Hygge-hag - Your Local Pickle-faced, Consumptive Mary-jane 🦋

We don’t talk enough about how fanfiction writers love to give character large amounts of non-specific paperwork they hate doing

Deadline December 31: @etafetaf1234567 needs to enroll her children in school.

Vetted: #9 here by @gaza-evacuation-funds, ButterflyEffect Project #1120, Gazavetters #88

Gfm: Paypal, Google Pay, credit/debit

Etaf and her family are evacuated Palestinians and need €10,000 in their campaign to enroll the children in school preferably before the semester ends.

Detailed family info, needs:

Nov 9:

The family is in Egypt but are still struggling to survive. Etaf wants to enroll her children in school again before the current semester ends. However, public schools are only available to Egyptian residents (which Palestinians aren't) and only expensive private schools are available. To continue her children's education, she needs €10,000 in her campaign (includes extra fees) as soon as possible before Dec 31.

Family info (detailed):

The family of 7 lost everything - their home, livelihood, and belongings.

Eldest sons Moataz and Moatasem and daughter Maria (7) were top students but their education was interrupted by the war.

They have 2 other young children: Adam (4) and Amira (3).

They were evacuated to Egypt in March, where they are still struggling because nobody is helping them. Governmental aid is very slow.

In late October, Etaf's husband Youssef went to Amman to help provide for his family. He is returning in early November due to expensive living costs there.

Needs:

Priority: Enrolling children in school - €10,000

Youssef's project which will help him mke a living - €50,000

Rent and utilities

Medical and psychological care

Just to tell you that this post that you rebloged is a scam. The fact that they send you an ask is the first red flag. Also the account is less than one week old and it's always the same picture of the same people. Be careful with scam. https://www.tumblr.com/friedcupcakegoatee/730804844186714112/donate-to-shaban-oyugah?source=share

Thank you! My apologies, it's been a long time since I used Tumblr regularly. Good looking out 😅

Dialogue Punctuation Cheat Sheet

This is just a friendly little guide on how to use punctuation in dialogue since (at least for me) this isn’t something that I was taught in school and had to learn on my own. That being said, I am not an expert! I don’t have an English degree or anything like that! I’m just an avid reader and writer and wanted to share what I have learned in a concise format.

A lot of this information is from “How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript” by James Scott Bell, “The Best Punctuation Book, Period” by June Casagrande, and “The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation” by Jane Straus, Lester Kaufman, and Tom Stern. If you’re able to get these books, I highly recommend them!

(Also, yes I used Disney quotes for most of my examples lol)

---

Rule 1: Dialogue punctuation includes the following:

Period

Comma

Question mark

Exclamation point

Em-dash

Ellipsis

All dialogue will include some sort of punctuation before the closing quotation. 

---

Rule 2: Punctuation goes inside the quotes.

Correct

“Do you want to build a snowman?” Anna asked.

Correct

“You can’t marry a man you just met,” Elsa said.

Incorrect

“Do you want to build a snowman”? Anna asked.

---

Rule 3: Don’t capitalize a pronoun used for dialogue attribution.

Correct

“I was hiding under your porch because I love you,” he said.

Incorrect

“I was hiding under your porch because I love you,” He said.

---

Rule 4: Capitalize for action beats.

Correct

“A llama? He’s supposed to be dead!” She slammed her fist on the table.

Incorrect 

“A llama? He’s supposed to be dead!” she slammed her fist on the table.

---

Rule 5: Use a comma when introducing a quotation, such as when dialogue attribution comes at the beginning. The first word of the dialogue is capitalized.

Correct

Scar leaned forward and said, “Run away, Simba.”

Incorrect

Scar leaned forward and said. “Run away, Simba.”

Incorrect

Scar leaned forward and said, “run away, Simba.”

---

Rule 6: Use single quotation marks for quotations within quotations. Punctuation goes inside both quotations (I’ve heard this can vary depending on country).

Correct

“My father said, ‘Everything the light touches is our kingdom.’”

Incorrect 

“My father said, ‘Everything the light touches is our kingdom’.”

---

Rule 7: If there are two or more sentences, the speaker attribution should be put before or after the first complete phrase.

Correct

Grandmother said, “Great. She brings home a sword. If you ask me, she should’ve brought home a man.”

Correct

“Great,” Grandmother said. “She brings home a sword. If you ask me, she should’ve brought home a man.”

Incorrect

“Great. She brings home a sword. If you ask me, she should’ve brought home a man,” Grandmother said.

(Note: This is a rule I break all the time, but I thought I would include it in this list anyway! Usually when the first sentence or two are very, very, short and go together, but they still need that “breath” of a dialogue tag in between. But it’s a good thing to be aware of!) 

---

Rule 8: Use commas to interrupt a complete sentence with a dialogue attribution. Don’t capitalize the next word after the comma. 

Correct

“Aren’t you,” Hercules said, “a damsel in distress?”

Incorrect

“Aren’t you,” Hercules said, “A damsel in distress?”

---

Rule 9: Use ellipses to illustrate a character trailing off, showing hesitation, or a pause.

“Aren’t you… a damsel in distress?”

---

Rule 10: Em-dashes can be used for interruptions, indicating simultaneous actions that do not cause an interruption, or a change in thought/tone. Don’t use dialogue attribution after an em-dash.

Another Person Interrupts

Correct

“He would never do anything to hurt me. He—”

Hades threw up his hands. “He’s a guy!”

Correct

Meg said, “He would never do anything to hurt me. He—”

Hades threw up his hands. “He’s a guy!”

Incorrect

“He would never do anything to hurt me. He—” Meg said.

Hades threw up his hands. “He’s a guy!”

Self Interruption

“I—” Hercules reached into his pocket and pulled out a small doll. “I’m an action figure!

Simultaneous Action

“I am surrounded” — Scar dragged his paw over his face — “by idiots.” 

Change In Thought/Tone

“It’s not that you’re awkward. I’m awkward. You’re gorgeous — wait, what?”

---

Other Notes (these might just be my personal preferences, feel free to ignore)

Don’t use semi-colons in dialogue. Use a period instead.

Use exclamation points sparingly. Extremely sparingly. Maybe once per 10k words or even less.

After using an ellipsis, saying “he/she trailed off” is redundant. Just skip to the next action. The ellipsis already implies someone trailed off.

New speaker (or character action that serves as a response) = New paragraph.

“Said” should be your most commonly used dialogue tag. Any dialogue tag other than “said” or “asked” will stick out to the reader, and should be used sparingly.

If there is anything I missed, got wrong, or should add, PLEASE KINDLY LET ME KNOW! Again, I don’t have an English degree, I’m not a professional, and I’m actually a bit of a pea-brain, but these are the general rules that I know of and follow in my writing.

the problem with being creative is that you start to feel very guilty when you haven’t created anything in a while

urgent

making this post to support the campaign of @kawlafamily7 who is @fidaa-family2 ‘s sister

kawla has three young children. her daughter was injured from falling shrapnel and rubble and also has a glucose allergy. she needs special milk without glucose which is very expensive.

“She needs glucose-free soda milk, and her growth is bad so far. Her teeth will not grow due to allergies and lack of growth, and she is one and a half years old.”

please take a second to share and donate to this campaign. people are living in unbearable conditions, every donation makes a difference

gofundme.com

Donate to Support Khawla's Family in Gaza Crisis, organized by Abi Lass

My name is Abi from Lincoln, NE, and I'm raising money for Khawla and her family from … Abi Lass needs your support for Support Khawla's Fam

$8,372 out of $20,000

(genuinely offended) "I trust all of my viziers"

I love their chemistry, I don't understand why they are so little talked about 🤔

Bonus:

“i am a monument to all your sins” is such a fucking raw line for a villain it’s amazing that it came from halo, a modernish video game, and not some classical text or mythos

Did You Know?

Neanderthals had glittery makeup!

Archaeologists have found evidence of ornamentation in Neanderthal sites that dates back 50,000 years--long before Homo sapiens got to the area. This ornamentation includes shells strung together and pigmentation, including bright colors and shimmery pigments made with crushed pyrite.

These prehistoric cosmetics suggest that Neanderthals displayed symbolic thinking, the ability to follow multi-step recipes, and the ability to mine ores.

Image ID: A shell, carefully broken in half with holes, that has been painted with an orange pigment.