Submission sent back

[idkhowihadsex]

Because of punctuation issues in my dialogues. Could any one of you kind people have a look at my writing and help me publish my story here? Thank you.

Not sure how this works but I'll give it a go.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

Because of punctuation issues in my dialogues. Could any one of you kind people have a look at my writing and help me publish my story here? Thank you.

Not sure how this works but I'll give it a go.

If you want to post a short sample, people can probably identify some of the issues you're running into. Someone may offer to look at the whole thing, but if not, you should try the Editor's Forum. https://forum.literotica.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9. You can post a request there, and you can also look at the thread over there where editors list their availability: https://forum.literotica.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9. The volunteer editor program has a massive number of editors listed, but reports of how helpful they are have been mixed. Here's that page: https://www.literotica.com/editors/

 

[Jada59]

Post a paragraph or three so we can see.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

Because of punctuation issues in my dialogues. Could any one of you kind people have a look at my writing and help me publish my story here? Thank you.

Not sure how this works but I'll give it a go.

"The correct way to punctuate dialogue," he groaned as he typed his response. It was frustating at times, but many people helped him when he was new, and it was now time to pay it forward.

"The first thing is always to put the actual spoken words inside quotation marks," Sal told the OP.

OP shook his head at the apparent condescension shown, "I already knew that," he snapped in anger.

Sal shook his head, "Always use a comma before you start dialogue. That comma is outside the quote marks."

OP rolled his eyes and waited to see if Sal woulld tell him something he didn't know.

"When you use a dialogue tag at the end of the quote," you use a comma inside the quote marks.

"If your quote ends the thought, or the paragraph use the appropriate punctuation."

What about multiple speakers haveing a conversation," the OP wondered.

Sal nodded, "That is a good question. Only one speaker is allowed per paragraph," Sal told him. "This way your readers don't get confused by who is talking."

The OP smiled, "Is that all?"

"Those are most of the basics. Ther is one more thing. When writing long monologues, use actions or have other characters speak or react to break it up to bite sized chunks," Sal watched his audience who yawned in boredom. They didn't think he was a funny as Sal himself did.

"Will you shut up already," E.O.N. yelled.

Sal bowed his head in acknowledgement and stepped away so others could continue to help our new friend.
****************

Well it ain't exactly Shakespeare, but I thought it was kinda funny. Hope you did too.

 

[Emirus]

How many words?

You’re more likely to have someone on here look at it for you if it’s not too long. So if you could tell us how many words and a brief idea of the plot. Otherwise post an excerpt around 60 words, give or take.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

"Will you shut up already," E.O.N. yelled.

Sal bowed his head in acknowledgement and stepped away so others could continue to help our new friend.
****************

Well it ain't exactly Shakespeare, but I thought it was kinda funny. Hope you did too.

"Good Lord," EON thought, "what am I doing yelling at five in the morning?"

She rubbed her eyes. "Must have been a nightmare."

 

[Zeb_Carter]

And as you see in the example given, you use "double quotes", not 'single quotes.' Single quotes along with italics are used for thoughts of a character.

Other than that SS covered it pretty good.

One other thing... if dialog spans several paragraphs you don't close the dialog with a double quote until the final paragraph. You do however start the new paragraph with a double quote

 

[SimonDoom]

Some things are probably open for debate. I would have chosen a semicolon or a period instead of a comma, after 'shown'

OP shook his head at the apparent condescension shown, "I already knew that," he snapped in anger.

That also challenges the next statement:

Sal shook his head, "Always use a comma before you start dialogue. That comma is outside the quote marks."

I would use periods. In neither case do the words preceding the piece of dialogue constitute a tag; they're just narrative. They should be set off from the dialogue with a period rather than a comma. I've never seen a semicolon used in that situation.

 

[NotWise]

I would use periods. In neither case do the words preceding the piece of dialogue constitute a tag; they're just narrative. They should be set off from the dialogue with a period rather than a comma. I've never seen a semicolon used in that situation.

I agree. As it is, I think both of the examples are comma-spliced sentences. I semi-colon might be used, but that would be uncommon.

 

[Voboy]

I would use periods. In neither case do the words preceding the piece of dialogue constitute a tag; they're just narrative. They should be set off from the dialogue with a period rather than a comma. I've never seen a semicolon used in that situation.

This, 1000%

 

[KeithD]

' Single quotes along with italics are used for thoughts of a character.

You could get away with that at Literotica, if you remained consistent, but American style doesn't support either single quotes or italics to denote thoughts.

British style, by the way, supports using single quotes for dialogue and you'll see that a lot in what is published in the UK these days. I don't know if Literotica accepts that.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

Interesting, I have also been told that single quotes are used if the speaker is in in turn quoting someone else.

 

[SimonDoom]

Interesting, I have also been told that single quotes are used if the speaker is in in turn quoting someone else.

This is true:

"Bob told me, 'Watch out for that tree,'" she said.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

"Good Lord," EON thought, "what am I doing yelling at five in the morning?"

She rubbed her eyes. "Must have been a nightmare."

I get weird when I'm sleep deprived. Besides someonr in my head is always yelling at me for something.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

I don't use colons or semi colons, nor do I ever remember seeing then in any novel I read. No debating if they should be used. I still don't fully understand when to use commas, semi cololns and colons are a total mystery.

I prefer to italicize internal dialogue, but don't on Lit cuz of the extra hoops required. So I use apostrophes.

I wish there was a way to differentiate text messages from regular text. I know CMOS says to tteat it like speech and use of apostrophe or quotation marks is acceptable. I'd prefer to offset the text or even upload a text message image like I do on other sites.

 

[KeithD]

Interesting, I have also been told that single quotes are used if the speaker is in in turn quoting someone else.

The American rule is always double quotes at the first level. Anything quoted inside that is single quotes within the double quotes. If you have a quote within a quote within a quote, that's in double quotes (within the single quotes within the initial double quotes). (Chicago Manual of Style 16, 13.28)

 

[SimonDoom]

I still don't fully understand when to use commas, semi cololns and colons are a total mystery.

You are not alone in that. The key is to understand sentences, and how sentences can be joined. The general rule is that you cannot join two sentences with a comma and no conjunction. You can't write:

"John went to the store, he bought groceries."

This is a run-on sentence, or, as NotWise said above, a comma splice -- two sentences joined by a comma and no conjunction. This is, generally speaking, a fundamental no-no of good punctuation. Another example of a comma-splice/run-on sentence is the sentence of yours that I just quoted. "I still don't fully understand when to use commas" and "semicolons and colons are a total mystery" are two different sentences. You cannot join them with a comma and no conjunction. You can join them with a comma and a conjunction, and you can separate them into two sentences with a period between them.

The following are proper:

John went to the store. He bought groceries.

John went to the store, and he bought groceries.

John went to the store to buy groceries.

John went to the store; however, he did not buy groceries.

John went to the store to buy groceries: milk, eggs, and bread.

Those are examples of correct usage of commas, periods, semicolons, and colons.

Your sentence:

Sal shook his head, "Always use a comma before you start dialogue."

Is a run-on sentence. It's two sentences joined by a comma, which you can't do. "Sal shook his head" is not a dialogue tag, and therefore you can't use a comma to separate it and the dialogue.

You CAN write:

Sal said, "Always use a comma before you start dialogue."

Why is this different?

Because in this sentence the portion of the sentence in the quotation is the OBJECT of the verb "said." There's just one sentence, not two. In your example you have two sentences pushed together and joined by a comma. The comma is used as a convention to separate the tag from the dialogue.

There are exceptions to the no-comma splice rule. Very short sentences can be joined when it sounds or looks right. For example: I came, I saw, I conquered. Customary usage says that something like this is OK. But generally speaking one should avoid this. Use periods, or in some cases semicolons, instead. A semicolon can be used in place of a period when the two sentences are sufficiently related to one another, such as where the second sentence furthers a thought of the first sentence. But you seldom go wrong sticking with periods instead of semicolons.

 

[NotWise]

I wish there was a way to differentiate text messages from regular text. I know CMOS says to tteat it like speech and use of apostrophe or quotation marks is acceptable. I'd prefer to offset the text or even upload a text message image like I do on other sites.

This has come up on the forum twice that I can think of.

Some people want a special format for text messages. I just treat them as conversation, and make sure it's clear that the exchange is by text messages. It's more natural that way to include actions between messages, as happens in real life.

 

[ElectricBlue]

This has come up on the forum twice that I can think of.

Some people want a special format for text messages. I just treat them as conversation, and make sure it's clear that the exchange is by text messages. It's more natural that way to include actions between messages, as happens in real life.

- I tend to designate text or email in a story like this -

I used < to designate email in one story > but inadvertently gave myself several html accidents, so that was a one time thing. The dashes give the necessary visual cue. It seems to work okay.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

This has come up on the forum twice that I can think of.

Some people want a special format for text messages. I just treat them as conversation, and make sure it's clear that the exchange is by text messages. It's more natural that way to include actions between messages, as happens in real life.

That's howI usually handle it, and what the Chicago Manual of style recomends, but they admit some people use italics or offset text as well.

I would like offset text and justification so you could determine who said what without tags.

Hey​

what up​

u bzy :caning:​

BTB​

OMW​

Something simple like that.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

My current series has a lot of text message conversations. I've used single quotes for them and doubles for dialogue. The site was happy (once I gave up on rtf files and copy pasted the text with html tags).

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

This has come up on the forum twice that I can think of.

Some people want a special format for text messages. I just treat them as conversation, and make sure it's clear that the exchange is by text messages. It's more natural that way to include actions between messages, as happens in real life.

In the two recent examples, I thought treating the texts as dialogue made sense, but text exchanges consisting of more lines of dialogue might do better treated differently.

For the purposes of publishing here, I don't see a point in handcuffing oneself to a style manual that's notoriously resistant to change. I'd go with what's easier for the reader. Being effective is more important to me than being technically correct.

 

[NotWise]

For the purposes of publishing here, I don't see a point in handcuffing oneself to a style manual that's notoriously resistant to change. I'd go with what's easier for the reader. Being effective is more important to me than being technically correct.

So, what's easier for the reader?

I think simple is most effective, and that formatting all conversations the same -- whether they're in person, by phone, by text, or whatever -- is easier on the reader. That way the readers don't have to learn your code for each and every different kind of exchange.

 

[Rustyoznail]

"The correct way to punctuate dialogue," he groaned as he typed his response. It was frustating at times, but many people helped him when he was new, and it was now time to pay it forward.

.
.
.


What about multiple speakers haveing a conversation," the OP wondered.
.
.
.

"And this is why you don't edit at stupid o'clock," Russ laughed. "You still miss things. Like a missing quote and a question mark. And a spelling mistake!"

 

[SimonDoom]

For the purposes of publishing here, I don't see a point in handcuffing oneself to a style manual that's notoriously resistant to change. I'd go with what's easier for the reader. Being effective is more important to me than being technically correct.

And this is especially true for something like a text exchange, where the only two "rules" should be consistency and clarity.