50 Tips for Writing.

31. Speech Marks

Speech Marks should NEVER be replaced by fancier prettier things like ~, *, /, ^ or -. Speech Marks exist for a reason. Why are Speech Marks called Speech Marks? They represent people talking! *Hi Kelly, how are you?* is NOT appropriate, use your Speech Marks. -Hold on a minute okay?- isn't cool either. Don't use ~blah blah blah~ to indicate thoughts, thoughts should be placed between single apostrophes and dialogue between two. Sometimes, it's even okay to put dialogue between one apostrophe set but if you want to avoid confusion, and make yourself look respectable, don't do ^He said he was coming!^ kind of thing, use your Speech Marks and use them good. Real fucking good.