The Next Circle of Hell

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Noompsy

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Rosie, thanks for those. Dee-to the lish. :]
Hey, I have a question for everyone. It's kind of like the question I've been sitting on like a demon egg. Maybe if I ask it I'll feel better. So, eh, just like hypothetically speaking...does it mean anything when your agent is like hey we're getting your proposal together. And then like a few weeks later they're like...eh we're reviewing our editor list. And then a few weeks later they're like...we're putting your package together. The paranoid me(hypothetically of course), the one who was afraid to even post this question, is worried this means they're having trouble thinking of a right match for my weird-ass book. The sane side is like...knock knock...who's there....shut up already.
 
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Noompsy

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Cool. I keep telling myself it's not a race. Like, osso bucco (is that spelled right) good things take time. These boards should have taught me that publishing is sloooooooooooooooooooooow. Thanks. :]
 

JBuck

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:) Noompsy, I think your gorgeous dog has nailed the 'I'm waiting to hear from my agent/publisher' look.
 

rosiecotton

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:) Noompsy, I think your gorgeous dog has nailed the 'I'm waiting to hear from my agent/publisher' look.

OMG, Jbuck, that's so perfect :D

Noompsy, seconding the others. And don't feel like you're being a pain if you want to ask your agent questions about timeframes, etc. It's perfectly reasonable to want to know.
 

Noompsy

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:) Noompsy, I think your gorgeous dog has nailed the 'I'm waiting to hear from my agent/publisher' look.

She's awesome, Ms. Bones. She's my partner in this...and my other avi, the little one like if you click me, is her sister (Ms. Dunes) with the like happy, love me love me love me look, like the happier side of the waiting coin. :]

I can hear my cat jealously sharpening his claws... ha ha
 

missesdash

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Rosie, thanks for those. Dee-to the lish. :]
Hey, I have a question for everyone. It's kind of like the question I've been sitting on like a demon egg. Maybe if I ask it I'll feel better. So, eh, just like hypothetically speaking...does it mean anything when your agent is like hey we're getting your proposal together. And then like a few weeks later they're like...eh we're reviewing our editor list. And then a few weeks later they're like...we're putting your package together. The paranoid me(hypothetically of course), the one who was afraid to even post this question, is worried this means they're having trouble thinking of a right match for my weird-ass book. The sane side is like...knock knock...who's there....shut up already.

Well from what I understand, agents generally have an idea of where they'd sub something before they take the project on. Sounds to me like he/she is just kind of swamped but doesn't want to leave you hanging.

But don't be afraid to ask for the list once on sub. I asked for some ideas of where my agent would sub before I even signed with her. Then when I went on sub, she sent me the list and every subsequent response. I think how involved we are depends entirely on how involved we ask to be.

Sometimes it seems the other way around because of the querying process, but your agent works for you.
 

hillaryjacques

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For everyone waiting...

cupcakes.jpg

OOoooh. Thank you for the reminder. Today is cupcake day at the local bakery. Guess what I'm having for lunch and dinner dessert?
 

Snappy

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YAYYYYYYY I can haz dancing bananas? And snoopies??? YOU GUYS!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I don't know how I'd have survived this sub stuff without your support!!!!

Why, yes. Yes, you can. WOOT! WOOT! CONGRATS!

rainbow.gif
rainbow.gif


:) Noompsy, I think your gorgeous dog has nailed the 'I'm waiting to hear from my agent/publisher' look.

LOL. Agreed.
 

Solunar

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@Noompsy Your agent sounds like they're doing the job well. I read a post around the forum and one just tossed them aside for months. It's actually quite good that they're telling you what stage they're at.

In your peach example, the first is not incorrect AFAIK.

'"She ate the peach." James said, and walked off.' is incorrect. But if the two can form complete sentences without the other, a comma is unneeded (and I believe incorrect). "James walked off." is not inherently dialogue attribution, only if he said, shouted, mumbled etc. does it tie the dialogue to the attribution and make a comma necessary.

I'm not a huge grammar nerd though, so it's entirely possible I'm wrong.

I'm so lost with the punctuation right now! Some of them they use "What." and some they use "What," I think it's like.... If the character finished speaking in that paragraph, it's a "." and if they haven't it's a "," I'm not too sure. I didn't even hear about CMoS until a few days back.

I'm just blindly trusting the editor to know what they're doing with the punctuation, lol.

Solunar, don't ever be embarrassed by typos and the like. Trust me, editors have seen everything. We just have sharper eyes for everything that's "off" than other people (translation: incredibly anal-retentive), which is why we become editors.

Thank heavens for editors! :D Your kind is greatly appreciated.

edit: Poor editor. I put a ~*~ as text breaks because my text program didn't have that option. I'm laughing at all the "Format text break" they had to include. Oh gosh. Poor things.
 

Noompsy

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thanks everyone. it seems that way. i'm just being a kook. My agents are cream o' the crop. I'm just a foo', it's like dating again the whole...how many days before I call thing all over again. Guh.
@solunar, I see a story... Lost in Punctuation. You've got to write that. Have heart. I teach grammar for a living and I can't figure half of it out.
@missesdash...been meaning to tell you, love that animation at the bottom.
 

Solunar

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I don't understand this punctuation!!!!! I just had an edit with:

"What." Blastoise smiled. "I like shooting water guns."

!?!?!?!?!?!? I wrote it as

"What," Blastoise smiled. "I like shooting water guns."

My record is ten edits in a paragraph at the moment.
 

hillaryjacques

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I don't understand this punctuation!!!!! I just had an edit with:

"What." Blastoise smiled. "I like shooting water guns."

!?!?!?!?!?!? I wrote it as

"What," Blastoise smiled. "I like shooting water guns."

My record is ten edits in a paragraph at the moment.

Hmm. "Blastoise smiled" isn't a dialogue tag, so it should be its own sentence. Is "what" supposed to be a question?

I see this as: "What?" Blastoise smiled. "I like shooting water guns."
 

Solunar

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Woah. Smiled isn't a dialogue tag? Oh dear. I kept assuming it was. That might be why.

As for the question mark, that wasn't the exact sentence I wrote. Oops. Sorry about that! I wasn't sure if I would be allowed to copy paste. But I did write *** smiled, so that's spot-on.
 

Drachen Jager

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Woah. Smiled isn't a dialogue tag? Oh dear. I kept assuming it was. That might be why.

You can't smile a word. Smiling is inherently silent.

Also, many editors think it's terrible form to have characters smiling, laughing, chuckling their dialogue.

He laughed [ha ha] and said, "I just laughed."

OR

He laughed. "I just laughed." (in which case "He said" is taken as understood, because the person performing the action immediately before or after dialogue is considered to be the speaker, this is my preferred method)

NOT

He laughed, "I just laughed." (I suppose a very clever person MIGHT be able to actually laugh those words, but unless they're doing stand-up, it would not be normal behaviour)
 

Peggy Blair

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I think it's been edited because it's a pleonasm, and yes, smiling is a dialogue tag. The reasoning is that you can't talk while you're smiling. So the editor has turned it into two sentences.
"What," Blastoise said, smiling. "I like shooting water guns," would be the alternative choice.
 
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Peggy Blair

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You and I must have been hitting the send button at the same moment, Drachen. Totally agree. By the way, I PM'd you.
 

moonfairee

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I think how involved we are depends entirely on how involved we ask to be.

YES. THIS. Exactly. I wish I had gone into things knowing this. We all hear about how each agent is different, so I think we go into things assuming an agent's communication style is specific to him/her and not to how involved we want to be.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Snappy, Tracy, Rosie, Chic, Noompsy, Solunar, Taylor--THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!!!! I cannot articulate how much I love those dancing bananas. I'm sitting in a coffee shop trying not to clap my hands like a four year old, haha.

Noompsy, YES! Publishing is slowwwwww, and it feels even slowwwwwwwwwwwwwer, because we've put our hearts out on the line. Here's hoping that package goes out very soon!!!


.... Okay, that sounded funny ;)

In terms of the punctuation thing, I always write "What?" with a question mark, even if it's kind of a rhetorical "what" rather than literally asking a question. But I'd bet there's some wiggle room there depending on preference.
 

Peggy Blair

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I'd use the question mark, too, Moon.

I was just in a coffee shop sitting next to a man who was clapping his hands. He was also wearing a black felt hat that he occasionally removed to stomp on, and a black Lone Ranger type eye-mask made out of cardboard. He had a tea towel stuck in his collar like a cravet.

Distracting, to say the least.
 

moonfairee

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I totally use "breathes," as a dialogue tag. i.e. "You didn't," he breathes. I've gotten into trouble with a reader or two for it, but *in my head* it makes sense, haha. Like if the character is speaking so softly, it comes out like a breath. It's one of those things that I like, and will only do once or twice per MS, but if my agent/editor takes issue with it, I'm not going to fight for it.
 

moonfairee

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I'd use the question mark, too, Moon.

I was just in a coffee shop sitting next to a man who was clapping his hands. He was also wearing a black felt hat that he occasionally removed to stomp on, and a black Lone Ranger type eye-mask made out of cardboard. He had a tea towel stuck in his collar like a cravet.

Distracting, to say the least.

Okay, now I am CRACKING UP in front of everybody.
 

Drachen Jager

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I'd use the question mark, too, Moon.

I was just in a coffee shop sitting next to a man who was clapping his hands. He was also wearing a black felt hat that he occasionally removed to stomp on, and a black Lone Ranger type eye-mask made out of cardboard. He had a tea towel stuck in his collar like a cravet.

Distracting, to say the least.

Yes, it's a terrible fate for any author to find they're not the craziest person in the room.
 

Peggy Blair

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Hahahah. You're right, Drachen. I should have been grateful to discover I wasn't the only nut there.

I confess, I do use "shouted" as a dialogue tag, because there is no way to convey shouting otherwise, except with an exclamation mark, and editors hate those as much as they had pleonasms.

"Breathed," I think works. And I've used "smiled" and "chuckled" occasionally too without offending the editing gods. But I think if they are used too frequently, they distract, yes?
 
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