How To Punctuate Dialogue

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

“Words?” attribution.

“Words!” attribution.

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

2. speaker followed by dialogue

Attribution, “Words.” 

Attribution, “Words?” 

Attribution, “Words!”

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

“Words,” attribution, “words.”

“Words,” attribution, “words?”

“Words,” attribution, “words!”

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

“Words.”

“Words?”

“Words!”

Afficher davantage

They/them pronouns are now acceptable in academic writing!!!

Happy Halloween! 🎃👻❤️

jimin x jungkook x halloween

Wow, these are fantastic tools! Thanks!

how to make a story file

As I am preparing for Camp NaNo*, I have been working on my story file. It occurred to me this might not be common or popular practice. “Story File” is a name I gave it and maybe some of y’all have a different name with the same contents. 

*There’s still time to apply to join my Camp NaNo cabin!

My Story File contains everything about my story that doesn’t go in the outline.

It’s broken up into major categories and specific templates. So without further ado, here is how I structure my Story File. 

Intro

Title

Logline

Synopsis

Genre

Estimated Total Length (word count)

Draft Length Goal (word count)

Character Bank

Main characters and brief, one-sentence descriptions with ages

Themes and Character Development

Central Question

The Yes/No question that is being asked through the whole story

Should have objective qualities, rather than subjective

i.e. “Will they fall in love?” (subjective) vs. “Will they leave their partners and become a couple?” (objective)

Thematic Questions

These are the internal conflict questions that reside in your character(s) and your story

ex. “Can there really be a successful government?”

ex. “Does grief excuse bad actions?”

Themes at a Glance

Words or phrases that relate to the themes of the story

ex. person vs. nature

ex. isolation

ex. grief

ex. first love

Motivation / Stasis State / Final State

for each main character, you should write a sentence or two pertaining to these three things

Motivation: What is the drive behind this character and their past, present, and future actions? What part of their background makes them the way that they are? What are they looking for? What do they want out of this/a situation?

Stasis State: What are they like before the inciting incident? What problems and questions do they have?

Final State: What has changed about them and their outlook? What questions have they resolved? What has happened to their internal conflict?

Relationships

I usually make a little web of the MCs and their relationship to one another. One for the stasis and one for final.

Stasis: How do these characters see each other? How do they act toward the other? (All before the inciting incident)

Final: How do these characters see each other now? How has their idea of one another shifted? 

Even if a character dies before the end, include the most recent relationship status in the Final web.

ex. this is how I organize it, using the Draw feature of Google Docs

Character Bank

This is just a very preliminary character bank. If you prefer a more in-depth one, check out my 6 Box Method.

Per (relevant/important) character:

Name

Nickname/preferred name

Age

Field/Occupation

Physical Description

Personality

Personal History

Education/Occupation History

Extra Notes:

Worldbuilding Bank

(Check out my worldbuilding posts on Categories Pt. 1 and 2 for better context)

Seasons and Climate

Languages

Other Cultural Pockets

Folklore and Legends

Fine Arts

Dress and Modesty

Classes

Jobs

Currency and Economics

Shopping

Agriculture and Livestock

Imports and Exports

Literature, Pop Culture, and Entertainment

Food and Water

Holidays and Festivals

Family and Parenting

Relationships

Housing

Religion and Beliefs

Government

Health and Medicine

Technology and Communication

Death

Transportation

Plants, Animals, and Human-environment Interaction

Education

Beauty Standards

Gender and Sexuality

—————————

I hope this helps y’all and supplements what you’re probably already doing. I know it’s helped me tons to have everything in a central place.

Best of luck!

Fascinating!

Tropes: Evil Sorcerers and Sorceresses

Throughout my many years of reading historical fiction novels and consuming other forms of media that also play host to one evil sorceress or another, I’ve picked up on several things that I believe go a long way when writing said characters. This is by no means an official guide, but rather a culmination of ideas, tropes and themes that I’ve observed. Really this list could be used for villains that are not magical, but hey, I’m a sucker for a wicked sorceress!

So, what is an evil sorcerer? An evil sorceress is someone who causes chaos. They can be unpredictable. Horrible. Nasty. They usually work by understanding people, using manipulation as a tactic to get what they want. They offer you everything you’ve ever wanted, but of course, it always comes with strings.

 Traits and Tropes:

Tricking people

Voldemort was a young, good looking and charming man who manipulated those around him. He was charismatic, able to play on peoples ego’s and emotions to get what he wanted from them.

Lady Oonagh from Daughter of the Forest (Juliet Marillier). She appears to be a nice woman who is in love with the king but is really manipulating him and others in the castle for her own benefit. 

Their appearance changes:

Think the evil Queen from Snow White. She’s vain and envious of her stepdaughter’s beauty. When she finds out that Snow White is still alive, she transforms herself into an old hag.

They use dark magic, or have taken natural magic and twisted it into something hideous and terrible.

Their corrupt morals are given a physicality. They’re so far off the deep end, so into the darkness that even the pure magic they once practised is now malignant. Sometimes the twisting of their magic costs something. 

The dark side of the force - Star Wars. The more someone uses the dark side the more it costs the user. Palpatine’s appearance changes drastically. It seems to take a toll on the mentality of the user, like Anikan, who’s emotions take ahold of him. His eyes change colour. 

Voldemorts Horcruxes. Using magic to create Horcruxes required him to split his soul into pieces. The use of this magic and the creation of said items resulted in his human appearance fading away, replaced with snake-like features. 

They’re very obviously evil.

Think classic Disney villains. They’re almost all colour coded in Black, green, purple or red to signify their villainy. Sometimes they have black, possessed eyes. Horrible, scary, pointy teeth. Sometimes they give an evil smirk when nobody is looking.

They have lackeys and henchmen/evil minions

Palpatine in Star Wars has a large number of henchmen. They might perceive themselves to be business partners, or as loyal followers. In reality, Palpatine punishes them cruelly for their failures and does not respect them as he does those whom he deems powerful.  

The clone troopers are a good example of evil minions. They are expendable and are only being used as a tool to complete a task. Stormtroopers are raised and indoctrinated from a young age to serve ‘the cause’. They are dehumanised and expendable.

Their worship is cult-like:

Voldemort. Though not quite like a religion, Voldemorts following was large. There was a clear split between who followed him or not, who believed in his ideologies or not.

Grindelwald. Perhaps even more so than Voldemorts, Grindelwald’s following was cult-like. There are heavy themes from our own history (Hitler). A clear divide between those who follow him and those who don’t. People who do follow him believe that it is their right, that what they’re doing is right, and that anyone trying to stop them is being oppressive.

They want more power, prestige and stature

Ursula from The Little Mermaid. Ursula only agrees to make Ariel a human so she can use her as a form of ransom, to get King Tritons crown. She is the main villain, grows very large and powerful (controlling the ocean) towards the end of the movie.

Genvissa from Hades Daughter (Sara Douglass). She is beautiful and powerful, but still, she wants more. She needs a particular person to help her gain more power, and has no qualms tricking anyone she needs to. She loves the attention and praise from the people she rules over. 

They’re Xenophobic

Lucifer from Supernatural. He is a very powerful Archangel who wants nothing more than to trigger the Apocolypse, thereby ending humanity. He views humans as maggots, along with demons and other creatures that are not celestial in nature.

They appeal to your fears

Valentine from The Mortal Instruments. He says things like “If you don’t listen to me / do what I say, the thing you’re most afraid of will happen!”. He convinces people to join him based on their fear of ‘downworlders’ (vampires, werewolves, warlocks etc) and what they might do. These fears are real, based on experience (eg. someone they know was attacked by a downworlder) or word of mouth. He convinces Jace that killing downworlders is the only way to stop innocent people from dying. 

They’re beyond redemption, or simply don’t want it

Anikan Skywalker. He becomes evil, dark and lost in the ideologies of the dark side of the force. His mentor and friend, Obi-Wan, tries to bring him back to the light. Anikan does not want it.

They’re narcissistic

The Master from Doctor Who, who is completely and utterly obsessed with himself and his abilities. He shows off. He is smart, and he knows it.

They’re ‘mad’

The Queen of Hearts. They’re moody and don’t tolerate disagreement. They hate being told things they don’t want to hear. They punish, brutally. Their rule is absolute and strict to the point of insanity.

They view themselves as a ‘necessary evil’

Thanos. He sees a problem, the overpopulation of the universe and its lack of adequate resources, and tires to ‘fix’ that problem by wiping out 50% of all life. He has the sad back story to go with it, and ultimately, what he does was done in an attempt to prove to himself that he was right - that all the tragedy he experienced on his home planet could have been stopped by someone doing what he did. 

They’re disgustingly dark

They eat rotten food, or worms or bugs. They’re into dead things. They love things that other people find disturbing. Maybe they kill for fun, to add a new person to their table of dead guests. 

The mysterious one

Otherwise called the ‘unknown employer’. This character is pulling all the strings from behind a curtain. Only a small number of their loyal followers, the most devout and most trustworthy, may see them. The face or identity of This character is usually revealed as a plot twist, something that shocks the characters and the audience. This can be because it’s someone nobody suspected, their appearance is so gruesome, or maybe because they look nothing like a villain at all. 

Annnnd that’s all! This is just a small list that I compiled and there are, of course, many other traits and tropes that sorcerers may embody, through all forms of media. Hope you found it insightful! 

jimin x 2020 season’s greetings