It seems many people are having a little trouble with dialogue tags. Until I can properly write up a tutorial for Ad Astra, I'd like to direct everyone to this quick primer:
http://www.sparknotes.com/writing/style/topic_61.html
There have been some stories that have slipped through with dialogue-tag errors and those authors will be notified to go back and edit. But please, folks, for the sake of the quality of stories on the archive, try to have all of these common errors handled prior to submission. I hate having to write rejection letters, and no one likes getting them.
I understand that a lot of people who are absolutely fine storytellers otherwise have trouble with these things, in part because they just didn't know. But here's a quick primer to help you learn, and hopefully save all of us trouble down the road.
A quick way to remember it is that if a sentence has a 'said, replied, asked' then you use a comma. For instance:
"This woman running this archive is crazy," she said, shaking her head.
If it doesn't have a 'said, replied, asked' then you use a period. For instance:
"This woman running this archive is crazy." She shook her head.
THIS is incorrect:
"This woman running this archive is crazy," she shook her head.
http://forums.titansgo.net/viewtopic.php?t=8435
Here's another one with common errors and the correct way to do it.
AND! I finally broke down and did it myself. Here's The Journey, Ad Astra Style.
http://www.sparknotes.com/writing/style/topic_61.html
There have been some stories that have slipped through with dialogue-tag errors and those authors will be notified to go back and edit. But please, folks, for the sake of the quality of stories on the archive, try to have all of these common errors handled prior to submission. I hate having to write rejection letters, and no one likes getting them.
I understand that a lot of people who are absolutely fine storytellers otherwise have trouble with these things, in part because they just didn't know. But here's a quick primer to help you learn, and hopefully save all of us trouble down the road.
A quick way to remember it is that if a sentence has a 'said, replied, asked' then you use a comma. For instance:
"This woman running this archive is crazy," she said, shaking her head.
If it doesn't have a 'said, replied, asked' then you use a period. For instance:
"This woman running this archive is crazy." She shook her head.
THIS is incorrect:
"This woman running this archive is crazy," she shook her head.
http://forums.titansgo.net/viewtopic.php?t=8435
Here's another one with common errors and the correct way to do it.
AND! I finally broke down and did it myself. Here's The Journey, Ad Astra Style.
Last edited:
Always.
