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quick note to fanfic writers

So I have noticed that there are times when I read fanfic and I really enjoy so much about it - the dialogue, the characterisation, the descriptions. And then I find my enjoyment is hampered a little bit, not a huge amount, by incorrect dialogue punctuation. I realised this is a common problem in fanfic, and I figured a quick tutorial regarding dialogue was in order. I know it seems like a small thing, but I honestly think putting a comma in the place of a full stop/period makes all the difference with a fic’s readability, and the rules themselves are fairly straightforward.

First, just to clarify, a dialogue tag is a verb (i.e. a doing word) that describes how a word is said. Examples of dialogue tags are “said”, “shouted”, “cried”, etc. If the word does not describe specifically how the word is said and instead focuses on another action by the character (such as “coughed” or “laughed” or “smiled”), it is not a dialogue tag and should not be treated as such.

So, when writing dialogue that ends with a question mark:

“Have I told you how much I love you in that dress?” He murmured. (Incorrect)

“Have I told you how much I love you in that dress?” he murmured. (Correct)

The second example is formatted correctly. Remember, you only have to capitalise a word, unless it’s a proper noun (usually names), at the beginning of a new sentence. The “he” is not capitalised because it is still the same sentence and the word “murmured” is a dialogue tag.

Similarly:

“More than a few times now.” She teased. (Incorrect)

“More than a few times now,” she teased. (Correct)

Again, that whole line is one sentence because the word “teased” is the dialogue tag that is directly describing how the dialogue is being said. Notice the comma, as opposed to the full stop/period, and also the fact that “she” is in lowercase. 

If the word you are using is not a dialogue tag, you do need a full stop/period. For example:

He coughed, “you look chilly, though.” (Incorrect)

He coughed. “You look chilly, though.” (Correct)

This is because the character coughing is separate from the dialogue itself, which is why the sentence and the dialogue are two distinct sentences. Notice that therefore the start of each sentence is capitalised.

When you continue the dialogue after the dialogue tag:

“I didn’t mean that,” Oliver said, “although I didn’t see it as breaking my vows. Not when your life was at stake.”

Note the underlined commas and the fact that “although” is in lowercase. The way you test this is simple. Simply take out the dialogue tag in its entirety, and if the sentence still makes grammatical sense, you use commas and lowercase. 

Let’s test this out.  

 "I didn’t mean that, although I didn’t see it as breaking my vows. Not when your life was at stake.“

Yep. It still makes sense, so you have punctuated correctly.

Compare that to this example:

“I remember this one too,” she said. “You know, I thought you were going to bleed to death in my car.”

Note the underlined full stop/period and the fact that “You” is capitalised. This is because the sentences are clearly separate (whereas in the last example it was a bit more ambiguous). If you’re confused, just use the test set out above - take out the dialogue tag and see if the sentence makes grammatical sense.

“I remember this one too, you know, I thought you were going to bleed to death in my car.”

If you know anything about comma splicing, you will know that that sentence is most definitely not grammatically correct, so a full stop/period after “too” is in order, like this:

“I remember this one too. You know, I thought you were going to bleed to death in my car.”

So, in summary: 

~use a COMMA and lowercase when using dialogue tags such as “said”, etc.

~use a full stop/period and capitalise the first letter when using verbs that are not dialogue tags (such as “smiled”)

~if you’re unsure when splitting dialogue with a tag in between, take out the tag and see if it makes sense as a sentence on its own. If it does, use commas and lowercase, and if it doesn’t, use a full stop/period and capitalise.

I hope that was somewhat helpful! Grammar is a strange thing - you often don’t realise you’re doing something incorrectly until it is pointed out to you, so don’t feel bad if you realise you’ve been wrongly formatting dialogue all this time! :) It’s not a huge deal, but it honestly makes such a difference for me when reading a fic and not having the flow of the story stopped because I’ve noticed the same mistake being made over and over. Anyway, my inbox is always open if anyone has any questions about this or anything else. I used to beta a lot back in my HP days, so if you’re unsure about anything grammar-wise, I’m your girl. (I mean I’m not your girl - I wasn’t making a pass at you or anything. :P)

How Simon Mayo discovered a 19th-century inmate who staged UK’s first all-black Shakespeare

Simon Mayo talks to Nick Clark about his novel Mad Blood Stirring and a 19th-century inmate who staged UK’s first all-black Shakespeare

Richard Crafus, a giant of a man known as King Dick, was a notorious inmate who ruled a block in Dartmoor Prison in the early 19th century. Few in Britain have heard of him, and fewer still know of his extraordinary contribution to British theatre.

It is thanks to this American “gangster-turned-theatre impresario” – and his fellow inmates of Prison Four – that the first all-black productions of Shakespeare were staged in Britain in 1814, according to Simon Mayo, who has made one of those productions central to his novel Mad Blood Stirring.

My favorite thing about Anakin:

He walks like he owns the world, and he knows it, But he also knows there is a storm inside his heart, he tells himself he could be bad if it came down to it, but he is good, only good. Despite years of emotional trauma at the hands of Slavery and the Council, he is so full of love. Love for Obi Wan, who he knows didn’t always want him. Love for Ashoka, because he regrets every cold action towards her in the beginning, and she is the hotheaded energy he needs when being legendary is too much, and his level headedness when all he can see is red and feel is anger. And then there’s Padme. You’d think it’d be hard to love Padme. Padme grew up like her home planet, luscious and calm and easy, how could she ever understand the things he’s seen, how could she tame the demons in his nightmares when she’s never known his struggles. But it doesn’t happen that way, because Padme replaces the demons in his dreams, she takes ahold of this lost, wild boy and coaxes him to manhood, and it’s not the searing fire and constant struggle to breath Anakin has known all his life, even though it’s a secret, and it’s not always easy, Anakin can breath, and Anakin finds his serenity in Padme, so when Anakin does turn dark, all for the sake of saving her, he never sees it as bad, to his last breath, Anakin Skywalker is good, and kind to the deepest depths of his heart.

Can we talk 

About

How

Beautiful

Snails

Are?

Seriously

Just Look!!!

IT HAS A FLOWER

(Vyacheslav Mishchenko)

i redesigned my ocs bavaria saxony and hesse the other day and here’s the final result. they’re a crazy happy family :]

🌼how to restart learning a language🌼

i’ve recently gone through a language break, taking 5 months out to reassess my future. i really want to get back to learning Japanese, so here are my tips for restarting that language you might have been neglecting!

reassess your goals. its likely that if you’ve taken an extended break, your life has changed a little and there may be some new priorities taking over. reassess what you want to get out of restarting your language journey so it’s easier to plan around your day

make small targets that can be reached easily. for a short while, you’ll have to work hard to get your head back into the swing of learning a language. making small goals can really up your productivity because you wont be discouraged by big expectations at first!

slowly immerse yourself. immersion is widely known as a good supplement to your language learning. while you’re in the early stages of relearning a language, it’s really fun to start rewatching that subbed anime you lost track of, or listen to that spanish band you loved so much. it will help your brain get back ‘into’ the language, and you’ll have fun along the way!

revisit your notebooks. if you’re anything like me, you have a ton of notebooks and stacks of random note paper lying around untouched since you dropped out of your language. do your best to collect them up, sort through the useful stuff and then, get a blank notebook and rewrite all of your notes. your brain wont have forgotten everything but starting a new notebook will give you incentive to learn, as well as solidifying the information you already learnt!

take it slow. your brain is a muscle that needs exercising. if you havent been using your language brain for a while, don’t try and run a marathon without training first! there’s no rush. your journey is yours, and yours alone. take it as slow as you need to to start learning your language again and get back into the studying swing of things

🌼good luck on revisiting your language journey!🌼

top 5 videos that make me want to study

hey guys, on my instagram i asked if people wanted to see videos that motivate me studying, pushing my limits, and most important help me stop procrastinating. so here is my top 5 videos, hope you like them!

video number one: The ABCs of SUCCESS - Amazing Motivational Video for Students, Studying & Success in Life

video number two: Grey’s Anatomy, Cristina Yang: “Be unstoppable.”

video number three: Legally Blonde - I’ll show you how valuable Elle Woods can be!

video number four: Michaela Pratt | That’s My Girl (How To Get Away With Murder)

video number five: From FAILING STUDENT to ROCKET SCIENTIST - The Motivational Video that Will Change Your Life

bonus video: Rory’s system to study her finals (Gilmore Girls)

My social media: Instagram / Youtube 

Lukas: go take a break…

throw him off. into spikes. just die gosh darn it.

Reblog if you’re a clone, you support clones, or if you’d throw chancellor Palpatine off a very tall building