Like I mentioned in a previous thread I'm pretty new to this world. The most writing I had experience with was essays for school and needless to say its been a long time. Without getting too far off track with back-story here, I'm just gonna ask my question. So, when I write dialog for my characters does every bit of dialog become its own paragraph of sorts? Or if the same character speaks multiple times in the same paragraph can it continue? If so, how long is too long? “Lets go Christian, its better than sitting in here.” Eleni slowly picked herself up from her place by my side. “I think maybe they will tell us where our parents are.” She grabbed my hand and began to gently tug my arm, urging me to my feet. “Lets go Christian, its better than sitting in here.” Eleni slowly picked herself up from her place by my side. “I think maybe they will tell us where our parents are.” She grabbed my hand and began to gently tug my arm, urging me to my feet. On a side note can anyone point me to a highly recommended book on fictional writing? Id hate to harass you guys with every single, little bitty question. Plus, it would help my cause to be as educated as possible in my craft so my reader can be properly taken on the adventure they signed up for.
This may help with your dialogue questions: He said, she said - Mechanics of Dialogue Fortunately, you probably have a great resource for learning to write - your collection of novels. There will, unfortunately, be some poor examples in the mix, too, but the more you read, the better you eill become at knowing the difference.
Thank you for the timely response. Its kind of funny, I came back to this thread to edit my post because I had clicked the link to that article in your signature. And thank you again. I have a very vivid world painted in my head and about 100 pages committed to paper already but it will all be for nothing if it falls apart due to stupid mistakes and sloppy writing.
You'll have plenty of time in the edit/revision phase, and hopefully by the time you finish the first draft you'll have learned a lot about the fundamentals of good writing.
Most inspiring part is I already have an editor thats so interested in my story that she is willing to edit for free and pass it off to a publishing connection she has. So no doubt I'm very charged to make the best of this.
Have you cheked the editors background, Ray? There are a lot of so-called editors that promise to pass your work on to publishing connections, and they lead you to a self-publishing package. Just be careful, ok?
ray... you say 'story'... is it a short story she's editing and will 'pass on' to a magazine?... or did you mean 'novel' and she has contacts at a publishing house?... i also have to warn you to look this gift horse in the mouth, so to speak, since she may, or may not actually be a good editor... why is she doing all that work for free?... i've been doing the same for many aspiring authors for years, but in my old write-for-money life i was highly paid [up to $150/hr] for the same services i now offer gratis... is/was this gal a professional editor?... and is there any expectation of payment if/when you're paid for the work?... if you're referring to an entire novel, that's a major task, so would make me even more suspicious of motives and expertise, sorry to say... btw, you need to learn how/when/where to use apostrophes... as in 'lets' and 'its' and 'thats'... ;-) love and hugs, maia
Thanks for the concern. It's a novel not a short story and I've got a pretty detailed history with the editors husband. I've worked with him for many years and never knew what his wife did for a living. I knew he had children in my target demographic and sent about 15 pages to his house just for a little insight. Well his wife wound up picking it up and from what he said, "Thoroughly enjoyed my style. Fell in love with my characters and their plight." He said his wife was really driven to help me push this through to the end. Her conditions were that I do everything within my power to improve my writing skill by the end of the book and my own initial edit while maintaining the way I tell a story. She was a professional editor for a publishing company but is now retired. Maintaining connections that she passes work onto every once in a while. It was talked about and he assures that this is just for personal reasons and that she expects no form of compensation now or in the future, what ever it may bring. To tell the truth I was a bit taken aback by it all. I never really considered publishing before that. The novel was for my sister. If the material is good enough to get this woman excited though I might as well see it through to the end and see where it takes me. Even though I trust my friend and his wife I am a pretty skeptical person at the end of the day. Any suggestions on measures to protect my work in the long run would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and as far as the apostrophes go, I'm getting way too used to the auto-correct function of my word processor.
don't ever rely on any program to fix your goofs! as for the editor situation, you seem to have fallen into a bed of roses there... don't worry about protecting your work... all written/artistic work is automatically protected by copyright from the moment it's completed and exists in a reproducible form... best of luck to you with this! hugs, m
Hopefully that's the case. My family has a bit of bad luck attached to our last name. Just want to thank everybody again for their knowledge. I'm sure I'll have another thread in the future. For now I just need to study, study, study the threads on this forum and the additional information some have linked to.
