• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Quotations...

-Carlos-

-Carlos-

New Member
Some writers write dialog differently than other writers. Therefore I do not know how to properly use them (quotations). Am I using quotations correctly in the following passages?

I feel that they are jammed together and need more space. I do not know.

I held the peculiar object gently in both hands as if it were made of fine glass. One nervous spasm and it could drop, shattering into a million shards, onto the hard wood floor. In his deep voice my fathered exclaimed, “Happy birthday son! Do you know what it is?” Keeping my eyes fixed on the oddity in my hands, I nodded. “Well, it's called a stethoscope. Can you say stethoscope?” I repeated the sound. “Very good,” my father replied. “Now do you know what it's used for?” I remembered that on my last birthday my father gave me a microscope kit for children above the age of nine; it was my seventh birthday. Knowing that and knowing that my father was a doctor, I knew the gift had something to do with medicine.

I gave him a puzzled look and he bent down on one knee, placed the eartips in my ears before pressing the other end up against his chest. My eyes widen as I heard the beating of his heart. “Is that your heart dad?” I asked in wonder. “Yes it is son. You are listening to my heart.” My father handed me the flat end of the stethoscope, then he turned around and told me to press it up against his upper back. At first I did not hear a thing but then, after my father took a deep breath, I let out a sigh. This time it was his breath bellowing in and out of his lungs. Soon I was using it on myself; trying listen to my own body. My fathered chuckled with delight.
Click to expand...

__
 
I was always told that separate speakers get their own paragraphs.

What does your style guide tell you?
 
Well, I have always liked how Hemingway divides quotations. But many writers argue that quotations have a proper position in the paragraph - like I did in the story fragment above. I am just uncertain.

Style guide? explain.
 
My brother told me that he will give me, as an x-mas gift, a $100 B&N gift card. So, I have to wait a few days.
 
I will not, I have decided, to redo my words. I have finally come to terms with this fact: I SUCK AS A WRITER. I will not post any more of my HORRIFIC phrases because I just SUCK at it. NOW, that does NOT mean that I am throwing my hand when it comes to writing creatively. It just means that I need to LEARN how to write BEFORE posting more of it. So do not expect any more such writings in the near future. I now look at what I write with new eyes and all I want to do is VOMIT. I am a terrible writer...at least for now.
 
I do.

I am determined to work hard on my writing. I feel (I know) that I have so very much more to learn. I am going back to the basics and working my way up from there. The day will come when I finally can post a worthy fragment of words (at least) that will show a degree of improvement no matter how slight. I'll get it.

For now I SUCK at writing...for now.
 
Cheer up, little camper. Everybody sucks when they first start learning a new skill. (Unless you're one of those freaks of nature)

How long have you been writing?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top