"There, and I will live to tell the tale, when I've found the day to bid farewell...!" -- Ringmasters, Notre Dame Medley
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Latest Posts by hygge-hag - Page 4
New Coraline design drop
It's me and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker against Tchaikovsky
it’s just me and the o brother where art thou? soundtrack against the world
Dialogue Punctuation Cheat Sheet
This is just a friendly little guide on how to use punctuation in dialogue since (at least for me) this isn’t something that I was taught in school and had to learn on my own. That being said, I am not an expert! I don’t have an English degree or anything like that! I’m just an avid reader and writer and wanted to share what I have learned in a concise format.
A lot of this information is from “How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript” by James Scott Bell, “The Best Punctuation Book, Period” by June Casagrande, and “The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation” by Jane Straus, Lester Kaufman, and Tom Stern. If you’re able to get these books, I highly recommend them!
(Also, yes I used Disney quotes for most of my examples lol)
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Rule 1: Dialogue punctuation includes the following:
Period
Comma
Question mark
Exclamation point
Em-dash
Ellipsis
All dialogue will include some sort of punctuation before the closing quotation.
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Rule 2: Punctuation goes inside the quotes.
Correct
“Do you want to build a snowman?” Anna asked.
Correct
“You can’t marry a man you just met,” Elsa said.
Incorrect
“Do you want to build a snowman”? Anna asked.
---
Rule 3: Don’t capitalize a pronoun used for dialogue attribution.
Correct
“I was hiding under your porch because I love you,” he said.
Incorrect
“I was hiding under your porch because I love you,” He said.
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Rule 4: Capitalize for action beats.
Correct
“A llama? He’s supposed to be dead!” She slammed her fist on the table.
Incorrect
“A llama? He’s supposed to be dead!” she slammed her fist on the table.
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Rule 5: Use a comma when introducing a quotation, such as when dialogue attribution comes at the beginning. The first word of the dialogue is capitalized.
Correct
Scar leaned forward and said, “Run away, Simba.”
Incorrect
Scar leaned forward and said. “Run away, Simba.”
Incorrect
Scar leaned forward and said, “run away, Simba.”
---
Rule 6: Use single quotation marks for quotations within quotations. Punctuation goes inside both quotations (I’ve heard this can vary depending on country).
Correct
“My father said, ‘Everything the light touches is our kingdom.’”
Incorrect
“My father said, ‘Everything the light touches is our kingdom’.”
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Rule 7: If there are two or more sentences, the speaker attribution should be put before or after the first complete phrase.
Correct
Grandmother said, “Great. She brings home a sword. If you ask me, she should’ve brought home a man.”
Correct
“Great,” Grandmother said. “She brings home a sword. If you ask me, she should’ve brought home a man.”
Incorrect
“Great. She brings home a sword. If you ask me, she should’ve brought home a man,” Grandmother said.
(Note: This is a rule I break all the time, but I thought I would include it in this list anyway! Usually when the first sentence or two are very, very, short and go together, but they still need that “breath” of a dialogue tag in between. But it’s a good thing to be aware of!)
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Rule 8: Use commas to interrupt a complete sentence with a dialogue attribution. Don’t capitalize the next word after the comma.
Correct
“Aren’t you,” Hercules said, “a damsel in distress?”
Incorrect
“Aren’t you,” Hercules said, “A damsel in distress?”
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Rule 9: Use ellipses to illustrate a character trailing off, showing hesitation, or a pause.
“Aren’t you… a damsel in distress?”
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Rule 10: Em-dashes can be used for interruptions, indicating simultaneous actions that do not cause an interruption, or a change in thought/tone. Don’t use dialogue attribution after an em-dash.
Another Person Interrupts
Correct
“He would never do anything to hurt me. He—”
Hades threw up his hands. “He’s a guy!”
Correct
Meg said, “He would never do anything to hurt me. He—”
Hades threw up his hands. “He’s a guy!”
Incorrect
“He would never do anything to hurt me. He—” Meg said.
Hades threw up his hands. “He’s a guy!”
Self Interruption
“I—” Hercules reached into his pocket and pulled out a small doll. “I’m an action figure!
Simultaneous Action
“I am surrounded” — Scar dragged his paw over his face — “by idiots.”
Change In Thought/Tone
“It’s not that you’re awkward. I’m awkward. You’re gorgeous — wait, what?”
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Other Notes (these might just be my personal preferences, feel free to ignore)
Don’t use semi-colons in dialogue. Use a period instead.
Use exclamation points sparingly. Extremely sparingly. Maybe once per 10k words or even less.
After using an ellipsis, saying “he/she trailed off” is redundant. Just skip to the next action. The ellipsis already implies someone trailed off.
New speaker (or character action that serves as a response) = New paragraph.
“Said” should be your most commonly used dialogue tag. Any dialogue tag other than “said” or “asked” will stick out to the reader, and should be used sparingly.
If there is anything I missed, got wrong, or should add, PLEASE KINDLY LET ME KNOW! Again, I don’t have an English degree, I’m not a professional, and I’m actually a bit of a pea-brain, but these are the general rules that I know of and follow in my writing.
Random bee behavior fact for those who wish to read, just because I feel like it and because it’s late and I’m stalling on sleeping:
Bumblebees may seem like passive, cuddly, and docile creatures, but they won’t hesitate to defend themselves if they feel as if their warnings aren’t being read or taken seriously.
I.e. the photo and diagram below, when a bee feels threatened they will raise one or more of their legs into the air, signaling to whatever or whomever may be bothering them as a message essentiality saying: “hey, back off, too close!”
species pictured: bombus pascuorum, bombus impatiens
If their defensive posture goes unnoticed or ignored, they may be pushed into defending themselves by stinging (which is also a stressful experience for not only one such as yourself, but also for the bee.) If you ever find yourself getting close to a bumblebee while taking pictures, walking close to them, or just admiring them, remember this posture! If a bee does this, it is simply asking you to take a step back as it feels it is being threatened.
Now you can understand and use this knowledge to your advantage if you ever come across one in the future. (Of course, because it’s very hard not to anthropomorphize animals, I do have to admit that they do look pretty cute when doing it. Just remember to respect them though!)
I genuinely think that any change in behavior starts w telling yourself that your worst days, worst performances, just worst moments in general aren’t who you “truly are.” It’s all about unlearning any thought process that essentially chalks up traits you aren’t proud of to “this is who I really am” “in reality I’m lazy” “in reality I’m just a bad person” bc not only is that never true, but it impedes your efforts to try to do better as well. Anything we struggle with has roots in things like childhood trauma, thoughts you’ve been fed before, your upbringing…. but never that you’re inherently a bad person. What I’m learning this year is that a lot of us doing better & being better & improving really comes down to self-talk—to disavowing the very notion that deep down we’re simply bad.
We will not be girlrotting in April. We will be girlblooming girlburgeoning girlflourishing
Broke:
Belle has Stockholm syndrome because she falls in love with the Beast, her kidnapper.
Woke:
Stockholm syndrome was coined to slander a woman who had been in a hostage situation but openly criticized the poor police response which recklessly put her in more danger and escalated the violence. She was then belittled and discredited publically by the police for this.
So. Yeah. Maybe Belle does have Stockholm syndrome actually.
happy little guy
The world of Peter Rabbit and Friends (1992-1998)
it’s crazy how much diversity there can be in one species…these are all pictures of the same bird species (red-tailed hawk)
Just realized that the reason I love making friends on tumblr is because it’s exactly how you make friends on the playground as a six year old. No, I don’t know their name but they love mermaids too and built this awesome sand castle. No, I don’t know their age but their imaginary cheetah is friends with mine. You like this show? You like this character?? You can sing the theme song really loud??? Here is a flower crown. Here is a juice box. You can share my time and I might never see you again but part of you stays in my soul forever. In my mind we’re still on the swing set and the sky is blue and nothing will ever be wrong again.
I love their chemistry, I don't understand why they are so little talked about 🤔
Bonus:
I’m Christian and respect the order of creation as God intended it but I’m not gonna lie if I could take a massive vat of agar and grow an alive shopping mall made out of red blood and meat and feed it living human bodies to make it expand larger with more shops and amenities, Without hesitation, Without question I would do exactly that
I hate hate HATE all those 2edgy 4me theories about kids shows. Like Angelica dreaming up the rugrats, or the ed, edd, and eddy children being ghosts, or literally anything that takes a lighthearted and fun kids show and has to turn it into some tragic take of rape or murder or misinformed mental illness. So you know what? From now on I’m gonna do the exact opposite. Every cool grim-dark show is now because of a bunch of children. To get us started: Game of Thrones: A middle-school DnD campaign with the most angry, vindictive DM who has promised to kill everyone’s player characters (and their family) by the end.
your friends & partners will actually love it if you enforce your boundaries b/c then they will never again need to guess if they're ever making you uncomfortable & don't know. healthy living tip :)
An order of reclusive monks moved deep into the chthonic depths of the underworld to better commune with the primordial darkness and discover secret knowledge therein. In the years since they have changed, permanently altered by the knowledge they have gained.
“stop congratulating cis allies for doing the bare minimum” NO!!! i want to encourage speaking out and being on trans people’s side!!! stop being assholes to people just trying to support you and give them room to grow!!!
We celebrate David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Prince for their gender-nonconforming amazingness as we should, but let us not forget
Annie Lennox
Grace Jones
Sinead O‘Connor
Dolores O‘Riordan
Patti Smith
Tracy Chapman
Please add if you like, i do not own the photos
saw a boat today that looked so soft and so lonely, if I was stronger maybe I would write a poem about her
Ways to solve the Why Can’t They Use Magic To Fix Everything problem:
•Magic has a cost. The more powerful the spell, the more it drains the caster’s life.
•’We tried that ages ago.The gods grew angry at our arrogance and stripped most of our powers away.’
•Magic is tied to the stars and planets. Its full potential can only manifest on certain astrological events.(And these are once-in-a-millennia type events)
•Only one will a pure heart and selfless intentions can use their full power.
•All magic users are descendants of a (god/spirit). As the years have gone by, the blood has become more diluted, and magic has grown weaker as a result.
•Spell casters can only cast (finite number of spells). They end up using their gift on trivial matters.
•’After the war, we realized the dangers that magic presented. And so we sealed it away, lest it destroy the world.’
•Everyone has magic. Trying to solve one problem is futile as it can be easily undone(often violently and with much destruction)
•inverse of the above: everyone has magic, but their powers are limited and (mostly) harmless.
•Individual, company, or nation has a monopoly on the only substance that can negate magic. As they rule the world, they have installed anti-magic devices everywhere.
•Individual, group, company, or nation has a monopoly on magic. To insure their grip on power, all magic users that do not submit to them are killed.
•An act of good will spawn one of evil. The use of fire will cause somewhere to grow cold and dark. And to save a life, one must sacrifice another.
•The only magic people have access to is Chaos Magic. No one uses it, for obvious reasons.
—••• •• ——• ——• • ••• —•• •• —•—• —•— ••— •••
Working on my novel and couldn’t figure out why it felt so empty. I didn’t have any filler. It was all 100% plot. The characters only interacted when necessary. I didn’t prattle on about the scenery or how the birds sounded. I had all my fuller stuff that I loved saved in another file because I “didn’t need it”.
Y’all, I knew this existed in TV shows but it didn’t hit me until this that everything is being whittled down. We are so starving for filler that we snap up anything. I unload all mine on Tumblr or keep it in a massive Google Docs. It SUCKS.
Honestly? Death to plot necessity. Revive filler. Revive unnecessary interactions. Revive just vibing with characters sometimes. I don’t want to just consume the plot and I don’t want to just create the plot either.
“he would not fucking say that!” then put him in a situation that makes him say it, we wanna see him squirm
i love paintings that look as if they have ghosts in them
my mum forbade me to say anything to my dad about the top surgery thing, and it's just hit me how funny it would be if i got it done and didn't tell him and just waited for him to notice. i mean, what's he gonna say? "didn't you used to have tits?"
Listen. Listen Linda. This is all too likely true, but I am FAR too attached to an Astarion with the richest dark brown eyes i CANT--
So there's one Astarion debate I haven't put my two cents in yet, and that's changing today guys. Buckle up.
Astarion's eyes are either green with golden flecks or blue with golden flecks. I'll tell you why.
Astarion is a high elf. High elves have 4 subraces. Of the 4 subraces, 2 have the possibility to have silver hair like his. Those two races are moon elf and star elf. From there we can narrow by personality.
Moon elf personality description: Impulsive, with a strong distaste for complacency.
Star elf personality description: Aloof and cautious.
Now, I love Astarion, but he's not aloof. That man cares too much. So personality wise that narrows to moon elf.
Moon elves have one of two eye colors: green with golden flecks or blue with golden flecks. So Astarion's eyes looked like one of these two:
