“As soon as my body developed, the obscene imaginings began. I thought that some individual curse had descended on me.”

Maurice (1987) dir. James Ivory

➸ “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 ask 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.”

This is a great compilation. Some small niggles:

“Interruption” – an n-dash must be used here instead of the m-dash in the OP; however, the m-dash in the sentence above the one quoted is correct as it signifies said interruption.

Ellipses need a space before them (and can have a comma after them – leaving it out looks wrong somehow ...).

“My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue’.” In this sentence, the full stop must be after the single quotation mark because it ends the entire sentence. The quotation is ended by the quotation mark.

If you’re using the UK version of quotation, single quotation marks are used for dialogue and double ones for quotes within it, although the US version seems to have become increasingly common.

Oh, and please, use correct typographic quotation marks “ and ” (or ‘ and ’) and not ' and " (which stand for feet and inches).

Friendly Reminder

There are always silent readers. People who never say a word but love it when you’re updating your story. People who screenshot your work, people who find your work to be the highlight of their week, people who revisit your work time and time again.

11, 12, 13 - Dashing Through the Snow, Visiting, Storm

“Alec, do you trust me?”

They were dressing for work in their one-room, two-chair hovel, by lantern-light and the brightening orange glow of dawnlight through the single crooked window.

“I trust you with all my life.”

One of the many beautiful ways of Alec Scudder was his plain-spokenness; he saw no need to talk around the edges of a thing for the sake of propriety. In others of his class this tendency seemed to those of higher station to come across as coarse or too smart, but in Alec it was only that he was self-assured and earnest. Maurice was simultaneously stung with a pinprick of shock at his frank pronouncements, admiring of his boldness, and enamoured of his honesty. He made the most grand expressions of affection and admiration so easily, so simply.

“Do you doubt it?” Alec asked, after a breath’s-long silence.

“Not a bit,” Maurice assured, fastening his trousers. “Only, I’ve an idea–very nearly a plan–that runs some small risk for us both, but which–if it pays off–I think could be the making of us.”

“I’d follow you anywhere, my dear, and you know it. You only need say the word.”

Maurice smiled, moved close, and kissed him. Folding Alec into his arms, shut his eyes and smiled. “First thing we must do is get a train schedule.”

Continuar a ler

5/6/7 - Shepherd, Joy, Blankets

It wasn’t the sun that woke them in the morning, nor birdsong nor even the bell ringing to urge them up to their day’s work. It was the cold. A slight shift of one beside the other disturbed their three blankets one way or another, exposing them to a rush of sharp air, at their feet or down one’s back or on one’s neck. Once the cold came in, sleep was impossible to find again. Instead, they nestled in closer together, tucking in the loose corners, hands tucked into each other’s nightshirts, trying to warm their noses in the curve of each other’s necks and shoulders.

“Mm, closer,” Alec slurred, his voice thick with sleep, and pulled Maurice’s arms tighter to his chest, snuggling his back against Maurice’s chest. “Why’s it have to be winter all the time?”

Maurice dug in his nose in at the top of Alec’s neck, inhaled deep, kissed him there in the hollow beneath the edge of his hair.

Alec stacked their hands against his chest and curled up his knees, tried to tuck his feet between Maurice’s ankles.

“When I was a boy I snuck in the dogs some nights. My brother and I shared a bed. Head to foot with his smelly socks in my face.”

Maurice let go a silent laugh, just breath against the back Alec’s ear, warm and then cool.

“We had two, one called Tick, and one called Joy, what was the one that made me her favourite. Followed me everywhere, all the day. She was nearly big as me, all laid out, and I’d roll up against her back like you’re doing now to me.”

“My pet,” Maurice mused.

“Guard the house,” Alec corrected. “She was for sheep, but the man what kept them said she was too stupid to be put in charge of them, drove them every wrong way, so I made a friend of her. A dog’s very good for keeping warm in a bed.”

“So’s a lovely man,” Maurice murmured, and his mouth was soft and open against the back of Alec’s neck. His hands broke free of Alec’s tangle and began to roam. “You’ve got me feeling very warm indeed.”

“That so?” Alec grinned and shut his eyes, and moved his thigh out of the way.

Maurice quick-drew up the edge of their shared blanket, right up over their heads, to close out the light, and keep in the heat.

I posted chapter 27 and 28 only a few days ago, and knowing myself, it might easily be something like eight weeks until I’m ready to post chapter 29. But it felt good to give small updates here, though, so I’ll start again, even if the writing process is slow and sometimes not worth mentioning.

So: Notes and first scene of chapter 29 at 4k.

150 words and some editing.

And I went skateboarding again, just for 20 mins. ♥️

Everything happens in miniature steps right now.

Got a few lines done, a transition I didn’t find easy to write.

An hour of editing and writing. <3

Chapter 29 is at 6k.

200 words today, 200 yesterday.

[Whispers into the void] 500 words before breakfast.

Editing. 7.2k, including notes.

Some thoughts on storytelling.

Omgg hello it’s jess i know you queen!!!

Very occasionally, Twitter has some good advice.

fluff saves lives

fluff saves lives

Of course it does.

I ♡ readers

here’s to the readers who stay up past midnight reading just one more chapter

here’s to the readers who like one fic - so they go through our archive and read everything else

here’s to the readers who are still learning the language of the fic they’re reading, but they’re making it through anyhow

here’s to the readers who are too shy to tell us how much they love our story, so they just tell all of their friends about it instead

here’s to the readers who kudos - and then comment “kudos” when they can’t do it again

here’s to the readers who make rec lists or run fic reccing blogs

here’s to the readers who give out prompts and ask for metas and suggest ideas of things they’d love to see

here’s to the readers who hide their phones so that no one sees what they’re reading, but omg this fic is just so good!

here’s to the readers who keysmash, reaction gif, tag, comment, quote us back to us, and otherwise let us know that they loved our work

here’s to the readers

without you, we don’t exist

Maurice (1987) Dir. James Ivory

Clive at his writing desk.

Reblog the writers’ fortune cookie for luck!

Guys I reblogged this and then wrote an 8000 word story I didn’t even have a solid plan for. Reblog this shit.

Reblogging in hopes of finding the time, physical, and emotional energy for working on my current project again

Can always use these three, right💜?

I can't afford to lose one single gram of any of these...

how to punctuate dialogue

(a general guide, dedicated to anon)

For the purposes of this description I’m going to use the word Words to indicate whatever the character is saying and the word Attribution to refer to the dialogue tag (the bit where you write ‘she said’). Further details and actual examples behind the cut.

1. dialogue followed by speaker

“Words,” attribution.

1a. quotation that is a question or an exclamation followed by speaker

The only difference from the above is changing the comma to a question mark or exclamation point. 

2. speaker followed by dialogue

3. dialogue with the speaker in the middle of the quote

4. dialogue without attribution (the speaker is obvious and doesn’t need to be named)

Weiterlesen

I have to print this out. I never learned it at school, and I am just basically doing it as learned in my native language, and it has provedto be A Disaster.

I think that @sanguinarysanguinity tried to explain this to me some years ago, and I got all Confused. Seriously, how can a language have so many rules for writing dialogue? We have exactly Three (!) Ways. No clue what an em dash (?) is either. And an ellipsis (and have I spelled it correctly)?

Apologies to all my betas who have to edit constantly because it’s SO foreign to me that I always fuck it up, even after years. English is batshit crazy… ^^

I'm going to print this out and keep it in my first drafts notebook. Though it's quite similar to what we do in my native language, I tend to make mistakes because I just assume it has to be completely different in English - as it usually is... 😁

This is a little too accurate.

The research process for most academics too. The things one learns, lazing on a Sunday afternoon.

7. (re reading a few weeks after) Hey, this is not bad!

This is dedicated to everyone whose fic I’ve ever commented on. And, let’s be honest, probably a large percentage of anyone who follows me.

<3

— Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking

Hello lovely Johnlockers! I’m celebrating reaching 4000 kudos on AO3 as of yesterday. I know it’s not a lot, but it is to me. I started writing in September 2018 and since then met wonderful people and received a lot of love and support. I am humbled seeing the wonderful comments on my fics, the kudos and the shy comments on my posts on here. Thank you all, I appreciate it more than you can imagine.

I’d like to write a fic (ficlet maybe) for one of my followers. The fic would be 1K-1.5K words with a Johnlock topic and genre of your choosing. It can be an AU, a fix-it, anything. Any rating; fluff, angst, smut - including kinks (but even I have limits).

Next Saturday (June 29th) I will choose a random person from those who reblog this post.

If you like my writing and want me to write something tailored to your specifications - reblog. If you’re skeptical, like John on this pic - scroll by. (I love John’s face here XD )

This is as much a giveaway as a thank you to those who became my close friends and support me constantly: @lakoda0518 @thinkanddoodle-batch @thepersianslipper @todaywearesoldiers @thejohnlockoutlet Look at their blogs and follow for the great content they post and for the wonderful people they are.