Question About Naration Punctuation

[Steven Lake]

Wow, that was extreme. :P *rimshot* lol.

[arjaybe]

I felt it all the way down to my extremities.

[gmw]

I'm glad you all took me extremely seriously.

[Steven Lake]

lol, it's too bad these posts don't have a thumbs up option as I'd give you an epic thumbs up for that pun.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

lol, it's too bad these posts don't have a thumbs up option as I'd give you an epic thumbs up for that pun.

We have Karma instead of thumbs.

[toddhicks209]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Okay, I have a question that a friend of mine brought up involving the punctuation used on narration. Her comment was, "the only two punctuation points you can use in narration is the period and the question mark. No exclamation marks, shock points or anything else, period. Those should be reserved strictly for dialog." What's your thoughts on this? Myself, I kinda enjoy adding a bit of excitement into my narration with ! and !? and even italics on certain words to add some fire to the narrative. To me, anything less is too boring. I mean, when I read narration without some kind of periodical heart pumping exclamation points, and shock points (ie, !?) at the very least, and some italics'ed words as well, seems almost necessary. What do you think?

For narration punctuation, I merely use punctuation or quotation marks at the beginning and end of sentences that show the characters saying something. In some parts of my books, I create a dialogue where I display the names of the characters followed by a colon followed by the characters speaking.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by toddhicks209

For narration punctuation, I merely use punctuation or quotation marks at the beginning and end of sentences that show the characters saying something. In some parts of my books, I create a dialogue where I display the names of the characters followed by a colon followed by the characters speaking.

The sentence I highlighted above stuck me as strange. It sounds more like playscript than narrative. Under what circumstances do you do this? What made you start?

Given that I managed to write a 3300 word short story that was entirely dialogue, with no character attributions at all (and it worked), I have trouble working out why it would ever be necessary or desirable to use a colon.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by gmw

The sentence I highlighted above stuck me as strange. It sounds more like playscript than narrative. Under what circumstances do you do this? What made you start?

Given that I managed to write a 3300 word short story that was entirely dialogue, with no character attributions at all (and it worked), I have trouble working out why it would ever be necessary or desirable to use a colon.

You are Ayn Rand????

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

You are Ayn Rand????

I did say "short" story! It was an experiment. Practising the art of not using attributions, and - most especially - not using adverbs to explain the character's mood and emphasis. (What better way to practise avoiding adverbs than to not have the verb.) But, though it started as an experiment, I liked the result. Sort of like listening to a radio broadcast.