It's hard to get back to work after a fun Labor Day that included lots of good lovin' from Willy Dunne Wooters.
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| Yeah, we have a crazy, stupid kind of love. |
Linda Kay, writing away, asks, If one is writing in first person (indicated by the chapter heading), and another individual speaks up, how do you address the punctuation, and how do you get back into the original speaker?
I requested more information. Linda Kay responds: In the chapter, the woman is telling her granddaughters a story, then one of them makes a comment (expressed in quotes). Then the woman continues on with her story in the next paragraph. What would be the transition back to the first person storyteller?
My answer: First, the fact that it's a new paragraph indicates that someone else, in this case, the first speaker, is talking again. Another possibility would be to start the paragraph with something such as "Ramona continued," but use a different font.
How would you answer Linda? But so you know, the character is not named Ramona. That was my invention for the sake of an example.
Robyn Alana Engel of Life By Chocolate has also been gettin' busy with words, although not with anything else. Her new book, Celibacy and Suburbia, is out!
Paperback here. Ebook here.
I have dubbed Ms. Engel "the harlot of hilarity." Buy, enjoy, review. Pretty please.
Last, but never least, you have until midnight tonight (Tuesday, September 6) to vote in my current Battle of the Bands. The song is Summertime. The contenders are Janis Joplin and Billie Holiday, two women who understood hard livin'. Listen to Janis and Lady Day HERE. Please vote in your comment for your preferred version.
Tomorrow I'll announce the winner.
If I get out of bed.
Mr. Wooters wears me out.
Infinities of love,
Janie Junebug
When you say first person, I assume you mean first person point of view, which shouldn't change over the course of a conversation. For example, let's say I'm telling a story to my sister:
ReplyDeleteAfter we were both in our beds I said to her, "So, the story starts with this awful witch who lived in the woods..."
"What was her name?" my sister asked.
"Her name was Esmerelda," I answered.
Does that help? Make sense?
The POV doesn't change. The woman's story is interrupted by a question. What you say will no doubt be helpful to people who are working on dialog, and it certainly makes sense.
DeleteIt's helpful to spell it out this way.
ReplyDeleteI vote for the queen of Celibacy, Robyn Engel. I mean, I voted for Billie Holiday. She had the voice of an angel.
Thank you, darling, for all this free advertising. Please thank WDW (for me) for taking such good care of you. Otherwise, we know I wouldn't be able to afford you.
xo
WDW does give me the occasional meal. And you're welcome.
DeleteHi Janie - glad you had a happy weekend .. that's good to know - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteThank you, Hilary. Cheers to you.
DeleteA change in paragraph sounds like a good solution. The way the story and dialogue flows should help as well. The dialogue could also contain the name of the person (or nickname) being spoken to.
ReplyDeleteNice suggestions. Thank you.
DeleteHi, Janie,
ReplyDeleteGlad you had an awesome weekend! I was busy "working" on my loft which was finally completed Monday afternoon.... YAY....
I would handle it the same way Marcy did.... interesting grammar question.
Thanks, Michael. Yay for you!
DeleteThanks for the lesson.
ReplyDeleteRobyn is the finest of floozies, the cheerleader of chocolate, and damsel of delight, among other things which I dare not mention.
Great "names" for Robyn, or perhaps they could be titles, such as Duchess Damsel of Delight.
DeleteHAHAHA! I'm flattered and red faced and trying to think of other nicknames for myself. xo the cocoa cuckoo, the oversexed but never getting any . . .
DeleteThat should be Lady Oversexed But-Never-Getting-Any.
DeleteThank you, Miss Janie. You are awesome....such a cute picture of you and WDW!
ReplyDeleteGosh, thanks. We've had some offers to star in movies, but we don't have time.
DeleteWhen I wrote my memoir there was no POV problem since it was all my own perspective, but writing novels is a different challenge and many times I wrote things from a perspective I shouldn't have been aware of.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think about that. It must be difficult to remember you don't know something.
DeleteHnn, I see the Woot-man hasn't let you out of bed yet. Glad you had a good holiday weekend - and you the man are still having fun together.
ReplyDeleteWas very nice to see your name pop up over at my place. :) I've been very sluggish in blog-land.
I'm sluggish in every land. It's nice to see you, cutie.
Delete