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

[rionaleonhart]

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.)

Comments

[wolfenkahlon.livejournal.com]

"I've always done speech like this." He said.

And thought like this. He thought.

With single quotes for certain... 'emphasis' on words, and for indirect quotes.

Except with using italics to quote chunks of stuff from posts on the internet when I'm going to be replying below.

[rionaleonhart]

Is the "I've always done speech like this." He said as opposed to "I've always done speech like this," he said intentional? Because, technically, it should be the latter. (I wrote a quick guide to punctuating dialogue a few years ago, if you're interested. Why, yes, this is the sort of thing I do for fun.)

[wolfenkahlon.livejournal.com]

Not intentional, although some of the rules on the punctuation just make my head hurt.

Now I have to wonder about my doing thoughts in italics... because they're technically speech in someone's head, but they can't always follow those rules because it looks odd, but if I put them in quotes it looks confusing... which is probably why I started describing thoughts instead of quoting them.

I actually have read your guide and keep it bookmarked for when I'm editing fic into final, readable form.

It made me so happy to know I could avoid awkward breaks when a new speaker begins in the middle of a paragraph of description.

[rionaleonhart]

I use italics for thoughts sometimes. I think it's a perfectly acceptable way of indicating them. Certainly better than putting them in quotation marks, which just confuses me immensely.