Young Writers Society

hey guys im perty new here any ways mabey some of you will be able to right im trying to right my first book its going realy well so far most of the tips ive read form here im already doing so thats good lol any ways i was woundering if there was some expination on formate of a fiction noval like do you paragraph down after every person talks or how dose it work exactly i have no clue its actulay putting a great deal of pain in to continueing i keep going back to change it to try and make it look right any help would be great


Very Respectfully
matthew solberg
solbergm@lhd3.navy.mil

Well, I'm not exactly sure what you want, but if you want to learn how to space your paragraphs like this:

Hello," she said.

"Hello," he replied.

that's easy enough. After you finish one paragraph or line of dialogue press the enter button once f twice, depending on how you want it formatted. For stories on here, we like them to always be double spaced (like my example), so they're easier to read on the computer.

If that isn't what you were looking for, let me know and I'll try to help you out.

like here is an example. of another book


"weather..." lucas said impatently.
"lucas" weather snapped. "look around, if you can get your head out of your but long enofe."
letty gigled."..head out of your but." sam pointed his sppoon and yelled,. "butt!"

and this is how mine looks

“wow Sam I didn’t know” she smiled “Well how about that kiss?”
Jack just nodded and bet down to give her a deep long kiss. One of the telephones started to ring.
Sam stopped and walked over answered and then hung it up right away. “who was that.” Jack asked. “Just some of my contacts calling to tell me we have the imagery.”
“imagery?” Jack asked. “Yea satellite pictures of the whole state park” and started explaining to jack that they had found the camp and that she was in the process of figuring out what exact weapons and forces they had down there.
Jack kind of studerd a second “but but how?” Sam looked up at him at replied well how about you just don’t worry about it. Jack couldn’t help but to lean down and give Sam a hug. Jack sat down at the next computer and asked Sam if she could send him the pictures on the other computer.


it realy dont look right to me i just need some genral rules i guess im extreamly new to this lol

You're right, things aren't quite right in both of your examples. But, writing really isn't that hard. There are only a few rules to make your story easier to understand.

Spell check and use grammar and punctuation to make your story readable. Also, new paragraphs for new speakers.

Using your examples, here's how I would fix them up.

"Weather..." Lucas said impatiently.

"Lucas" Weather snapped. "Look around, if you can get your head out of your butt long enough."

Letty giggled. "..Head out of your butt."

Sam pointed his spoon and yelled, "Butt!"

I'm curious as to where you got this example, but it is an interesting one. All of the bold letters are ones that I capitalized, that were meant to be capitalized. Basic grammar states that proper nouns need to be capitalized, which means that every name needs to be capitalized. Likewise with the start of each sentence. After each ending piece of punctuation, the next letter of the beginning of the sentence needs to be capitalized.

All of the underlined words were ones that were either misspelled, or were typos. Spell checkers on computers can catch a lot of misspelled words, like 'impatiently,' 'giggled,' and 'spoon.' But, they aren't good at catching some other mistakes, like the difference between 'but' and 'butt,' so you always have to go through the story on your own, and look out for ones like that. Also, you only need one piece of ending punctuation, or any punctuation, at a time. If you comma something, it doesn't need a period, and vice versa.

“Wow Sam, I didn’t know,” she smiled. “Well, how about that kiss?”

Jack just nodded and bent down to give her a deep, long kiss. One of the telephones started to ring.

Sam stopped (the kiss), [s]and[/s] walked over, answered, and then hung it up right away.

“Who was that?” Jack asked.

“Just some of my contacts calling to tell me we have the imagery.”

“Imagery?” Jack asked.

“Yea, satellite pictures of the whole state park,” (she answered, then) [s]and[/s] started explaining to Jack that they had found the camp and that she was in the process of figuring out what exact weapons and forces they had down there. (!)

Jack kind of stuttered for a second, “But, but how?”

Sam looked up at him [s]at[/s] and replied, "Well, how about you just don’t worry about it."

Jack couldn’t help but to lean down and give Sam a hug. Jack sat down at the next computer and asked Sam if she could send him the pictures on the other computer.

I couldn't help but to critique this a little. Again, capitalization and punctuation are in bold. New paragraphs for new speakers, and also when you switch between one character's actions and another character's speaking. Underlines for typos and such corrected. Also, there were a few things that I would have added for clarity, and that's what all of the words in parentheses were. Then, the one exclamation point in the parentheses was because I thought that part was a run-on sentence, and could be broken up into smaller sentences. Though, that part can even be written as dialogue.

Beyond these few things I've said, there's a whole section about writing in the Resources section of this site. Writing Tutorials. Also, Snoink wrote about Dialogue grammar here.

Good luck with your writing!

that first example ws from invisible prey by john sandford he has a weird writing style tho and it was messed up cus i typed it fast lol any ways so is there an easier way you could break the whole thing down about switching lines for char actions im really horribly confused about this whole thing thanks for the help so far guys

Basically, writing is all about arranging thoughts on paper:

+ Arranging related words creates sentences.
+ Arranging related sentences creates paragraphs.
+ Arranging related paragraphs creates chapters.
+ And so forth.


So, when you are writing paragraphs, you keep related sentences together. Here's an example of a disorganized paragraph:

Susan loved cats. She loved all kinds of cats--grey ones and white ones and black ones. She especially loved kittens. One day when Susan was walking to the market, she heard a noise on the side of the road. It sounded like something being stepped on over and over again. "I wonder what that could be?" she said to herself. She decided to check it out.

This all runs together and makes the reader rush through it. Many of the sentences are unrelated and thus confusing. Here it is in proper formatting:

Susan loved cats. She loved all kinds of cats--grey ones and white ones and black ones. She especially loved kittens.

One day when Susan was walking to the market, she heard a noise on the side of the road. It sounded like something being stepped on over and over again.

"I wonder what that could be?" she said to herself. She decided to check it out.

The first paragraph introduces Susan and talks about her love of cats.
The second paragraph moves to a later action.
The third paragraph involves dialogue and internal thought.

When you're writing conversations, you always create a new paragraph each time a separate character speaks. Otherwise, you have John and Betty's lines crammed together and no one knows what's going on.

Learning how to format paragraphs can take time and patience, but it's one of the cornerstones of writing.

Did that help at all?

Avens