Writing rules and tools.

Okay, as all of you know, or should know, I like to write, but the one thing I hate the most, is a person that write's poorly. Here are a few rules and tips.

I'll start off with the rules:

1) The story should be corrected to the best any human can do, but since that not good enough, they made the spell check button on Microsoft Office. Use programs like that were correction can be detected so they can be corrected.

2) Proof read your writings. Check to see if everything makes sense.

3) You must, and I say must, for a chapter, have at least one and a half pages on MS Word or any other writing program.

And now for writing tips:

1) If I remember clearly, there are two ways to express dialog. The first is the little minus symbol (-). The second is the quotation marks ("). Use those when a character speaks. Remember: when expressing dialog, stating a new line is not only the best way to do it, but the only way.

Example:
He stood up and drew his rubber chicken, wielding it with pride in front of his troops.
"Men, follow me into battle!" He cried. The eggs followed him into battle, so on and so forth.

2) Long chapters and plenty of long paragraphs make it look better. Period.

3) Which bring me to my next point: punctuation. Use the appropriate punctuation symbol for the appropriate reason, or whatever. Special punctuation marks are:
The semi-colan (;) =when going into further detail.
Example: He stood tall, long hair flowing in the wind; which happened to be made of poisonous asps.

The ellipsis (...)=when dropping a paragraph with a sentence. Also used for suspenseful parts.. Visual is always better though.
Example: He held on to the cliff, trying not to let go, when suddenly, his arch nemesis came and raised his foot. He smashed it onto our hero's hand, and he fell...

That's all for punctuation, since I'm too lazy to go through it all.

4) Be happy and have fun writing it. I hope I have fun reading it.

~Your administrator oppressor fiend friend, Biohazard

Biohazard wrote:

The semi-colan ( =when going into further detail.
Example: He stood tall, long hair flowing in the wind; which happened to be made of poisonous asps.

Actually, a comma should be there instead of that semicolon. A semicolon replaces a comma followed by a conjunction:
She was the reason he went to prison, and she couldn't help but feel guilty.
She was the reason he went to prison; she couldn't help but feel guilty.




...Sorry for being a smartarse. It's about time we got some guidelines for writing, though.

Thanks. I know what it's for, don't really know how to explain it but I know one thing, I use it a lot, and well too. If you want to type up the rest of this stuff, feel free. That's the reason that I made you moderator; you know everything. Wait, did I just use that semicolon wrong?

No, you used it right.

That's the reason I made you moderator, for you know everything.

^Completely true statement, by the way. Srsly.

Crap, I'm doing smart things by accident again. Every winter... I still think you should continue the punctuation where I left off. It would be good for, uh, moral, I guess. I don't know. Think of it as a group effort.

M'kay, I'll see if I can think of anything.

The great thing is we're making the forum a tad more active. I could try for yours, but there, like here, there are only two frequently active members. On another subject, if you know any other ways of expressing dialog, please put it up, if not, then don't do anything about it.