Hey did you know I keep a google drive folder with linguistics and language books that I try to update regularly

**UPDATE**

I have restructured the folders to make them easier to use and managed to add almost all languages requested and then some

Please let me know any further suggestions

salvadorbonaparte

clockworktardis

….holy shit. You found the holy grail.

r-daws

mo-gets-a-blog

whatagrump

Apparently a lot of people get dialogue punctuation wrong despite having an otherwise solid grasp of grammar, possibly because they’re used to writing essays rather than prose. I don’t wanna be the asshole who complains about writing errors and then doesn’t offer to help, so here are the basics summarized as simply as I could manage on my phone (“dialogue tag” just refers to phrases like “he said,” “she whispered,” “they asked”):

“For most dialogue, use a comma after the sentence and don’t capitalize the next word after the quotation mark,” she said.
“But what if you’re using a question mark rather than a period?” they asked.
“When using a dialogue tag, you never capitalize the word after the quotation mark unless it’s a proper noun!” she snapped.
“When breaking up a single sentence with a dialogue tag,” she said, “use commas.”
“This is a single sentence,” she said. “Now, this is a second stand-alone sentence, so there’s no comma after ‘she said.’”
“There’s no dialogue tag after this sentence, so end it with a period rather than a comma.” She frowned, suddenly concerned that the entire post was as unasked for as it was sanctimonious.

thewritinggrindstone

And!

“If you’re breaking dialogue up with an action tag”—she waves her hands back and forth—”the dashes go outside the quotation marks.”

winged

Here’s one that a lot of people miss, but that can be helpful for the reader:

“Of course you already know to use a paragraph break between speakers,” they said.

“Yes,” she agreed. “Depending on style, you can either indent or line break, as long as you keep it consistent.” “Exactly! But did you know that if your single speaker goes on and on and gets a little rambly, and you find yourself needing to put in a paragraph break but not switch speakers, you should do the exact same thing? “Only, in this case, don’t close off the quotation marks until that speaker is completely done talking. See how after the question mark above there isn’t anything? Indent or line break for your next paragraph – however you’re indicating – and use a beginning quotation to mark the dialogue, but leave the initial paragraph open, so that the reader can tell it’s not a different person now speaking,” they finished.

Obviously, people can often get it from context even if you don’t do this, and grammar and punctuation is a thing that evolves and changes over time, but I do like this rule because it actually benefits the reader.

r-daws

writing--prompts

latenightnovelwriting

Outlining a Novel in 31 Days

October is here! With that, it’s to time to start outlining for your NaNoWriMo novel. Here is an outline I came up with that will take me from having only a vague idea of my story to being prepared for November. I hope it does the same for you.

Day 1: Main Character Day 2: Antagonist Day 3: Two supporting characters Day 4: Five minor characters Day 5: Initial problem Day 6: Protagonist and Antagonist’s biggest motivations Day 7: First scene of the story Day 8: Exposition - problem introduced Day 9: Relationship between supporting characters and protagonist - and between protagonist and antagonist Day 10: Protagonist backstory, antagonist backstory Day 11: Choose the “tone” of your story through five emotions Day 12: Identify the hook Day 13: What is at stake? Day 14: Describe main physical setting. (If there are more than one main settings, describe them.) Day 15: Outline acts in 3 small paragraphs and then try to outline story in one sentence. Day 16: Decide on two subplots. Day 17: Outline act I. Day 18: What is a temporary triumph for the protagonist? Day 19: What makes the problem worse? Day 20: How will roles reverse in act II? Day 21: Protagonist - a positive decision and a mistake. Day 22: What is the climax? Day 23: Outline act II. Day 24: What’s the final obstacle? Day 25: Decide on winners and losers. Day 26: Describe final tone with five senses. Day 27: How does protagonist change from start to end? Day 28: What is the resolution? Day 29: Resolve any subplots. Day 30: Outline act III. Day 31: Final scene

2020

Formatting your Manuscript

If you’re planning on one day turning your manuscript in to literary agents and publishing houses, you need to make sure it’s formatted correctly. In many cases, your manuscript will be skipped over if it isn’t done to industry standard, so here’s the basics that you’ll need if you don’t want to be ignored. Before I get started, please know that this is aimed specifically at fiction manuscripts. If you’re writing non-fiction or a memoir, the expectations will be different, so it would be wise to Google what you need.

The Basics

Make sure your font is 12 point Times New Roman, Courier New, or Arial. These are the only three fonts you are allowed to pick from.
Your spacing should be 1 inch on all sides of the text. This is the default on most word processors, but double check your settings just to be sure.
Your text should be double spaced.
All of your indentations must be a half inch. Do not press indent. Instead, drag over the top arrow on the ruler to have every new paragraph automatically indent.

The Title Page

The top left-hand corner of your title page will have all your personal information. They want to see your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, the novel’s genre, and word count.

Your novel’s title is allowed to be between 20-24 point font if you want. Bold is also an option, but not necessary.
The title will appear halfway down the title page.
“A novel by [your name]” will be about three quarters of the way down the page.

The Next Pages

If you have a dedication, it will be on its own page.
If you have some sort of verse or quote, those will also need their own pages.
Do not include a page for acknowledgements.

The Chapters

Chapter titles will be 12 point font. No bolding or italics.
Chapters will start from one quarter to halfway down the page.
An easy way to format chapter headings is to press enter five or six times
Make sure you always start your chapters the same way every time.
When you start a new chapter, make sure you use a page break to bump the new chapter onto a new page. This will keep it in place so that it will never budge, no matter how much you cut out or add to the previous chapter.

Page Numbers

Page numbers will start with 1 on Chapter 1 of your manuscript. Page numbers will not appear on the title page or dedication page.
Page 1 will be labeled in the footer of Chapter 1. It should be centered.
Page 2 will be in the header of the next page.
From page 2 onward, your headers will be labeled like this:

If you insert a section break after the title and dedication pages, it will make it easier to insert the page numbers.

For the most part, this is the most important of what you’ll need to know for formatting your manuscript. I used this video as reference, so I’m trusting everything it says is true because it was made by an author who has several novels published, and because it was uploaded this year, it should be up to date.

But just remember, whenever you go to turn in a manuscript, make sure you check the website of the agent or publisher you’re trying to contact. They might have specifications that differ with the ones stated in this video, and you should always do whatever you can to abide by what they want.

Reblogging aggressively. Some publishers will throw your manuscript into the slush pile or, worse, the trash if you don’t follow their desired format. Spec fic publishers are especially strict about manuscript formatting.

Also reblogging aggressively.