Apparently A Lot Of People Get Dialogue Punctuation Wrong Despite Having An Otherwise Solid Grasp Of

Apparently a lot of people get dialogue punctuation wrong despite having an otherwise solid grasp of grammar, possibly because they’re used to writing essays rather than prose. I don’t wanna be the asshole who complains about writing errors and then doesn’t offer to help, so here are the basics summarized as simply as I could manage on my phone (“dialogue tag” just refers to phrases like “he said,” “she whispered,” “they asked”):

“For most dialogue, use a comma after the sentence and don’t capitalize the next word after the quotation mark,” she said.

“But what if you’re using a question mark rather than a period?” they asked.

“When using a dialogue tag, you never capitalize the word after the quotation mark unless it’s a proper noun!” she snapped.

“When breaking up a single sentence with a dialogue tag,” she said, “use commas.”

“This is a single sentence,” she said. “Now, this is a second stand-alone sentence, so there’s no comma after ‘she said.’”

“There’s no dialogue tag after this sentence, so end it with a period rather than a comma.” She frowned, suddenly concerned that the entire post was as unasked for as it was sanctimonious.

Some tips on writing Latino OCs/characters

Avoid the stereotype of the sex-siren “fiesty” Latino tropes: This stereotype does more harm than good, as almost all classic TV representation for Latinos is shown as the big hypersexualized character. By boiling down a Latino character to simply their sexual appeal, it denies them of their cultural identification if they do not fit what non-Latinos imagine all of them look like.

Not all Latinos speak Spanish: In fact, many Latinos do not speak Spanish that often or at all. Many times, non-bilingual/Spanish speaking individuals will write Latino characters “slipping” into speaking Spanish. This, obviously, does not happen in real life. If a Latino says something in Spanish then they meant to say it in Spanish. Here are some realistic reasons why a Latino character could say something in Spanish/Spanglish:

They are speaking to their grandparents or other people who only speak that language

For emphasis. I would sometimes speak to my partner in Spanish because I felt as though I could express myself better and more naturally (also ‘te amo’ feels more impactful than ‘I love you’, but that just may be a personal thing), but this did not occur often.

They are short phrases that any non-Spanish speaker could pick up on. Hola, gracias, de nada, mucho mejor, qué onda, madre/parde, casa, por qué are all ones I use around my friends sometimes. Again, sometimes.

There are others I am sure, but please be careful when writing a Latino character speaking Spanish. As a Latino living in America, if I am be honest, unless speaking with other Spanish speaking individuals, I do not use the language all too often (just like any other language, weird how that happens).

Do your research naming Latino characters: Please do not simply look up “Hispanic names” and choose the ones you like off of a list. If all your names look something like “Diego Rodriguez” then you are doing a bad job. Here are some tips:

69% of South America is Catholic and 19% is Protestant. Using that information, you are bound to have a lot of religious names. All of my siblings are named after biblical figures. Some examples I see a lot are: Rebecca, Isaiah, Claudia, Gabriela, Marcus, Elizabeth etc.

In Latino culture, many times children take both their parents last names so their names would be hyphenated. For example: Father’s last name could be Perez-ABC and Mother’s could be Ramirez-XYZ so the child’s name would be Perez-Ramirez.

This isn’t a hard and fast rule. If only one of the parents is Latino than most often they will simply do what most of Western culture does and take the father’s last name as the family name.

Represent many aspects of Latino culture: I far too often only see Mexican Latinos, which is great, but also there are many other countries/places to represent (Cuba, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, Honduras and more)

Latinos have a variety of hair colors and skin tones and body types, make them: Afro-Latino people exist, write them. White passing Latinos exist, write them (though if you are only ever writing Latinos with pale olive skin and eurocentric features, you’re doing it badly). Latino people with thick curly hair and bold features exist. Talk about it. Latinas are not just your vessel to write about “thicc” or curvy women. Petite Latinos and especially plus sized latinos need representation. Represent them.

Latinos do not just eat ‘Mexican’ food: Stop associating all your characters with tacos and burritos.

If you do have Latino characters don’t be afraid to make them queer or disabled or anything else under-represented.

Avoid stereotypes altogether: The maid, the drug dealer, the sex symbol, the immigrant, we get it. That’s all we see in the media. Look up stereotypes, avoid them. It’s not “making a statement”, it’s racist, stop it.

If you describe any Latino person as “spicy” or “exotic”………………… :) you know

Make sure the connection to their cultural background makes sense: Some Latinos have a strong connection to their country and culture, some do not. Make sure it makes sense for their family history, background, etc.

This is all I can sort of think of off the top of my head. Latino people, please feel free to add on with anything else (my experiences are a bit limited as a Puerto Rican living in America, so the more perspectives the merrier). White people and non-Latino POC’s can comment questions but please don’t clown (no “I am not latino but also…!)