taotoaro

[taotoaro]

Oh Sancho, Dear Sancho~

Oh Sancho, dear Sancho, What changed your countenance?

So cold and unwelcome, your eyes no longer gleam

Oh Sancho, dear Sancho, what happened to your eyes?

Why do you avoid my gaze, with such a dulling sight? 

Oh Sancho, dear Sancho, is this not enough for you?

Is it, you wish to, wander to something new? 

Oh how time has flew, standing next to you

Making solitary paths no longer feel alone

And how I’ve, come to, learn to cherish you

Your presence in my river, steady as my stone

I’m brought to confliction

Spotting longing in your eyes,  

A distant sort of expression

absent of laughing rise

You’ve grown as we’ve traveled

To distant seas and lands

Your loneliness unravelled 

As you pick up your own strands

You’ve asked for, your own time

To travel your own roads

To see an ending without rhyme

A road you go alone

Oh how I wish to call out

How I wish to say your name

But from the sad regards you give

It has to be this way

Oh Sancho, dear Sancho, you promise we’ll unite

You’ll have your own stories to tell, accounts of your own sights

Oh Sancho, dear Sancho, oh how I’ll miss you so

A solitary road again, since it’s you I must forgo

Oh Sancho, dear Sancho, come tell me of your story

Until then, I promise, to walk the extraordinary. 

Oh Sancho, my Sancho, I wander, with no clear end in sight. 

But as long as, you’re okay, everything will be, all right.

[taotoaro]

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”