Tokyo Ghoul Magazine - December Edition, Issue #2

✉ Advice Column ✉

Hello dear TG fanfic readers/writers! This advice column is going to be about writing – and not on how to write TG fanfics (although...I mean...it does help, considering the fanfics I've been reading out there).

So today, we're going to talk about spacing and punctuation :) !

Why, you may ask? Well...because a lot of the times when I read TG fanfics, or a lot of other works on here, the spacing + punctuation is just...not good.

Remember! I'm just talking about it in general. If you have your own, certain style of using spacing and punctuation, then that's totally fine. As long as the readers get what you're doing exactly! ^-^

(Examples are in italics!)

Here's an example that I made up: ~

"Mom!" I shouted in irritation, looking to her as she stood at the doorway of my room. "What's wrong" she asked, looking upset. "I just brought you some food" "I ate last night OK! I don't need your leftover food

Then she turned around and walked away, without shutting the door behind her. Ugh, so annoying!

~

I'm sure a lot of you can see the mistakes here. First of all, when people are having a conversation/when there's a dialogue in your work, make sure to make it obvious that there are two people talking by starting the next person's words on another line. (I'm not really good at explaining...I hope you understood that XD)

Like, in the first sentence, when our protagonist is speaking, the mom's suddenly speaking, too. When someone's reading this, they would think that the protagonist is still talking when the author puts in "What's wrong?" on the same sentence. Therefore, the mother's words need to begin on a different sentence.

"Mom!" I shouted.

"What's wrong" she asked.

^ like that. Because when they're on the same sentence, there'll be a lot of confusion.

Another issue in said sentence is the lack of proper punctuation. Not only did the author forget to put a question mark after the inquiry, but *author* didn't put a single thing to indicate that the mother was done asking her question.

If the character (in this case, the mother) was not done in her question, the author should've added at least a comma by the end. Like,

"What's wrong," she asked, looking upset. "Did something happen?"

- this of course means that the question will be extended from a simple "what's wrong". If it seems unnatural to you (as an author), you can simply write it like this instead:

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking upset. "Did something happen?"

In which case, you have the option to extend the question according to the dialogue (to make the speech flow), or you can just leave it at the first question. But don't forget the question mark!

The sentence after that clarifies that the mother was speaking, but there's also an error over there. Again, when the mother announces that she brought the MC (main character) some food, there's no full stop/comma to indicate that the mother was done speaking. There are, I guess, three ways to end this sentence:

"I brought you some food," – in where the mother has more to say, but she doesn't continue until a simple break of description/after her daughter speaks. "I brought you some food," she smiled. "Eat up!" OR

"I brought you some food,"

"I'm not hungry."

"But it's fresh!"

~~

"I brought you some food." – in where that's where her speech ends.

"I brought you some food—" – in where she's interrupted by her daughter.

And on the same sentence, the same mistake is repeated from the first sentence, wherein the daughter begins to speak but her speech is misplaced. When the daughter is done speaking, the author does not put a full stop nor quotations.

The full stop missing is no doubt a mistake, however, leaving behind quotation marks is not entirely a mistake, since there are moments where an author would actually do that/it is grammatically correct. But this only happens when the daughter is continuing to speak.

Scenario one: "I ate last night (,) OK! I don't need your leftover food(.)" in where the daughter is done speaking, or,

Scenario two: "I ate last night (,) OK! I don't need your leftover food (.)

"Seriously mom, you didn't have to kill our neighbors to feed me!"

In where the daughter continues to speak. BUT, to indicate that she's still talking, opening up a new section of dialogue is necessary (adding new quotations to beginning of sentence).

This technique is usually seen when a character is talking in paragraphs or long sentences, though. For example:

"When I was a kid, my mom would always hunt for my food. Being a ghoul in a big city was a disadvantage for me, especially when the CCG, the Doves and even the police are out in search for my kind. And I was young; there was no place for me to be myself. Finding a sanctuary wasn't easy...

"But then I'm reminded that I am safe when my mother gets home. She always knew what smile to give me to reassure me, always knew the parts of human meat that I'd refuse to eat. Even though she was upset that my father was caught, she always kept her head up."

LIKE SO!!1!11!!

This also applies to normal paragraphs, like:

I stood near the foot of my bed, contemplating the idea that Kaneki thrust upon me earlier this morning. It bothered me, to say the least – I could feel my heart beating heavily; its rhythm loud enough to distract me momentarily.

Several other things came to mind at that same moment; Hide, and how he'd react to such sudden news, or how he'd react to the fact that I, his girlfriend, was the one delivering the news. His face appeared at the back of my eyelids and I wondered if he'd ever be able to forgive me after this.

Notice how there's a break in between both paragraphs? :)

When the subject of a paragraph is different/straying from the original subject, a space is needed in between; to indicate that thoughts were changing, evolving, etc. Plus, no one likes to read one gigantic block of text!

For a final note:

Before the beginning of any sentence or dialogue in your story, don't forget to indent! Unless it's the first sentence in your story, or if it comes after a page break.

Indentation not only makes it look neater, but also makes it feel more proper. This is wattpad though; indentation needs to be put in manually ;-; ! Like, if you're writing something on Microsoft word and then copy-paste it onto your draft, your indentation on the original work is gone and you'd have to input them on the draft itself. It's a total drag, but if it makes your writing look more professional and neat, then it's totally worth it!

In my TG fanfic, I indent in 3 spaces. When a dialogue begins, I put in 4. (just a personal preference! XD)

It's not necessary to add more once a dialogue opens up; it can be 3, or however much you wanna put! For example, in my other works, 3 usually does the trick. However, in my Naruto fanfic, I put in 8. EIGHT. LMAO XD

So there you have it : ) !!

If you have any more questions, leave them in the comment below! And if you'd like certain advice about a certain topic, lemme know by sending a message! You can tell me whether you want it to be anonymous or not. ^_^

-Sueszi