#spag

woman trapped in clown MMO with all kinds of wacky guys and they have to ??????

~70% sure it's a homestuck fan project with the serial number filed off

aimed at I think kids but its one of those she ras or stephen universals where even parents watch it too

i just made a mind-blowing discovery 🤯🤯🤯

the em dash (—) is the length of a capital M...the so-called “en dash” (–) is the approximate length of a capital N

ha! in your FACE em dash haters—

The em dash is sometimes considered a less formal equivalent of the colon and parenthesis, but in truth it’s used in all kinds of writing, including the most formal—the choice of which mark to use is really a matter of personal preference...Spacing around an em dash varies. Most newspapers insert a space before and after the dash, and many popular magazines do the same, but most books and journals omit spacing, closing whatever comes before and after the em dash right up next to it. This website prefers the latter, its style requiring the closely held em dash in running text.

tools i have been consulting for my adventures in beta-reading

synonym finder (word hippo)

WordWeb dictionary -- FREEEEEE and NO ADS

merriam webster article re: dashes vs hyphens

should that word have a hyphen? -- answer: it's complicated lolol

Punctuation in Dialogue

The 12 Essential Rules of English Grammar

100+ Grammar Rules for Writers

What Are The 14 Punctuation Marks You Need To Know?

Afterward vs Afterwards: Is There any Difference?

College of English Language Blog

Whether this was intentional or not, I think I'm not surprised Khonjin and Spag broke up (as mentioned in The Gino Show). In fact I think there's at least two subtle hints that Spag was actually kind of transphobic towards Khonjin.

1) Spag mentions he's dating a girl, and when Gino questions this he says "he's a pretty cool chick". Immediately after it's revealed that Spag and Khonjin are dating.

2) The "the men are talking" line being directed at Khonjin.

I think these are the only ones. We don't know canonically who broke up with who and what their reactions were, but if I was a trans man dating someone who said these kind of things about/to me, I'd be upset enough to break up with him.

"This is one sentence, with one period," she said.

"Dialogue tags are part of the same sentence as the dialogue, so you end the dialogue with a comma and use a lowercase letter when you start the tag," the man said.

The woman nodded and added, "When the tag comes before the dialogue, you end the tag with a comma, but the first word of dialogue is capitalized."

"And if the dialogue tag comes in the middle of a sentence of dialogue," he said, "both the tag and the second half of the sentence stay in lower case."

"But that is only when it's the same sentence of the dialogue," she said. "If the speaker starts a new sentence you capitalize normally."

"And you should never capitalize a dialogue tag just because the dialogue ends with a question or exclamation mark!" he exclaimed. "It's still the same sentence, they just indicate how the words are said."

"Action tags, however, are separate sentences from the dialogue." Distracted, she forgot to mention that dialogue tags may be skipped if it clear from context who is speaking.

"I trust those listening are aware that every time you change speakers, you start a new paragraph?"

She nodded, but pointed her finger at him. "But sometimes the character's actions should be considered part of their speech!"

The man picked up a book and threw it through the closed window, shattering the glass.

"And sometimes action and dialogue should be separate paragraphs," he said. "Consider the tone you want to convey. If this dialogue was attached to the above action, the violence of the act would feel connected to what I'm saying now. By separating the two with a paragraph break, the act is separated from my dialogue, and both end up having different nuances.

"On a different topic, did you know that not every opening quotation mark has a corresponding closing quotation mark? You see, when a single bit of dialogue starts a new paragraph, as I just did, the new paragraph starts with a quotation mark, but there is no closing quotation mark at the end of the prior--"

"Enough! You are monopolizing the conversation. Excellent use of an em dash to indicate interrupted speech, by the way. It can show an interruption by another person speaking, by an action, or by the speaker's thought. I also wanted to mention something else, now what was it..."

"The various uses of the ellipse, I believe. An ellipse at the end of dialogue indicate the speaker's words trailing off. Inside dialogue, or at the beginning, it indicates dialogue that is skipped, either because it wasn't heard or it wasn't said. It is also sometimes used to indicate that someone was given the opportunity to speak, but didn't."

"I think that covers the basics! I hope this was both informative and at least slightly amusing," she said in conclusion.