rionaleonhart | I Want To See The Zoo, She Said, I Want To See The Zoo.

WHILST I'M BEING INSECURE ABOUT MY WRITING: for as long as I can remember, I have used "double quotation marks" for speech in fiction and 'single quotation marks' for all other purposes. No style guide will recommend this: in British publishing convention, single quotes are used for all purposes, including speech, with speech within speech the only context in which double quotes are used; in American publishing convention, the situation is reversed. Does this inconsistency bother you? (Alternative question: do you have similar stylistic quirks?) I just think there's something quite nice about drawing a visual distinction between speaking and 'setting a phrase aside'. If there are two different types of quotation mark, why not put them to use?

Regarding Supernatural: I rewatched 'Fresh Blood' a little while ago, and it reminded me of how awesome Bela can be. I love that she actually seems surprised and a little upset that Dean is so angry with her for telling a murderous madman where to find them. HONESTLY, DEAN, YOU'RE SO OVERSENSITIVE. And then she helps them track him down, because, hey, she didn't know Dean was going to be so unreasonable about the whole thing. I love her.

HERE IS SOMETHING I WOULD LOVE TO SEE: a rewritten Twilight, with Bela in the role of Bella. Edward may be ridiculously strong and fast, but if he can't hear Bela's thoughts he's doomed. She will seduce him, use him shamelessly and then run off with his sister to form an amazing con artist duo. It would be pretty great. And at least Bela's unsympathetic aspects are intentional, unlike those of Bella 'Stupid Unattractive Humans With Their Stupid Being Nice To Me' Swan.

(Jo is welcome to join Bela and Alice in their con-artistry.)

(Also, Ruby can flit between the three of them, although I have not yet decided whether she would assist with the cons or whether she would ruin them for her own amusement by possessing the team members at inopportune moments.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Does this inconsistency bother you?

Yes! I do not know why my country didn't go, "Oh, so that's the way we've been doing it? Great, let's do it the same way." But alas, it is the one I must use. (Also, I totally hadn't realized that was the accepted British format and now feel dumb. I've only seen it a few times... and actually I've known a few times that the people doing it weren't British — but anyway, I had no idea. SADFACE.)

Also, I probably over-use out-of-dialogue quotation marks like I overuse italics, which probably turns a lot of people away from my writing.

ALTHOUGH— I want to say that the only way it really bothers me is with quotes within dialogue. Mostly with double quotes (and mostly because I haven't seen that with single quotes). I feel like the quote is ending and then OH WAIT IT ISN'T and probably some other grammar stuff that makes my head spin but I don't know the name to. Or something.

Whoops; when I said 'does this inconsistency bother you?', I meant my inconsistency in using double and single quotation marks for different purposes, rather than picking one and sticking to it.

ALTHOUGH— I want to say that the only way it really bothers me is with quotes within dialogue. Mostly with double quotes (and mostly because I haven't seen that with single quotes). I feel like the quote is ending and then OH WAIT IT ISN'T and probably some other grammar stuff that makes my head spin but I don't know the name to. Or something.

Doesn't America use single quotes for quotes within double-quoted dialogue? (Is that what you're talking about? I fear I may have confused myself.)

D'oh. I swear I'm not drunk, really.

Nooo, the only issue it ever really concerns me with is dialogue, and so I tend to not really care one way or the other what people use outside dialogue.

And what I meant was when people use double quotes for dialogue, and then use double quotes AGAIN for something quoted with in the dialgoue, like so:

"I can't believe she'd do that." He dropped his head into his hands, fighting the urge to cry.

"That's what she said," his companion responded.

"That was a dumb joke."

"No, I mean, she said "I can't believe I'd do that.""

:[

I Want To See The Zoo, She Said, I Want To See The Zoo.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject