Writers Etiquette

[Cerise]

ILM, Thank You, that helps so much! Might be able do Discribe my Fics better now

[carmelle]

Well I won't write a tutorial because I'm awful at explaining things, lol, but someone last night was having trouble describing something (person shall remain nameless ) and I just thought maybe these tip might be helpful. If you're stuck on trying to describe an emotion or feeling, or just drescribing in general try to appeal to all five senses. Touch, hearing, sight, smell and taste.

Ignore it if it makes no sense, lol.

That's really great advice. Just want to add to it.

Okay, for anyone who's having trouble descirbing a situation, try this...

We'll take an imaginary scene. Say, for instance, your main character (we'll take Martha) is travelling on a bus...

Close your eyes. Is it crowded or half empty on the bus? Who are the other passengers? Are there kids/old people/teenagers etc? What are people talking about? Is it hot and stuffy or is it cold? (Maybe someone has a window open, blowing a draught.)

What can you see from the window? Are you going through country or city? Is it sunny or raining? Is Martha happy or sad? Whatever's happening in your story, have your character thinking about it. For instance, if Martha has just had a row with Jack and is leaving him (sorry, MJ fans, it's just an example!) she'd be very, very upset. Fighting back tears. Thinking over the row and remembering happier times.

How fast is the bus travelling? Too slowly for her or too quickly? Does someone's aftershave remind her of Jack or are the smell of the bus fumes making her feel sick? What does Martha have with her? A hastily packed bag, a book, sandwiches, a photo, a ring Jack gave her...? Is she searching for something in the bag or turning the ring over in her hands or gazing out of the window...?

You don't need to use ALL the examples, they're just ideas. Hope you get the general picture - and don't forget to open your eyes to write the next part of your story!

^^That was great and really helpful. Easy to understand too. Thanks

[Eli]

Well I won't write a tutorial because I'm awful at explaining things, lol, but someone last night was having trouble describing something (person shall remain nameless ) and I just thought maybe these tip might be helpful. If you're stuck on trying to describe an emotion or feeling, or just drescribing in general try to appeal to all five senses. Touch, hearing, sight, smell and taste.

Ignore it if it makes no sense, lol.

That's really great advice. Just want to add to it.

Okay, for anyone who's having trouble descirbing a situation, try this...

We'll take an imaginary scene. Say, for instance, your main character (we'll take Martha) is travelling on a bus...

Close your eyes. Is it crowded or half empty on the bus? Who are the other passengers? Are there kids/old people/teenagers etc? What are people talking about? Is it hot and stuffy or is it cold? (Maybe someone has a window open, blowing a draught.)

What can you see from the window? Are you going through country or city? Is it sunny or raining? Is Martha happy or sad? Whatever's happening in your story, have your character thinking about it. For instance, if Martha has just had a row with Jack and is leaving him (sorry, MJ fans, it's just an example!) she'd be very, very upset. Fighting back tears. Thinking over the row and remembering happier times.

How fast is the bus travelling? Too slowly for her or too quickly? Does someone's aftershave remind her of Jack or are the smell of the bus fumes making her feel sick? What does Martha have with her? A hastily packed bag, a book, sandwiches, a photo, a ring Jack gave her...? Is she searching for something in the bag or turning the ring over in her hands or gazing out of the window...?

You don't need to use ALL the examples, they're just ideas. Hope you get the general picture - and don't forget to open your eyes to write the next part of your story!

I agree with every word, thanks for posting this, you mentioned things I've never though about!

I have another tip. It's probably going to sound completely stupid and weird, but it works for me so I though't I'd share it in case it can help anyone out.

If you want to find out how a situation is, and how you should describe it, but find it hard to picture just by usins tips like the ones ILM posted I recommend trying this. I think most writers picture how their characters look, so when you're writing, pretend you're making a television show while you're watching it.

Don't ust focus on what words to use, but picture the characters walk around. You can compare it to one of your favourite shows even if it's not Home&Away, just think of a scene from a TV-show you remember and make connections so you picture it really like you were watching a show while you're writing.

THEN you add the music (and this is the part where you're gonna think I'm crazy). All TV shows have background music, and it can help a lot in exploring the situation by "adding music".

If you were really making a TV show, what song would you use in that scene?

I'm not saying you should mention the song at all, just picture the song being played in the beackground while you're watching the scene, and you will discover a lot more about how you feel about the scene! Firstly it will make it easier for you to realise how you feel about the scene (and then maybe how the characters feel). For example you probably feel a lot different when you listen to The Veronicas's "Everything I'm not" than you do when you're listening to a Westlife song.

Secondly you might only think of the song because of a part of it, a line or a chorus, and then when you picture the song, you can maybe find more things you didn't think about to add in the story because the song goes on, not just for one line or one chorus.

I'm not sure if any of that made sense or if you think I'm crazy now, so I would love some feedback. I have no idea if this will work for you, but it does for me. It really helps me out when I'm stuck!

[I love music]

Hey, Eli, I'm meant to be the one round here who loves music...

Any tips are always helpful to people. I can't write without listening to music anyway.

[TelephotoMarigold]

Formatting Dialogue.

I've noticed a number of new writers struggling with how to write dialogue. I found this easy to understand guide and thought it might be useful.

Formatting Dialogue: New Speaker, New Line

This is a pretty easy rule to apply. Each time a new speaker speaks you place the line of dialogue on a new line. This line should also be indented (assuming you are indenting new paragraphs). We can see how this applies to our example:

Hi have you seen my cat said Bob.

No said Bill I have no idea where your cat is.

If you see my cat will you let me know questioned Bob looking sad.

Of course replied Bill with a tone of concern.

Formatting Dialogue: Adding Speech Marks


Our next rule says that all speech should be placed in speech marks. These can be either single (‘) or double (“), it’s your choice. However, keep in mind that if you use, say single (‘), you need to be using the opposite, in this case double (“) when you are reporting speech inside speech. I also like to use the opposite when a writer places thoughts within a text.

‘Hi have you seen my cat’ said Bob.

‘No’ said Bill ‘I have no idea where your cat is.’

‘If you see my cat will you let me know’ questioned Bob looking sad.

‘Of course’ replied Bill with a tone of concern.

Formatting Dialogue: Punctuation


When writing dialogue you will often use ‘tags’. These are verbs that link the spoken words with the remainder of the sentence. Commonly used tags includes said, asked, replied and many more. Without going into the technical detail, to correctly punctuate spoken words and tags you must link them using a comma. If you use a full stop the sentences are broken and it no longer makes sense. If we look at the second line of our example we see:

‘No’ said Bill

This is a single sentence and therefore must end with a full stop, giving us:

‘No’ said Bill.

The tag in this sentence is ‘said’ and this must be connected to the speech. If you added a full stop at the end of the spoken words, it would separate the tag and become incorrect:

‘No.’ Said Bill. [WRONG]

Instead we must link the spoken word and the tag with a comma, this gives us:

‘No,’ said Bill. [CORRECT]

If we apply this to the full example we get:

‘Hi, have you seen my cat?’ said Bob.

‘No,’ said Bill. ‘I have no idea where your cat is.’

‘If you see my cat will you let me know?’ questioned Bob, looking sad.

‘Of course,’ replied Bill, with a tone of concern.

Please note that in the first and third lines we have used a ? instead of a , since it is a question.