Post-NaNoWriMo Update - April 17, 2017 (Camp NaNo - Day 17)

[amruniel]

Total Words Written: 195.325



Whew. Finally.
Against all odds I finally finished up the part I was working on these past days, which means tomorrow I might actually make headway into the scene, possibly even getting it finished up (that is IF I remember what I wanted to include there ... I should have made a few notes after all *sigh*).

And once I get the scene done, dear Vig will finally re-appear in the story. I miss having the man around ... even if it's just half a scene or so without him.
(But as we all know - no Vig means no innuendo, no flirting, no touches, no nothing *sigh*)

On another note - can anyone of you dears give me a crash-course on English punctuation? Particularly on punctuation in connection with direct speech? It has come to my attention that I'm creatively doing *something*, but I'm guessing how I'm doing it is not how it should be done :D (And funnily enough, I'm NOT using German punctuation either... it's a weird "might be right but most likely isn't" mix-up invented by yours truly.)
Anyway - since I'll have to go back and edit 195.000 words anyway in terms of punctuation, I figured I might ask *now* and get it right at least in the latter part of my story :D
Anybody willing to explain?

Comments

[amruniel]

OH MY GOD!

This is incredible! And so, so helpful! Thank you so much! *hugs*

(I might have to print the whole comment out in order to always be able to check back!)

Well, I think (at least most times) I got the capitalization right. That's something that buggs me immensely when reading, so I my "feeling" for the language or gut intuition should have kicked in there.
I did, however, completely missed the mark on the actual punctuation - I put the comma outside the quotation marks. (I *knew* that in English there was a comma where there is none in German, I just wasn't sure *where* exactly... and I obviously was too lazy to look it up while actually caught in the writing process itself.)

Great explanation on using " vs. '! And particularly of interest for me - the hint on what's the norm in academic writing (and in a combination of British usage and academic writing, in my case).
I have had to write a couple of more or less academic essays and papers, but so far I (think I) never had a situation where I used direct speech outside of quotations, and I just had to transfer them word for word and punctuation mark for punctuation mark there, obviously. But since there are quite a lot of papers waiting for me over the course of the next semesters/years, I'm sure this knowledge will come in handy there, too!

Thank you so much for your offer to check over "real life" instances is my writing, but I think I'll just have to go over it with a fine-toothed comb and straighten up all the direct speeches with your excellent guide! But if I come across something I'm not sure about I'd love to be able to check back with you then if the offer still stands in a couple of weeks or months :)

On another note- in my fic Orlando holds a degree in English lit as well. And while I feel remotely knowledgeable in what I'm writing about, I'm just a lowly student, with no degree to show for so far, so.... might I contact you if I need some advice in this quarter as well?

Again, thank you so, so, so much for your in-depth (and very funny!) explanation! I really appreciate it! *hugs*

[surreysmum]

You're very welcome! I'm sure I left out a lot of the ifs, ands and buts, so by all means drop me a note if you hit any gnarly examples. Meantime, if you find Legolas' pedantry useful that makes my day. :)

[amruniel]

I find it more than useful! Thank you so much again! :)

(And Legolas can lecture me on punctuation anytime! Actually... does he give lectures on syntax, morphology and/or phonetics as well? I suspect I'd have a lot more fun learning that stuff if he (and Aragorn) explained it..... *giggles*)