RABIES

ENA!!!!

i ate all the cheddar chips sorry :"(

😟

would you still find me?

I know what you are 👁️👁️

grab with tongs

THE SYMBOLISM HERE WITH THE PICKET FENCE GOES SO HARD. UGHAKJJHOGIFKLJKFKM

tpot 15 broke down my door and punched me in the face 🙁

birthday boy !!!!! he's the birth of day

steps in through the door awkwardly and stumbles over my own feet..

..sniffs...

"Semicolons," I say with a hint of fear in my voice.

I reach out my hand, trembling.

"Teach me your ways."

[english class tried to tell me, but it failed... i mostly need to know HOW to use them properly </3]

“SEMICOLONS!!!” i scream at you; i love these annoying little shits

THEYRE MY SECOND FAVORITE PUNCTUATION MARK AFTER MY LOVELY EM DASH! OK LETS GO

FIRSTLY! a lot of people fundamentally misunderstand the purpose and practical function of semicolons. you’ll often hear one of these three things when asking someone to explain them to you:

1. they’re just like periods

2. they’re just like commas

3. they’re just like ‘and’

WRONG!

WRONG!!

AND WRONG AGAIN!!!

(but none of them are COMPLETELY wrong, and here’s why)

the actual function of a semicolon is to connect two closely related independent clauses in one sentence. ya just use it when you want to show the direct relation between two sentences.

in a purely practical sense, the writing world could do without semicolons—you can literally always replace it with either a period, comma, or “and.” or a bunch of other punctuation marks, including the em dash, which i just used in that last sentence in place of a semicolon!

if you don’t get semicolons, you never have to use ‘em!

but if you DO really really really want to use semicolons a whole bunch, for whatever reason (i do it cause i think they’re delightful), here’s when to use them:

1. when you want to show that two separate ideas are related

2. that’s it

a HUGE MISTAKE I ALWAYS SEE WHEN PEOPLE TRY TO USE SEMICOLONS is that the clauses on either side of the semicolon are NOT INDEPENDENT!!!

if you can’t keep either side of the semicolon as its own sentence, you can’t use a semicolon!

for example:

I wondered when I would see him again; that kind man.

this is WRONG!!

“I wondered when I would see him again.” WORKS as a sentence on its own! awesome!

“That kind man.” …huh? the kind man what? what idea or action is going on in this sentence?

oh, what’s that? NOTHING?

then it ISN’T AN INDEPENDENT CLAUSE and CAN’T be used as one side of a semicolon! semicolons aren’t just here for flair, they connect actions/ideas, and this example is ONE action and ONE subject doing nothing but clarifying what the previous sentence means! NOT INDEPENDENT!!

if you’re struggling on when and how to use them, take this:

when writing, don’t build a sentence AROUND a semicolon, but stick ‘em between two sentences whose meanings need to be linked. this is something you should focus on in editing, when you’ve already got all your sentences laid out and you can pick which ones should smooch! don’t worry about it during drafting!

because that’s really all a semicolon is: just a helpful little bridge between two sentences. it doesn’t have to be there, so make sure the sentences would still work if it wasn’t.

now, let’s look at this example:

I hadn’t spoken to that kind man in two weeks; I wondered when I would see him again.

“I hadn’t spoken to that kind man in two weeks.” WORKS AS A SENTENCE ON ITS OWN!

“I wondered when I would see him again.” ALSO WORKS AS A SENTENCE ON ITS OWN! YAY!!!

you could just have these as completely separate sentences (which tells you you’re using it right), but the reason a semicolon is used is to help the reader understand that one leads to the other!

this character is wondering when she’ll see that kind man again BECAUSE she hasn’t seen him in two weeks.

cause; effect.

this is the correct use of a semicolon!

(or “effect; cause” if you want, they’re usually rearrangeable.)

and so i restate: the world could do just fine without semicolons! they’re only here when YOU think they’re necessary.

you might use one to show how a character figured something out—

The doorknob was coated with dust; I knew he hadn’t been home for months.

—or why they made a decision—

A guard stepped toward me, brandishing a spear; I grabbed my stuff and ran.

—when, without the semicolon, it might not be clear to the reader why they did that or why they came to that conclusion. point out the connection, help the writing be more clear and more fun! not super duper necessary, because you can always replace it with a period or “and/so,” but they’re 100% useful and nice to have in your toolbox.

hope this was clear enough ack!!!

P.S. semicolons have a SECRET OTHER USE. but it’s booooorrrinngggggggg and you’ll, like, never use it ever. BUT HERE IT IS ANYWAY

you can use it to separate entries in lists when there’s already a comma. like… a SUPER comma to show that you’re talking about a new item on the list, not just expanding on the previous item

I spoke to: Basil, the artist, Berry, the nerd.

this kinda reads like you spoke to four people: you spoke to basil, you spoke to an artist, you spoke to berry, and you spoke to a nerd.

you can use a semicolon between these to separate which commas are to show descriptors, and which commas are to show a new entry in the list

I spoke to: Basil, the artist; Berry, the nerd.

hey, we’re on TV!

anyway, a simple “and” at the end of the list would solve this whole problem, but if you can’t use “and” for whatever reason (a list following a colon usually doesn’t need them), then there’s another use for semicolons that you will probably never need!

anyway i looooove semicolons and i will FIND YOU if you use them wrong . thank you and g’bye!

staring at your world

yo guess who just broke their toe :]

/very negative but im pushing through it

[its just a teeny fracture]

HI since you're a fellow writer [from what i've read, hah, WRITER PUN- anyways], HOW DO YOU PROPERLY WRITE DIALOGUE TAGS. like the. "Hello," she picked up a coffee mug and took a sip, "my name is Kaley." or the "BACK OFF!" They screamed in unison. like... am i doing it right or 😭 this is something that always pesters me whenever i write cause i have no idea to ask google about it

HI THERE YES HELLO THSNK YOU FOR ACLNOWLEDGING ME!!!!!

i LOVE dialogue tags because you can do so much with them and they inherently have so much variety—but they can be difficult to get the hang of, especially cause there are a ton of TINY annoying grammatical rules that go with them

as the CEO of tiny annoying grammatical rules i am HERE to HELP

SO!

“Hello,” she picked up a coffee mug and took a sip, “my name is Kaley.”

this would be totally correct IF the “picked up a coffee mug and took a sip” was replaced with said or mumbled or barked or whatever, BUT you’ve replaced those possible dialogue tags with an action

a big mistake i see a LOT is writers treating actions like they’re interchangeable with dialogue tags, and, in turn, giving them the same punctuation when they’re used with a pause in dialogue, but they are NOT!!!!!!!!! the same thing

the action is separate from the speech—she didn’t say hello by picking up a mug that emitted the sound for her, she said hello AND picked up a mug, then continued with her sentence.

since closing the dialogue with a comma denotes that the following text is supposed to be a dialogue tag, you’d use em-dashes for actions interrupting the speech instead!

“Hello—” she picked up a coffee mug and took a sip, “—my name is Kaley.”

alternatively, you could include a dialogue tag and connect it to the action with a conjunction if you wanted!

“Hello,” she said as she picked up the coffee mug, “my name is Kaley.”

(i omitted the “took a sip” part from this example because she presumably can’t speak while taking a sip from her cup</3)

AND!

“BACK OFF!” They screamed in unison.

this one’s almost perfectly fine, but remember not to capitalize any words that come after dialogue unless the end of the dialogue ends the ENTIRE sentence. since “they screamed” is the tag for “BACK OFF!”, and thus continues the sentence, you would leave “they” lowercase.

this used to trip me up for a while because often times, you’ll have a piece of dialogue where the speaker’s sentence is over, but the actual entire sentence isn’t—and that’s what you have here, for example! in this scenario, you wouldn’t capitalize the dialogue tag.

“BACK OFF!” they screamed in unison.

you WOULD keep it capitalized if it was an action after the speech (in a new sentence)!

In unison, they screamed, “BACK OFF!” Then they both punched you in the face at the same time and you died. Or something.

and—side note—if this weren’t an exclamation mark, it would be a comma, not a period, even though it’s still the end of the speaker’s sentence! a period at the end of the dialogue ALWAYS ends the entire sentence, so if a dialogue tag is coming after it, the period must be replaced with a comma.

assuming “back off” is the entire statement said by the speakers, “Back off.” They said in unison. would be incorrect, while “Back off,” they said in unison. would be correct!

(exclamation marks, question marks, and other punctuation marks can basically function as both a period and a comma)

THATS ALL I GOT !!

trying to google punctuation rules is So Annoying BUT i hope i helped at least a bit!!!

i know i tend to talk in circles because i love talking about writing rules to an excruciating degree but i hope i got my points across and everything 😎

also i love your art💔