#minsung Pls

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

Tell me I am not the only one struggling with writing a thesis. Like...I can write a whole ass fic but the moment I pull out my thesis I get writers block 😭🥲

one of the cool things about reading people’s fics is you can somewhat tell if someone has been writing for a very long time and has many, many years of practice and experience under their belt or if someone is off to a good start. and don’t get me wrong, being a newbie doesn’t mean you’re any less of a writer, being a newbie doesn’t mean you won’t be as good as those who’ve been writing for decades. because yeah writing is art and as long as you keep on writing, you’ll only keep getting better. and it’s so beautiful to watch people master their crafts.

we all start at level one and then we all grow at our own time and terms, and we all grow into something beautiful ♡

When the daughter in you loves him, but the woman in you hates him.

Sound up

reblog if you’re okay with people writing fanfics of your fanfics and/or fanfics inspired by your fanfics