In general, the rule for commas goes like this:

He said, "Hello."
^ When you're putting text in front like this, you use a comma followed by a capital letter.

"Hello," he said.
^ When the text comes after, you end the dialog - even if it is a complete sentence - with a comma, and a lowercase letter.

"Ah, Mycroft. I should have guessed," he said, raising a sardonic eyebrow, "That you'd arrive in time for lunch."
^ When dialog is split between a piece of text like this and the same sentence continues afterwards, you use commas until the completion of the spoken sentence. Also, the continued piece of dialog begins with a capital letter, even though it's technically in the middle of the sentence being spoken. I know, it's weird, but that's apparently how it goes!

I don't have a perfect grasp of the rules myself, but these are the bits I've committed to muscle-memory.

Edit: Also, the punctuation also goes inside the quotation marks, not outside them. The exception to this is when you're using quotation marks to surround a name or term being described as part of the narration (i.e. not dialog).

So like this:

Some people refer to them as "scare quotes". <-- Fullstop outside of the "
"They're called 'scare quotes'." <-- It's part of dialog, so it goes inside the "

Last edited by GimmeCat (September 28, 2016 6:16 pm)

Wow. I didn't even learn the punctuation rules for my native language (growing up in school they changed the comma rules 6 times and we kept having to start over... these days I mainly put them where they sound right, but yeah)

Last edited by This Is The Phantom Lady (September 28, 2016 7:35 pm)

It's worth noting that there may be differences between US and UK standards, and to be honest, I have no idea whether what I've learned is the US or UK way.

Also, according to this (and reiterated here) you don't have to capitalise the dialog after a split. I was under the impression you had to, but apparently it's a stylistic choice and more to do with whether you want to split the dialog into two sentences. I just always do that.

As they say, rules are meant to be broken.
 

Wow, I got 100 kudos on my first Johnlock fic! 😃

Vhanja wrote:

Wow, I got 100 kudos on my first Johnlock fic! 😃

That's a great feeling, isn't it? Congrats! :-)

Thanks, guys! Yeah, it really is.

And Phantom - read it at your own pace. Or not at all. It's not an obligation.

Comments like that just means so much! 

Someone listed 'Whipped' as inspiration to their new fic, wowzer. I still can't believe how popular that one got. When I started it I honestly thought no one would ever read that. 


(btw Vhanja I still haven't forgotten yours! I think of it daily even, but I want and need a clear head to enjoy it and leave some feedback!) 

So this happened last night (and today...) I had a song on replay and ended up writing this... when I was supposed to work on 'Just Say Yes'... 


Sherlock: The Lost Boy

AO3 I FF.net

During a case Sherlock finds himself in a place he thought he should never return to and it triggers some horrible memories of his time at the boarding school and that night Sebastian broke his trust and threw him to the wolves. 

Please read the tags and be aware that this is a pretty hardcore piece even from me. A lot of the language physically hurt to write, and does not reflect upon any of my opinions or feelings; quite contrary.



 

Last edited by This Is The Phantom Lady (October 15, 2016 4:13 pm)

Thank you so much Vhanja! 

The story was inspired by Ruth B's song 'Lost Boy'... especially these parts of the lyrics:

"There was a time when I was alone
Nowhere to go and no place to call home
My only friend was the man in the moon
And even sometimes he would go away, tooThen one night, as I closed my eyes
I saw a shadow flying high
He came to me with the sweetest smile
Told me he wanted to talk for awhile
He said, "Peter Pan, that's what they call me
I promise that you'll never be lonely, " and ever since that day"


and: 

"He sprinkled me in pixie dust and told me to believe
Believe in him and believe in me
Together we will fly away in a cloud of green
To your beautiful destiny
As we soared above the town that never loved meI realized I finally had a family
Soon enough we reached Neverland
Peacefully my feet hit the sand
And ever since that day..."

Last edited by This Is The Phantom Lady (October 15, 2016 4:37 pm)