Apparently a lot of people get dialogue punctuation wrong despite having an otherwise solid grasp of grammar, possibly because they’re used to writing essays rather than prose. I don’t wanna be the asshole who complains about writing errors and then doesn’t offer to help, so here are the basics summarized as simply as I could manage on my phone (“dialogue tag” just refers to phrases like “he said,” “she whispered,” “they asked”):
“For most dialogue, use a comma after the sentence and don’t capitalize the next word after the quotation mark,” she said.
“But what if you’re using a question mark rather than a period?” they asked.
“When using a dialogue tag, you never capitalize the word after the quotation mark unless it’s a proper noun!” she snapped.
“When breaking up a single sentence with a dialogue tag,” she said, “use commas.”
“This is a single sentence,” she said. “Now, this is a second stand-alone sentence, so there’s no comma after ‘she said.’”
“There’s no dialogue tag after this sentence, so end it with a period rather than a comma.” She frowned, suddenly concerned that the entire post was as unasked for as it was sanctimonious.
Can you imagine being stuck in space completely alone with only the corpses of your friends for company, and the first living thing you meet after 46 years of that misery is a fucking weird alien creature who just rolls up with crazy advanced tech and goes "hi let's work together" and makes it possible for you to save your world through the power of friendship and molecular biology. AND THEN you find out that in this creature's language, its name means "mercy". Happened to my good friend Rocky btw
CW: Gender dysphoria discussion (not graphic), general mental health references (not graphic), religious trauma (not graphic), just visceral and heavy imagery
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A note on masculinity.
I feel astonishingly gentle towards my identity.
Transcendental conceptions of who I really am.
And why I am this way.
I hold tendrils of femininity to my chest, like a small, injured child.
Something wounded and bruised.
Bleeding. Crushed a little.
Masculinity, though, is more foreign.
A different sense of the world takes shape in my mind.
And I dare not speak its name, or invite it in most of the time.
But its presence is irrefutable.
And its voice continues to grow, I fear.
Its rattling enough to drive you insane.
An impulsive resignation and disengagement.
Heaving,
Selfish breaths.
The air burning my chest on its way out.
This is not about sex.
A declaration of my subconscious rage.
Delicate tears singe my eyes:
A punishment from some god for crying.
And I wasn’t raised right.
Didn’t pray right, or act right.
Sickening reflections in shattered stained glass.
I see him in my eyes, like a ghost.
You see him in my soul.
A bottle of some kind of memory deletion meets my cold lips.
Stings my throat on its way down like a scream.
Because the skin doesn’t sit right on my bones.
And the muscles keeping it all together feel worn.
Clothes drape over my shoulders like a security blanket.
A few months ago I was fully ready to end it all... whoops... and after I got safeguarded by my university, spilled my heart out to a strange man for an hour, I had to go to the shop. Incredibly strange feeling walking to the supermarket while actively suicidal because you needed pasta for dinner the next day.
As an autistic, gay, French-Canadian... I once got called a "mundane exposition" by one of my friends in secondary, which, for normal people, roughly translates to long winded and boring... Think the OP is onto something...
It's crazy how humanity invented bicycles and decided to try it with one big wheel and one small wheel BEFORE they tried having two wheels the same size
This is not quite true, though it would be very funny if it was.
The classic "old bicycle" we're all thinking of, which looked like this:
Is actually a technological compromise developed in the early 1870s. The very first bicycle was invented in 1817 and it looked like this:
It had no pedals and the rider would push it along with their feet, the same way toddlers learn to ride bikes today.
In about 1864, a mechanic in france came up with the idea of adding pedals to the front wheel, making the first self-propelled bicycle.
This was a great improvement because it's a lot easier to move and a lot more fun than the Fisher Price version above. It was a big thing for about five years, but there were some drawbacks.
First, because the pedals were directly attached to the front wheel, you couldn't go very fast without moving your legs incredibly quickly, which takes a lot of effort. It also is kind of awkward to steer because your legs are in the way of the wheel.
The other issue was bumps. Roads were not very smooth in the 1870s, most of them were unpaved and full of ruts, potholes, and rocks. And at first there were no rubber tires, just wooden wheels with metal rims. Altogether this made for a very bumpy ride.
The big front wheel, which was made possible by the invention of wire spokes and solid rubber tires, solved all of these problems. A big wheel runs over bumps more easily: think of how rough it is to ride roller skates over bumps in a sidewalk that you would hardly notice on a bike. And the bigger the wheel, the faster you can move with one push of the pedals. Having the seat on top of the wheel, instead of behind, also makes steering less cumbersome.
There are of course drawbacks to this design, in particular being so high up makes it very easy to go over the handlebars if you crash, and more likely to hit your head or break your arm.
Two more inventions helped drive this comical beast into extinction and bring back a more balanced, and safer, bicycle.
The first was the pneumatic tire, which contains a cushion of air, and makes for a much softer ride compared to a solid tire or a metal one. The cushion effect eliminates the need for a big wheel to smooth out the bumps in the road.
The second invention was the sprocket and chain drive. This lets you put the pedals anywhere you want on the bike, and with a big gear at the pedals and a small one at the wheel, you can get more speed out of a small wheel.
The first modern bicycle to combine a sprocket and pneumatic tires was built in 1879. It was an instant hit, not just because it was much less dangerous, but because the low drag profile and the smooth pneumatic tires made for a faster ride, and the trendsetters in cycling, then as now, were the racing community. There have been plenty of innovations and modifications in the years since, from ten-speed gears to carbon fiber frames, but these are all variations on a theme. The basic form of the bicycle has not changed.
Okay full disclosure I was high as a kite when I made this post, otherwise I might have fact-checked my joke before posting, but this is awesome. Thank you for the bicycle lore.
It's crazy how humanity invented bicycles and decided to try it with one big wheel and one small wheel BEFORE they tried having two wheels the same size
This is not quite true, though it would be very funny if it was.
The classic "old bicycle" we're all thinking of, which looked like this:
Is actually a technological compromise developed in the early 1870s. The very first bicycle was invented in 1817 and it looked like this:
It had no pedals and the rider would push it along with their feet, the same way toddlers learn to ride bikes today.
In about 1864, a mechanic in france came up with the idea of adding pedals to the front wheel, making the first self-propelled bicycle.
This was a great improvement because it's a lot easier to move and a lot more fun than the Fisher Price version above. It was a big thing for about five years, but there were some drawbacks.
First, because the pedals were directly attached to the front wheel, you couldn't go very fast without moving your legs incredibly quickly, which takes a lot of effort. It also is kind of awkward to steer because your legs are in the way of the wheel.
The other issue was bumps. Roads were not very smooth in the 1870s, most of them were unpaved and full of ruts, potholes, and rocks. And at first there were no rubber tires, just wooden wheels with metal rims. Altogether this made for a very bumpy ride.
The big front wheel, which was made possible by the invention of wire spokes and solid rubber tires, solved all of these problems. A big wheel runs over bumps more easily: think of how rough it is to ride roller skates over bumps in a sidewalk that you would hardly notice on a bike. And the bigger the wheel, the faster you can move with one push of the pedals. Having the seat on top of the wheel, instead of behind, also makes steering less cumbersome.
There are of course drawbacks to this design, in particular being so high up makes it very easy to go over the handlebars if you crash, and more likely to hit your head or break your arm.
Two more inventions helped drive this comical beast into extinction and bring back a more balanced, and safer, bicycle.
The first was the pneumatic tire, which contains a cushion of air, and makes for a much softer ride compared to a solid tire or a metal one. The cushion effect eliminates the need for a big wheel to smooth out the bumps in the road.
The second invention was the sprocket and chain drive. This lets you put the pedals anywhere you want on the bike, and with a big gear at the pedals and a small one at the wheel, you can get more speed out of a small wheel.
The first modern bicycle to combine a sprocket and pneumatic tires was built in 1879. It was an instant hit, not just because it was much less dangerous, but because the low drag profile and the smooth pneumatic tires made for a faster ride, and the trendsetters in cycling, then as now, were the racing community. There have been plenty of innovations and modifications in the years since, from ten-speed gears to carbon fiber frames, but these are all variations on a theme. The basic form of the bicycle has not changed.
Okay full disclosure I was high as a kite when I made this post, otherwise I might have fact-checked my joke before posting, but this is awesome. Thank you for the bicycle lore.
I was having writers block and so I took a break and soon enough it was 3 in the morning and I had impulsively sewn together a tiny mouse you’re welcome
I see people reblogging this with “to buy” but this pattern is free??? Someone even asked me “why don’t you charge money for it, it took you forever to put the document together” and I said “Not a lot of people have money and if they have some fabric scraps and a couple of buttons lying around they can make themselves a little mouse friend for free and that might make them happy and that makes me happier than receiving money???” Make yourself a liddol creacher! Heals the Soul!
Spoilers CW (it's a long one): themes and depictions of:
Self harm (very explicit, but not long)
Mental illness (in analogy)
Suicide (all is well, dw)
Possible domestic violence (not explicit)
Just other themes along these lines, it isn't a fun story, but it was fun to write.
Also, the POV character isn't given a gender in this piece, so make that up as you wish... future pieces they will but yk, that's if my brain cooperates long enough to write more on these two...
L e t m e g o
I believed in forgiveness. Once. A long life, or two, ago. Believed. Key word here.
As I saw the tears well up in her eyes, his arm around her, stopping her, I felt fire. My skin was hot to the touch. Feverish.
Now, unfortunately sending people direct to hell is not something I am able to do. That’s an old-world ability, and simply poor taste, frankly.
Murder is not off the table, no never at all- but, again, poor taste- plus, this suit cost a fortune: ruining it seemed silly.
But anything to save her... Again.
-
How long have we been here? What is happening? Who is this? Why am I here?
-
The fall of a nation has a few steps- it’s rarely sudden. The observant youth normally see it on the distant horizon.
They lauded me as a hero, but oh how heroes fall. With little grace, no sanity.
All that’s left is myself, the shadows I hold hands with at my sides, and the undying faith she still had in me.
Faith she held until she met those aforementioned shadows. They scared her- hell they scare me- and the whispers started to haunt her.
-
Well would you take a fucking guess who is now holding her hostage? Just. To. Taunt. Me.
-
Bastards though they may be, they provided me with comfort when I was young and afraid.
They walked through Hell, literally, with me. Held me, protected me.
But, the funny thing is that shadows get greedy, jealous. Once they understood that I had found an actual human being who loved me like they did?
Well, here we are.
-
You know this ends in one way. Only one way. Accept it.
-
The air is thickening, her sobs quieten. She whispers, barely, one last prayer.
Her silky green-blue eyes roll back a bit, her eyelids flutter. I try to reach for her but the hands around her threaten to turn to me.
In a brief, but predictable, moment of cowardice I fail to kill the beast around her on the spot.
As I look down and see my own two hands holding the knife, the words in her prayer became clearer in my mind.
-
Drán miú. Drán hé. Drán sín.
Let me go. Let him go. Let us go.
-
Just let go. Oh, how it sounds so simple when you’re not the one being controlled only by the shadows.
When the knife is yours to slice with.
When your emotions are yours to control.
The glint of the blade had nothing on the searing of the blood running down my hand…
-
Let it go. Let It Go! LET IT GO! FOR FUCK’S SAKE- WAKE. UP!
-
The knife hit the ground with a louder clang than I expected.
As saffron from my veins flooded my senses, as I saw clarity for the first time. Staining my silk blouse.
The floor was colder that I thought it’d be. After all the hellfire and senseless violence.
Her arms around me brought me back. The salt from her tears sustained me then.
She said life will not end here tonight. She’s always done too much, poor dear.
Power to the people ✊ Yesterday, Dutch police bulldozed the Gaza encampment at the University of Amsterdam. Today, students and staff confronted police and forced them to retreat. Videos: X: Qudsnen and Mariyankhan
