Sometimes You Need Dialogue Tags And Don't Want To Use The Same Four

If you guys are like me, and you struggle a little with describing locations, can I suggest…

as a lifesaver.

Heart of beast, blood of god.

As the God of Fire, the Supreme God has tasked you to supervise and educate a newly manifested Goddess. You find a sad, terrified, and confused child, fearful of her powers and the destruction it caused the mortal realm. You are to guide a being born from Man's work, The Goddess of Explosions.

"Hey Dad, why did you marry mom?""Well son, when an eldritch goddess beyond human comprehension asks for your hand in marriage, you have few options."

You started a scam religion for a quick buck. You begin to panic when your fake god was actually a real forgotten one awakened from new worshippers, declared you it's high priest, and granted you the power of healing.

Creepy things that could be in the forest

HOLY SHIT! TREES!

The creepy fair-folk elves from medieval folklore...are on holiday at the moment, so you've got Santa's Christmas elves trying their best to sub in.

Abandoned cabin haunted by the ghost of another, more abandoned cabin.

Various adorable animals working together to use a shotgun.

Non-ancient cult to a non-ancient horror. They were founded last week and their primordial god is a month old. You're actually their first human sacrifice, please say if you have any constructive criticism :)

Talking crows who have been on some very dodgy message boards lately. They're not dangerous but they're very problematic.

Legolas but he's done snapped

Very generic slasher who's fully aware that this is one of his late-franchise box office bombs. He's still gonna come after you with a machete, contractual obligations, but his heart's clearly not in it anymore.

Allegorical representation of the horrors of late-stage capitalism and the urban wasteland who showed up to the wrong setpiece and is hoping no-one notices.

A bear. Oh, a bear's too generic and mundane is it? Not scary enough? How about I put you in a clearing with an angry bear and see how calm you are? Huh? Thought so. There's a fucking bear. Make me a sanity check, asshole.

the turkey swiss on rye incident

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

A desperate kingdom attempts to summon a hero, but their limited magical resources only allow them to summon a “miner” a man named Steve carrying only a wooden pickaxe. But when he starts punching trees , everyone wonder what miner he is.

you HIT soul master? you pop his body like the balloon?? oh! oh! jail for knight! jail for knight for One Thousand Years!!!!