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)
WHERE WERE YOU 7 YEARS AGO
You have no idea how many times I’ve explained this to peeps. Hopefully they’ll see this, read it, & apply it to their ficcage. 😀
Black girls deserve to learn free from bias and stereotypes.
Most black girls experience this hatred at schools. And classmates are not the only problem, there is no support from teachers, too. That’s why they get so affected by their school experiences. Black kids deserve to be treated just like everybody else, they want to study, they want to learn something ,too. However due to prejudice they are 5 times more likely to be suspended than their white peers and it can ruin their lives forever.
National Women’s Law Center created this video to change the situation. Join the movement to help black girls feel normal and get the same opportunities everybody else has.
i’m mostly posting this as a reminder to myself, but i think other men struggling with body image or people who are dysphoric about their hips can benefit from seeing this too.
this is part of a body positivity campaign launched by clothing company dressman called #justthewayyouare and if you click that link there’s more body types being represented in their ads.
i have never seen any body positivity for men like this before, marketing ploy or not it DOES help me seeing my body type (wide hips and chub and all) being represented in a public space like this, especially with the word “perfect” attached to it.
i’ve came back to this picture for a while now as a reminder that my body is a valid body, and i hope it will help someone else too.
Be aware of your surroundings. Bright lights and too much
noise are hell for autistic people. Is there anywhere quiet or dim that you
could take them to if they got stressed? Is there a way to lessen the noise
and/or brightness?
Don’t tell us to “stop acting weird”. Chewing on things,
flapping our hands, rocking on our feet, and so on are all natural, healthy
behaviours that help us to process emotion and sensory input. Telling us not to
do them is akin to telling an allistic (non-autistic) person to stop smiling.
Most autistic people are happy as we are. Some would rather
not be autistic, it’s true, but most of us just want to be ourselves without
shame or stigma. It’s generally bad manners to talk to us about a “cure” or “treatments”
for who we are.
Non-verbal communication – vocal sounds, text or written
communication, sign language, etc – are all valid forms of communication which
we sometimes have to use. (Or always have to use, in some cases.) Sometimes, we
have to text the person sitting next to us because we can’t talk. Please don’t
try to make us use our voices when we’d rather not!
Research autistic groups before supporting them. What do
actual autistic people say about this group? We like self-advocacy groups, we
don’t like allistic people trying to talk for us. Not every group that claims
to help autistic people is actually our friend!
Special interests – things which autistic people fixate
on and obsess over – are healthy and important. Don’t make fun of us for getting
really into things, even if they’re “childish” things like Minecraft or Pokémon.
It’s incredibly hurtful when someone we like just dismisses our interests
without a second thought.
When an autistic person is having a meltdown or shutdown,
listen to them! Don’t fuss over them or get up in their face. Just listen to
what they want you to do to help them, if anything. Let them write or text it,
if they have to, and keep your voice down!
We don’t process the world the same way you do. Sometimes
things which seem obvious to you require explanation before we’ll understand
them. Sometimes an explanation you understand will be one that makes no sense
to us. Please be patient. We’re not being difficult on purpose! We want to
understand, we really do.
Be understanding when we say we can’t do something. Our
energy gets used up a lot quicker than yours. Often we’d really like to do
something, but we just can’t, and it can be difficult for us to explain that.
Don’t guilt trip us for not going out or whatever – we already feel really bad
about it!
Listen to our boundaries. If we don’t want to be
touched, don’t touch us. If we want you to leave our possessions alone, leave
them alone. If we aren’t up to talking, don’t try to make us talk. We need
boundaries a lot more than you do, so please try to respect them. It’s common
courtesy!
[I originally posted this on Facebook, but I decided to post it here, too.]
The Archery Range 