I'm pretty good at English. Mostly. But one thing that just confuses me when it comes to placement is the semicolon. Where would you put it in a sentence? Please correct me if I'm wrong: We didn’t need a reminder; we would all remember the fantastic and selfless things that my mother did in her short lifetime. Is that right? Also, just because I'm a bit fuzzy, before someone is about to speak do you end the sentence with a comma or a full stop? (Full Stop is this: . if anyone was taught differently to me) Sorry if I seem like I don't know the first thing about writing, I don't mean to seem annoying.
Looks right to me, though I generally stay away from semicolons altogether. Depends on if you're saying "said" or something similar. Examples: He said, "Blah blah." "Blah blah," he said. "Blah," she said, "so very blah." "Blah blah," she said. "New sentence of blah you gotta full stop." He adjusted his cap. "Blah blah." (though most would add a he said somewhere, i think) I might get corrected by someone though.. no expert here.
The semi-colon seems fine, but the structure of the verbs is off. kangaroos is right on the dialogue punctuation.
ditto the 'he's right' for 67k... can't tell if the verbs are ok as is, or not, without seeing what came before that sentence... they work well enough, if the time frame actually is what they imply... as for the semicolon... the pesky things don't work well in fiction, imo... any place you'd use one, a comma, period, em dash, or conjunction will do a much better job... thus:
I think the only time a semicolon is more powerful than a comma and a coordination conjunction, or a period is when both sentences are closely related and short. I love seeing a good semicolon sentence in novels. With your example, I wouldn't use a semicolon.
