Writing a novel.

[x-darshee.livejournal.com]

Hello! (:
First, I’d like to say thank you to the creator of this community! Creating this community was an excellent idea, because I think
writers can communicate with other writers and definitely learn new things to improve their writing skills. Kudos, my friend.

Okay, now to introduce myself.
My name is Darshee, fifteen, from Malaysia. I'm currently half-way through finishing a fantasy-genre novel. However, I myself have noticed that I have problems with grammar and similar ballparks. In where I'm living, they don't teach us stuff like this, so I rely on dictionaries and reading. Therefore, please excuse my wrong usage of language. I'm still learning! Hahaha.

What I really want to know, right now, is the main and most important rules on writing a novel.

For example:

"Thank you." He said?
"Thank you," he said with a smile?

I'm confused, and was hoping someone could explain the whole concept to me.
Thank you so much!

Darshee.

Comments

[nozomi-chan.livejournal.com]

In your example, the second is correct.

As for anything else...it really depends on where your problem areas are. It's a little hard to just recite all the grammar rules of the English language, even for a native-speaker.

[x-darshee.livejournal.com]

It's okay. And thank you.
So, if the second one (in my examply) is correct, how do you
write the first one?

:)

[x-darshee.livejournal.com]

*example. Sorry.

[nozomi-chan.livejournal.com]

The first would be reversed, to make it proper grammar, but it would make for an awkward statement all on its own.

As follows:

He said, "Thank you."

Normally, you wouldn't write the sentence just as it stands. It needs more elaboration into the context...

[x-darshee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was only an example. Thank you so much, Nozomi_chan!
Your help is very much appreciated!

[nozomi-chan.livejournal.com]

^_^ No problem! I'm glad to help. :)

[rosalinda-143.livejournal.com]

Well welcome to the comm! Glad to have you here!

I'm still a learner myself (even if they do teach grammer and spelling at my school, lol ^.^) but I've learned from the best here so I think I could help you to an extent... although I don't really know what your asking in your example. I know that one of my betas have told me about your example but I'm kind of confused at what your asking. So if you could elaborate a little more I think I could help you out. Unless of course someone else tells you before I can.

Well welcom again! Hope to read future stuff from you (and help out as best as I can) or maybe short stories that doesn't have to do with the book your working on because I would know the how you'd feel about posting your book here because someone could copy right, right? I too am writing a book - sorry I'm rambling! ^.^

peace.love.happiness.

- Rosie

[x-darshee.livejournal.com]

Hello, Rosalinda_143!

I know, my example is a bit stupid. Sorry about that. Hahahah. I was asking the proper way of writing those two examples. I was told that the second one was correct, but the first one wasn't.

So now I know that if i use a comma after a speech : "Hello,"/ It ends with a "he said/she said/he muttered/etc." But what if i use a full stop like "Hello."?
How do I end it? (: Hahaha, i'm so sorry. I'm not good at explaining stuff.

Thanks for your help! I love you icon. Swift is gorgeous.

[davien.livejournal.com]

"Where are you going?" He raised an eyebrow at her and opened the car door.

"Where are you going," he asked?

He asked, "Where are you going?"

But, in general, don't get carried away with modifiers. You don't need to say "he asked" if it's a question, and it's obvious who is speaking. You only want to put these in when it might not be obvious which character is speaking.

Susan and Mark shared an amused glance about the topic of Frank's new diet.

"I can't wait to see how quickly he can get to his target weight this time. It's amazing when people have so much control," Susan said.

Mark wiped the kitchen counter. "Guys often have a faster time losing weight. I think. I read something about women's metabolisms going into 'preserve energy' mode."

"Probably. I think it's got as much to do with control and getting to the gym. Oh, and there are fewer guys with a weakness for chocolate cake than there are women."

"Everyone likes chocolate cake."

"Not everyone."

[x-darshee.livejournal.com]

Thank you, this helped a lot.

You all are really nice. <3

[rosalinda-143.livejournal.com]

Sorry I couldn't have been of assistence. Guess they beat me to the punch.

I didn't really know the answer to that anyway! So you shouldn't be thanking me. I haven't really done anything.

Thanks! I like yours too. I think it's cool how they made a peace sign with their hands.

peace.love.happiness.

- Rosie

[x-darshee.livejournal.com]

Hahahah! Oh that's all right. :-)
Oh and you're right about me not wanting to post my story here.
Plagarism is one of my biggest fear. Sigh.

[starlight83.livejournal.com]

For some reason, a lot of native speakers have issues with this, too.

Anytime you use he said/she whispered/he yelled/etc. you'll want to use a comma to separate it from the speech. So:

"Good morning," she said.

"Good morning," she grumbled as she poured herself some coffee.

Use a full stop if you're actually starting a whole new sentence and not just saying WHO your speaker is.

"Good morning." She smiled.

Note that when you use something like, "she smiled" you need to use a full stop since a person can't actually smile dialogue. This is a mistake a lot of native English speakers make.

You can inject the "he said" stuff into the middle of your dialogue, too. In that case, you use commas if you're not at the end of the sentence in your dialogue, and a full stop if you are. Examples:

"Good morning. The meeting will begin," she said and checked her watch, "at eleven o'clock."

"Good morning," she said. "The meeting will begin at eleven o'clock."

I hope that helps. I'm not generally a very good teacher, so if you need clarification on any of that, I'd be happy to take another shot.

*comment edited multiple times because I'm an idiot.

[x-darshee.livejournal.com]

I don't agree on the you not being a good teacher part. This helped me a lot! Thank you. My english teachers should learn from you. Hahaha!

Thank you so much!
You're definitely no idiot when it comes to this. (:

[starlight83.livejournal.com]

Everyone I've tried to teach grammar to has lasted about a day with me before jumping ship. Maybe I've just never had a good student! :)

I wanted to add one more rule to this, because it was done incorrectly once in the comments above. ^

If you have punctuation at the end of a bit of dialogue that isn't a period (like a question mark or an exclamation point) you leave that in the dialogue and put a period at the end of your "he said" tag. So you'd have sentences like:

"Can you help me with this?" she asked.

"Of course!" he replied.

And if you don't have a tag, it works pretty much the same way that full stops do:

"Can you help me with this?" She looked upset.

He slung an arm around her shoulders. "Of course!"

[x-darshee.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, thank you so so so much! *hug.
You're amazing.