12 Comments
Apr 28, 2021Liked by Alison Acheson

Great lesson! Back to basics, although punctuation seems anything but basic. I look forward to more of these lessons.

If a character is referencing a novel or movie in dialogue, such as “I loved Great Gatsby, but I wish the green light had been red,” is the title italicized? Thanks!

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Jun 19, 2021Liked by Alison Acheson

How would you deal with interior monologue?

For example: “Why?” she would ask. “What do you want?”

It was an interesting question Ellrod thought.

Should the phrase ‘It was … question’ be in quotes?

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Dec 30, 2021Liked by Alison Acheson

Thank you for this lesson! It helped me a lot.

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I’ve been reading many Spanish authors lately, and I noticed they start dialogue with em dashes. I couldn’t find any information online about what this style is called or if it’s particular to Spanish writing. Do you have any insight into this?

I’ll translate an example from a page I was reading this morning.

— As always —continued Mariajo—. We will lose track of you in some third world country, although the real owner may live here, two blocks from this building.

—Isn’t it strange they both belong to the same company? Maybe we can’t know its owner, but we can find more out more properties that belong to them, and we can image that they aren’t used for anything good —suggested Orduño.

—It’s a good ides, let’s go look —accepted Mariajo.

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Jul 10, 2023Liked by Alison Acheson

Hi Alison

I feel like you wrote this one just for me ha ha. So thank you. On a related topic is the subject of punctuation for the thoughts that go through the character’s head. Sometimes it feels like there should be quotations even though there isn’t - Ie Having to deal with punctuation is annoying , Sally thought.

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