p-nd18

[p-nd18]

Grammatical first-person and narrative first-person aren't the same thing. One is about which pronouns you use, another is about whether your narration is limited to the point of view of a specific character.

You can have a limited point of view told in third person: "The last thing he ever feels is a sudden pain in the back of the head before his vision turns black and he slips into unconsciousness never to wake up."

And though much rarer, you can have an omniscient point of view in first person: "As the last seconds of my life tick by, I fail to notice the man sneaking up behind me. With a single blow to the back of my head, he ends my life. I fall where I stand, blood sipping from my now lifeless body onto the floor. I am not his first kill tonight. Nor will I be his last."

[p-nd18]

"Why didn't they just communicate?? They're so stupid!" Have you considered that communicating with someone you love and value and don't want to hurt is scary and that vulnerability takes practice and that perfect characters with perfect words make the most boring stories of all

[p-nd18]

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.

[p-nd18]

It is what it is

[p-nd18]

Me at age 13, exhausted at school after staying up all night to read fanfic: I can’t wait until I’m an adult and I can stay up reading without any consequences!

Me, an adult, exhausted at work after staying up all night reading fanfic: Fuck.

[p-nd18]

sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

[p-nd18]

[p-nd18]

a constant problem

[p-nd18]

[p-nd18]

Me checking on one of my beloved ao3 fics that hasn't been updated since 2017

[p-nd18]

Me looking through fanfiction recommendations as if I'm not gonna re read my comfort fanfic for the millionth time: :3

[p-nd18]

if it's good enough for you, then it deserves to be made. don't let anyone else decide if your story is worth it or not.

[p-nd18]

[p-nd18]

me as a writer

[p-nd18]

how do you do, fellow Creatives™

[p-nd18]

reading my own fics as a reference for a new wip and squinting at it like "how the hell did I do that"

[p-nd18]

scrolling through ao3, once again realising the one fic I want to read is the one I have to write.