Pet Peeves
Jun. 29th, 2007 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deannawolI am very aware this is a pet peeve of mine and probably not one of anyone else's but I think I wanna get it off my chest.
When writing dialog and action together, do not write what person A says and immediately, on the same line, put in person B's action. That's just confusing. It's a word doc, or an internet page. An extra line break or two won't cost you anything.
#- Extract -#
"That is what it has to do with anything." Buffy's voice was disbelieving.
"Xander, that's really you?" Xander just nodded.
#- End Extract -#
The dialogue in green is Xander. The dialogue in red is Buffy. You can see for yourself that it's confusing to read. But yet, it's a fairly common thing that people do. Stop it!!!
When writing dialog and action together, do not write what person A says and immediately, on the same line, put in person B's action. That's just confusing. It's a word doc, or an internet page. An extra line break or two won't cost you anything.
#- Extract -#
"That is what it has to do with anything." Buffy's voice was disbelieving.
"Xander, that's really you?" Xander just nodded.
#- End Extract -#
The dialogue in green is Xander. The dialogue in red is Buffy. You can see for yourself that it's confusing to read. But yet, it's a fairly common thing that people do. Stop it!!!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 04:51 pm (UTC)Okay, a published book.
Okay, "A Woman In Space". But it was still published!
That clip above would be better if it read:
#- Extract -#
"That is what it has to do with anything," said Xander.
"Xander, that's really you?" Buffy's voice was disbelieving. Xander just nodded.
#- End Extract -#
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-30 04:05 am (UTC)