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I'm participating in the Smashwords summer promotion. Enter coupon code SSW50 to get "in The Eye of The Beholder" for half-price (downloadable in various formats, including Kindle, Stanza and Sony Reader). http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2163 |
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Hey writer girls!
I've got a question about writing mechanics that you guys can hopefully help me with. I'm working on a piece that's dialog intensive. See, natural character dialog is something I know I need to work on, so I'm forcing myself to practice right now. Unfortunately, it's been a while since I took high school grammar and I'm having a difficult time remembering all my quotation mark punctuation rules. I've been doing some looking around online, but haven't felt really confident in anything I've read.
Does anyone have a link to a definitive source on quotation punctuation? I want to make sure I get both the content correct, as well as the mechanics.
Thanks everyone, I really do appreciate it!Current Mood:  curious |
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"I just don't wanna be here, Andrew." She said, staring out the window with a pained expression.
"Why?"
She dug her shoulder further into the wall and pivoted around on it, just enough so he could see half of her face. She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know."
"Well that's a great reason to do something, because you don't know."
"No it's not but it's better than doing nothing."
"I guess so." He bit the inside of his cheek and stared out the other window at yellow puddles then red from the changing traffic light. He became entranced by it like a beacon of some sort.
She sighed, staring at the same rain-filled potholes with somber brown eyes. "It's really not. I'm just so frustrated. With everything. My life here and my job and school and him. Five years ago this isn't where I wanted my life to be, at all. Just somewhere I got lost in the problems outside of me and, well the ones inside of me as well."
( Read more... ) |
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They say the sky's the limit. But they don't tell you your feet are stuck in the ground. They don't tell you you leave footprints because that's where you've gone and where you're going to be. They don't tell you about gravity and all the hundreds of things weighing you down. They don't tell you about family and how you drag them in chains with you when you leave, pulling you down and pulling you backwards into the blackhole of your origin.
They say money doesn't grow on trees. But they don't tell you it doesn't grow anywhere else. A select number of groups have it and have the illusion of forests of cash and credit cards, checks and infinite withdrawal amounts but they don't tell you how to get it. Their televisions show you reality channels and the MTV Cribs but they show you that comes from birth and sports. Not being genuine or hardworking or sincere. Birth and luck. That's what they don't tell you. That's how you cut the sky in two and that's how you find money in your appletree. Welcome to the real world where there is no road map and there are no guarantees for all your hard work and sacrifice. But even if it doesn't always seem promising, a broken road is always better than a dead end or a ditch. |
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“He doesn’t love you.” “Shocker.” “Then why do you bother?” She spun around on the stool and shrugged her shoulders. Her dispassionate eyes suited her apathetic tone. “Maybe I just do.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” She looked down the bar at an old man hunkered over a whiskey sour, staring hopelessly into it like he was search for something. “It’s better than nothing, that’s what it’s supposed to mean.” “But it isn’t significant.” “But it isn’t nothing.” She grabbed her messenger bag and dropped a couple bills next to an empty glass, looking back down at it. “You know why that glass is empty?” “Because it’s not half full.” “Exactly. Something isn’t empty or half-full because it’s missing something. It’s that way because you drank it, which is better than watching it sit there staring back at you. It doesn’t matter what it’s half of if you never drink it.” “I see.” “No you don’t.” She said, grabbing a tattered brown jacket. “But maybe someday you will.” Then she sauntered freely out of the bar. But that lack of weight on her shoulders was also because she had nothing to weigh her down. I didn’t know whether to pity her or applaud her.
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I used to sit on the front porch and watch you pull in at night. Seven o'clock most often. You got off work at three but somewhere four hours lost itself most afternoons. I'd sit and watch as you threw a can into the truck bed and slammed the door shut, a collision of fiberglass with itself. Your jeans were always ripped from work, the frays covered in oil and dirt. Somehow I had become accustomed to the evening smell of Budweiser mixed with sweat, rust, and oil. It was like the lights coming on the front porch at dusk or an oven timer coming on before dinner. Some things are so regular you come to depend on them.
You would carry your cooler in and tell me you'd been really thirsty that day. I'd laugh because I didn't know better. You'd walk in the house and sometimes yelling would ensue- sometimes not. Then you would have dinner and fall asleep in your recliner. I learned early on that bringing home the bacon meant sleeping off your shame in a lazyboy.
I also learned other things. I learned that you never let your beer get cold- or even make it to the fridge for that matter. You never share the remote, especially when Scooby Doo is on. And when you leave carrying trash bags instead of a cooler of consolation for a less than satisfactory life, you don't even bother to explain it to your kid or tell him to keep his nose clean as you pass him on the porch. I learned that there has to be a point to everything you do and there is no point in being the good guy if you don't plan on being around anymoreI never expected the man who passed me on the porch, in the hallway, in the living room to be Batman. I didn't have anything expectations really. I just expected him to be something. |
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hey i just joined this community, i have always had a thing for writing, just seem to find it relaxing, a way to express myself like most do i guess. i'm still in high school. i don't have a degree in English or anything its just something i like to do when i have time. I'm gonna post some things i've written when i got time, i loved for you guys to check 'em out and let me know what you think. criticism welcome. :D
thanks;Current Mood:  bored |
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** Just a warning. There is a sensitive nature to this piece so I have placed it behind a cut. It's only about twenty three lines but I didn't want to upset or offend anyone just because the subject and what it deals with.
( You were meant for me. ) |
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Hey.
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May. 22nd, 2009 @ 03:36 pm
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Guten Tag!
Heute es Freitag, ja? Ich bin gut.... hahha just kidding. I don't really speak German but I'm learning. I can tell you how I feel and what the weather is so that's good I suppose. But anyways. I'm Lacey and I'm going into my Soph. year in college. I'm a double major- English and History, which means I will have two bachelors. My English degree concentrates on creative writing. I imagine it must be shocking for you all to find out one more person wants to be a writer, right... not so much? Ok. =]
Anyway. I write and try to do so every day. I write academic pieces and do English-related research and creatively I write vignettes and screenplays and basically anything that I feel up to writing. As for the creative part, well I hope it is creative. I'm a MAJOR bookworm as well and an athlete. I hope to go to grad. school for English. I think that's about it. Feel free to check out my journal or say hello.
Lacey. |
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Hi!
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May. 22nd, 2009 @ 02:00 pm
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Hi!
My name is JC. I'm an English major and history minor with no clue as to what I'm going to do with those degrees, unfortunately. I have a really bad problem with actually finishing my writing, but I try. I write mostly fantasy (and fanfiction, can't forget that!), and I've dabbled in screenwriting too. I could really use some encouragement towards finishing my uncompleted works, and help with plot. And characters. And descriptions. Pretty much everything, really.
-JC |
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Dec. 29th, 2008 @ 10:50 am
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Hey girls, I'm Jazz.
I've been writing short stories since I was in 4th grade, nailed distinguished on my 4th grade portfolio when everyone else was apprentice. Or however that grading system works. And I just sorta kept writing. I'm 21 and working on 4 different stories at the moment...[i dont say book because that just gives me a complex]. Two of them are for my sisters. My little cheerleader who always asks if I've written anything...and I mean she ALWAYS asks. Especially if she sees my notebooks out.
My technique is working on several projects at once, it helps me deal when I get stuck and want to scream. I've got about 200 handwritten pages on one story, about 60 on another, and a couple notebooks with the others in it.
Just thought I would introduce myself.
-ciao!Current Music: a perfect circle-3 libra's |
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Hi - I'm Susan, did a creative writing degree - realised I was unemployable, moved to London (from Brisbane, Australia), became a corporate bid writer and general computer monkey and am now trying to write (well) again.
Although there was that incredibly horrible feeling when I reread some of my uni work and realised I was a terrible terrible person.
I'm completely in love with creative non-fiction in the form of personal essays etc. and especially This American Life and would love to start writing a collection of stories about my thoroughly boring life. First steps are being documented here, but always love giving and receiving feedback.
Post again soon!
The Suss Spot
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Hey, girls -
I'm a nineteen-year-old college student and published author wannabe from Texas, but that's not incredibly important right now. Is anyone out there participating in NaNoWriMo this year? I'm looking for mutual encouragement and/or sympathy from fellow WriMos (no one around here seems to understand why I'm trying to write a crappy piece of literature in thirty days), so I'm curious if anyone is interested in being writing buddies on the site.
--While I'm at it, I might as well see if any of you would also like to be livejournal friends, as well, seeing as people who actually enjoy writing more than often create the most interesting things to read.
So... Anybody interested? My username on the NaNoWriMo website is the same as my livejournal - perish_song. Just send me a message or comment or whatever you like :]
Thanks! |
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Hi everyone, I invite all the artists in this community, and anyone else you may know, to submit artwork or writing to our new literary/artistic/cultural/nature and travel writing/scientific webzine Synchronized Chaos!
Information on the zine's inspiration and how to submit is available on our site, http://www.synchchaos.com - with a lovely format designed by freelance entrepreneur Tabitha Smith (http://www.tabithagracesmith.com). We invite you to check it out!
This is all of our new brainchild, an art/cultural/literary/scientific/social commentary/essay webzine tentatively called "Synchronized Chaos" (referring to the mathematical concept of not-obviously-apparent logic that emerges spontaneously from randomnity, basically a fun way to have a theme without having a theme.) We take all kinds of submissions of any shape or style - then at the end of the month go over what we've received and see what kinds of themes the pieces suggest.
This project is sort of a way to help the aspiring artists we constantly meet to get their names out there and spotlight some excellent work which should have an audience but the artists don't want to go through the publication process. And to give people committed to worthwhile causes a way to speak out or to use their personal experiences to educate others.
Everyone's invited to submit (and everything should be accepted, unless it's obscene or hateful). If you are interested please send a submission via email anytime this summer. We're working towards setting up a regular editing board and designating people to handle certain kinds of submissions, but for now you may use my email, cedeptula@sbcglobal.net
We are not a paying market as of yet but hope to become one as we grow and sell advertising and/or host contests. The magazine's online contents will remain free to provide artists and writers with the greatest level of exposure possible.
So far we have received a good variety of submissions, and look forward to more! We're also ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) chaos_zine on LJ and would be a publishing credit for any visual artist or writer to put on his/her bio or proposal or resume.
You may either pitch or send a completed product (attachments OK but prefer writing or thumbnails or JPEG images pasted in the body of the email.) Please put "Synchronized Chaos Submission" in the subject line and please feel free to include an artist statement or bio if you would like.
Also - our magazine is as much about building community and relationships with artists as it is about publication. We'd be happy to see artists and writers post and chat with each other in chaos_zine or on the Facebook page and would be glad to comment/critique or dialogue with you about your work if you would like.
We're hosting a benefit art auction for members of our community (this includes you if you submit or contact us or help out in some way) who are facing financial difficulties. Click on the "Benefit Auction" tab on the http://www.synchchaos.com site for more information. We periodically host these auctions for anyone in the SC family who faces and can document emergency financial difficulties...this time around for a young student with medical bills and a disabled single Mom who'd like to give her kids a Christmas. Would love you to spread the word about the auction or consider donating artwork or writing on commission. |
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If any of you happen to be Monkees fans, please take a moment to fill out all or part of this survey . I'm particularly looking for firsthand accounts of those who attended the Monkees 20th anniverary tour. It plays a part in my novel, and I'd like to get some good details researched before I begin.
Also, if anyone would like to see the novel in progress , please feel free to join summerslast as I will be writing it there and posting friends only. This is the method that brought me success in 2006 (you can still read my complete 2006 novel by joining tequila_sunset)
Anyone else do their writing publicly? Let me know and I'll join up to read your projects, too!Current Mood:  hopeful Current Music: The Monkees - Nine Times Blue |
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Hi!
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Oct. 4th, 2008 @ 07:55 pm
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Good Evening,
My name is Jennifer and I recently decided that if I wanted to express myself artistically, it would have to be through fiction. Poetry and other arts didn't work out so much so here I am.
I was working on what I thought would be a collection of short stories or a novel when school started again (I'm an NYU junior) and now I'm so swamped with work that I can't focus on anything else. That might explain why I'm joining this community at 8pm on a Saturday night.
Anyway, I've recently deleted all my old lj entries and started over, and I plan to keep writing in that normally. I hope to post something for critiquing once I have something of substance to post, and any feedback would be appreciated and supplimented with feedback of my own on something of yours.
Happy trails! |
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Hi! My name is Nicki, and I've been a writer, on and off, for years. Migraines often interrupt my muse, but I've been fighting with her and trying to get her to come back for a while. It's been moderately successful.
I mostly write poetry, but I've been trying to improve upon my prose--I've been told that my roleplaying style is somewhat stilted, and I figure that if I work on my prose, that will help fix some of the RP issues!
I've written a couple of poems lately that I'd love to have critiqued, but the more intense comms really scare me off. Otherwise, I'm just kind of looking about for inspiration.
It's nice to meet all of you. :) |
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Intro
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Aug. 9th, 2008 @ 11:36 pm
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Hi All!
I'm Caitlin, 18, going to be a college freshman.
I've loved to write for as long as I can remember. I've written two Young Adult Fiction novels so far (still editing, of course), and am working on my third. I also like to write short stories, but I'm generally not as competent at those. Ditto poetry...I fail at poetry. :-)
I'm hoping to meet some new friends here. Getting some readers would be awesome, if anyone's interested in helping me out. I love editing peoples' work, so if you need a beta for anything, or just want to make a new LJ friend, add me or say hi.
Thanks for reading; can't wait to meet you all!
Caitlin :) |
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