is more personable with personality, or so I think. So depending on how you use it, I'd go with Toward as formal and towards as informal. But that's just me an I'm leaning toward two words to ward the way towards two wads of twerds. word?

-MMX

And I thought plot, characterization, pacing, atmosphere, scene/sequel, suspense, and red herrings were da bomb.....then we's gots our crafting a dyno query letter and synopsis......then we close both eyes, form the query into a paper airplane and throw it at a dartboard, hoping it hits the right agent (just kidding, I understand knowing the market).....oh, my.......heading "toward" madness.....or is that "towards?"

They are both, officially speaking, correct. As long as you use towards as a preposition, not an adjective.

So it comes down to your own opinion of style.

For me I have two feelings on the matter...
Firstly 'toward' seems more formal, "I live toward London." Whereas 'towards' seems more casual, like slang, "I live towards the docks."
Similarly I feel that 'towards' signifies action, while 'toward' signifies intention, "I looked toward London, but I moved towards the docks."

Those are my thoughts on the matter.

Thanks for the input!!!!