A Thread for Writers to talk about Writing

[CatastrophicFailure]

Just throwing this up here *urp*, it's a very understandable guide on how to format dialogue correctly, cuz a couple things were driving me nuts. 

 

http://firstmanuscript.com/format-dialogue/

 

[0111narwhalz]

6 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Just throwing this up here *urp*, it's a very understandable guide on how to format dialogue correctly, cuz a couple things were driving me nuts. 

 

http://firstmanuscript.com/format-dialogue/

Ah. I'll go over the chapter again. Didn't really edit that much prior to upload. Any specific issues you'd like to highlight?

Edited August 7, 2016 by 0111narwhalz

[CatastrophicFailure]

Just now, 0111narwhalz said:

Ah. I'll go over the chapter again. Didn't really edit that much prior to upload.

Whoops, that was NOT meant to be directed specifically at you,  I came across it the other day and thought it would be generally useful. 

[0111narwhalz]

Just now, CatastrophicFailure said:

Whoops, that was NOT meant to be directed specifically at you,  I came across it the other day and thought it would be generally useful. 

Ah. I gotcha. The proximity to previous conversation and my upload kinda looked that way.

Still, WS needs an edit pass anyways.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

19 hours ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Okay, I'm starting to get frustrated. What is the font the forum uses by default? It shows up as "normal text" in Google Docs, which is...unhelpful, at best. None of the fonts you can select after look quite right.

I'm pretty sure it's Arial:

Default font.
Formatted Arial.

[Just Jim]

On ‎7‎/‎31‎/‎2016 at 7:09 PM, NSEP said:

In not a writer, but when i do write something, its always a little story about little girls and boys with their little adventure, wich is cute. But my hand writing and English pretty bad. Thats the problem. And i used to make little comic books when i was like eight years old, just simple comics with simple stickmen saying simple things, but that was when i was eight, now i have improved ALOT more. I really like comics, because it combines the thing i am good at (drawing) and what im bad at, but i would like to do (writing). Feel free to give me tips. It would be my greatest hobby if i could write stories.

OK, in terms of writing, if you like stories of youngsters having fun adventures, then I would continue to build on that.  When it comes to writing, there is nothing childish about children's stories, if you will pardon the pun.  Some of the best animated movies going, like Monster's Inc, and Despicable Me are basically just stories of children having adventures.... pretty much half of everything Disney is, as well.  They're not comics, but often movies are based on them.

So if this is what you want to write about, then write whatever you can, whenever you can... doesn't matter if you post it on here or just keep a notebook. Whatever the case, keep writing and honing your technique.

And if you do want to write stories like the movies I mentioned, then go back and watch them... really watch them, how they were written, how the dialogue works, what the most successful hooks and cliffhangers are... and remember, they were totally written for kids, although adults love them as well, and about kids... and they were wildly successful.

As far as your artwork, if you are already good at drawing, then awesome.  But I would now focus on studying exactly how the best comics are drawl and laid out, and fine tune your drawing skills while you practice your writing.

[KSK]

15 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Just throwing this up here *urp*, it's a very understandable guide on how to format dialogue correctly, cuz a couple things were driving me nuts. 

http://firstmanuscript.com/format-dialogue/

 

That's helpful - thanks. I think I follow most of the rules but it's good to have them all in one place for reference. One that always bugs me is capitalisation after exclamation or question marks. Very easy to get wrong with any sort of auto-correct switched on and makes your dialogue sound very jerky.

"Watch out for the falling booster!" Yelled Bob.

Urgh.

 

 

[Just Jim]

29 minutes ago, KSK said:

That's helpful - thanks. I think I follow most of the rules but it's good to have them all in one place for reference. One that always bugs me is capitalisation after exclamation or question marks. Very easy to get wrong with any sort of auto-correct switched on and makes your dialogue sound very jerky.

"Watch out for the falling booster!" Yelled Bob.

Urgh.

I find auto-correct really frustrating in general.  The majority off goofs that slip by me aren't misspelled words so much as auto-correct changing a misspelling into the wrong word!  And because the wrong word is still spelled correctly, they can be harder to spot when I'm proofreading.

 

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

I've leaned to make an uneasy peas with it, myself, since I do nearly all my writing on an iThing™. Without it, there'd be endless right-click fixing and pausing to punctuate. The dialogue capitalization thing especially I just kinda live with as I'm already fighting all the other stupid capitalizations (it's utterly convinced Windows & Crimson must be capitalized ).

Damp, you, autocorrect. Damp you straight to help. 

[0111narwhalz]

I've turned off autocorrect to the extent that it does turn off. Squiggly lines are all that's left, and with the amount of KSP stuff I write, there're a lot of squiggly lines.

What? TWR, spacebar, F5, and antinormal aren't words?

[Mjp1050]

10 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

TWR, spacebar, F5, and antinormal aren't words?

How is spacebar not a word? That makes no sense!

[0111narwhalz]

16 hours ago, Mjp1050 said:

How is spacebar not a word? That makes no sense!

The little squiggly lines say so! All hail the squiggly lines!

It wants a space in spacebar. How interesting.

[UnusualAttitude]

On 7/8/2016 at 2:16 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Just throwing this up here *urp*, it's a very understandable guide on how to format dialogue correctly, cuz a couple things were driving me nuts. 

 

http://firstmanuscript.com/format-dialogue/

 

Very useful, thanks! It's about time I started doing things properly... 

21 hours ago, 0111narwhalz said:

It wants a space in spacebar. How interesting.

It must mean space bar, as in the place Jeb goes to for a quick pint of hydrazine. 

Your autocorrect might actually be more ksp-aware than you think. 

[KSK]

So if a spacebar needs a space, what does a crowbar need?

[Just Jim]

12 minutes ago, KSK said:

So if a spacebar needs a space, what does a crowbar need?

A murder? 

[Mister Dilsby]

4 hours ago, UnusualAttitude said:

Your autocorrect might actually be more ksp-aware than you think. 

 

2 hours ago, KSK said:

So if a spacebar needs a space, what does a crowbar need?

Well, (he said, setting directional SAS to "hold topic" mode ) this does bring up an important point for authors writing in the age of autocorrect--quite often the computer is wrong, especially when you're writing in a genre for which the computer's dictionary isn't designed! Homonyms are frequent stumbling blocks, as are declension's declensions. And then there are evolving usages; I've long maintained that 'alright' isn't a proper word, but I can see that there's no red wavy line under it in my browser, so that spelling must be all right after all.  

Bottom line is, if you're a writer you and you alone are responsible for your content. Spellchecker is just a tool and like all tools you have to be the master of it and not the other way around. And, grammar and spelling do count--sure, you're going to make mistakes, but if a work is riddled with them it will be hard to follow and will look amateurish. Good presentation in any art form helps the reader/viewer/listener reach and immerse in the work itself, rather than struggle through layers of poor form that hide the artist's message.

So, spacebar or space bar? Rocketship or rocket ship? Or even, alright (*shudder*) or all right? The 'correct' choice will always be the one that best conveys your vision to the readers. That's what we're really doing here.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Kuzzter
speaking of mistakes-- *will look amateurish :)

[Just Jim]

9 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

 

Well, (he said, setting directional SAS to "hold topic" mode ) this does bring up an important point for authors writing in the age of autocorrect--quite often the computer is wrong, especially when you're writing in a genre for which the computer's dictionary isn't designed! Homonyms are frequent stumbling blocks, as are declension's declensions. And then there are evolving usages; I've long maintained that 'alright' isn't a proper word, but I can see that there's no red wavy line under it in my browser, so that spelling must be all right after all.  

Bottom line is, if you're a writer you and you alone are responsible for your content. Spellchecker is just a tool and like all tools you have to be the master of it and not the other way around. And, grammar and spelling do count--sure, you're going to make mistakes, but if a work is riddled with them it will be hard to follow and look amateurish. Good presentation in any art form helps the reader/viewer/listener reach and immerse in the work itself, rather than struggle through layers of poor form that hide the artist's message.

So, spacebar or space bar? Rocketship or rocket ship? Or even, alright (*shudder*) or all right? The 'correct' choice will always be the one that best conveys your vision to the readers. That's what we're really doing here.

One thing I really wish this forum had was a way to save and view a draft of a post before we post it, especially if it's a long chapter.  Sometimes I have to read thru a chapter 2, 3, or even 4 times to find all my goofs.  I hate to have to admit it, but it's the truth.  Sometimes I get typing way too fast and then the mistakes slip thru.

It would be helpful if we could read thru a draft, in it's final form, and fix whatever may have gotten thru before we hit the "Submit Reply" button.

[Mister Dilsby]

1 minute ago, Just Jim said:

It would be helpful if we could read thru a draft, in it's final form, and fix whatever may have gotten thru before we hit the "Submit Reply" button.

Quite so; since I'm working in Powerpoint, I have the opportunity to review it all there and make changes before I post--which is really great, since if I do make a mistake I have to correct it in the .ppt, then save as an image, upload the new image to Imgur and delete the old one, update the current chapter's album contents, and finally edit the Forum post to link to the corrected image. 

@Just Jim you could similarly work offline with a text editor or word processor first, leaving spaces for your images (or even pasting them into your draft document as you go)--but that does add a step you might not want to bother with.

[Just Jim]

28 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

@Just Jim you could similarly work offline with a text editor or word processor first, leaving spaces for your images (or even pasting them into your draft document as you go)--but that does add a step you might not want to bother with.

You're right, I think I may have to.  Earlier on it wasn't so bad, but the last couple chapters I did were huge, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.  I don't think I have any other choice at this point, other than let a dozen mistakes get by and then try and hunt them down before too many people read it.  Except my last chapter had over 100 new views in less than an hour, and that's way too many people reading it while I'm still trying to fix things I missed.  Way too many... it's embarrassing knowing so many readers may have spotted what I goofed up.

I've got a copy of both Office and Publisher, one of those should work.  Time to get a little more professional... 

Edited August 9, 2016 by Just Jim

[KSK]

Well alrighty then. I'm sorry, I'll stop now.

I've always done my writing off-line, mainly because the old forum used to eat my posts if I took too long composing them. Even then, there's invariably something I miss and which needs fixing once I post it. I think there's something about taking a chapter off one screen and putting it on a different screen - it moves the words around just enough that it's no longer quite the same familiar text, so parts that I've been unconcsciously skipping over during proofreading are suddenly back in my face again.

[UnusualAttitude]

1 hour ago, Just Jim said:

You're right, I think I may have to.  Earlier on it wasn't so bad, but the last couple chapters I did were huge, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.  I don't think I have any other choice at this point, other than let a dozen mistakes get by and then try and hunt them down before too many people read it.  Except my last chapter had over 100 new views in less than an hour, and that's way too many people reading it while I'm still trying to fix things I missed.  Way too many... it's embarrassing knowing so many readers may have spotted what I goofed up.

I've got a copy of both Office and Publisher, one of those should work.  Time to get a little more professional... 

I write everything with a text editor and then copy/paste it onto the forums with the picture links, and have done so since I started writing.

I recommend doing this: I re-read a lot before posting, but sometimes mistakes or typos that I've missed in my text editor stand out when I paste them into the browser. The change of context/background helps, for some reason.

And still they get through, of course...

PS: this also provides you with a digital backup copy of your story if another forum-apocalypse happens. I've heard that several have already happened...

Edited August 9, 2016 by UnusualAttitude

[Mister Dilsby]

Does it give anyone else a certain special feeling when you don't have to edit a post, since once you do edit it it carries that mark of shame forever? I liked how in the old forum if you edited something soon enough it didn't count as an edited post.

[KSK]

1 hour ago, Kuzzter said:

Bottom line is, if you're a writer you and you alone are responsible for your content. Spellchecker is just a tool and like all tools you have to be the master of it and not the other way around. And, grammar and spelling do count--sure, you're going to make mistakes, but if a work is riddled with them it will be hard to follow and look amateurish. Good presentation in any art form helps the reader/viewer/listener reach and immerse in the work itself, rather than struggle through layers of poor form that hide the artist's message.

Can't agree enough with this, especially that last sentence. I would throw in use of paragraphs and (going back to CatastrophicFailure's post), more-or-less correct presentation of dialogue, too. If I'm commenting on a piece of writing, I'll usually refrain from spelling and grammar nits unless they're too bad to ignore or the author has specifically asked for them. (There's also a certain element of stones and glasshouses here). However, I'll almost certainly give a gentle hint that breaking a huge chunk o' text into paragraphs, or that starting a new paragraph each time you change speaker, would help readability.

Edited August 9, 2016 by KSK

[CatastrophicFailure]

2 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

Does it give anyone else a certain special feeling when you don't have to edit a post, since once you do edit it it carries that mark of shame forever? I liked how in the old forum if you edited something soon enough it didn't count as an edited post.

Can't say I've ever had the pleasure.  

I'm rereading Shadows at the moment,  and so much cringe...

[KSK]

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Can't say I've ever had the pleasure.  

I'm rereading Shadows at the moment,  and so much cringe...

I can relate to both of those. I view posting without post-post editing in the same way that I view playing KSP without F5 or F9. It sounds great, I can see the attraction but as a practical matter it remains but an aspiration.