Crazy Things, Man, Crazy Things....

So. Hello. It's been a while. I apologize for this. I'm extremely bad at keeping such things up. Which, oddly enough, kind of segues into what I'm blogging about.

I'm thinking of doing something crazy.

"What is that? What are you thinking of doing that's crazy?" You ask.

Why, I'll tell you.

I'm thinking (somewhat seriously) about doing the NaNoWriMo.

"Aaaahhh..."

Yes. Yes, now you see what it's so crazy. I have no idea how to go about this. Sure, I've written mult-chapter fictional pieces (sure, they may have been fanfiction), but, you know how I write them? Chapter by chapter. How do other people write them?

Outlines. Outlines, character biographies, drafts. Me? Ha, I usually say. Not this time, though.

No, this time, I think I shall have to think in such terms. Seriously, I've got one month to write this. I need to know what I'm writing.

This is terrifying. I don't know what I'm doing.

Someone send help. And chocolate. Always chocolate.

It's the Basics.

     Seriously. I have come across two stories - TWO! Count 'em - stories in a row on my writing site Inkpop that did not use quotation marks for their conversations, or apostrophes in their contractions. Those are, quite possibly, the two most basic rules in the art of writing (and, I'm pretty sure I'm wrong, but, for the purposes of this post, I'm not.).

These are quotation marks.

     Now, I will readily admit that I am, in no way, the foremost knowledgeable person on the subject of grammar. I'm awful with grammar. I don't even like to use it all that much, unless I'm in one of my moods. But, seriously. This is what I might come across:

             Billy walked across the street to the playground, where his friend Sam was playing on the 

       swing. Hey, he said. How long have you been here?

             Oh, Sam replied, not too long. Im only here because I was bored. 

     Okay, so, the writing wasn't as atrocious as that little conversation was, not in the least. But, do you see what happened? Billy and Sam looked like they were telepathically conversing! They were missing quotation marks, and little Sam here has clearly never learned how to contract! "I'm" looks no different than "Im." And "Im" isn't even a word, as far as I, or google chrome, can tell. 

     I mean, this is seriously stressing me out. I'm pretty sure I knew about quotation marks before I knew about paragraphs (clearly). I knew that quotation marks indicated someone speaking pretty much as soon as I could read...I guess I assumed everyone else could, too. 

     Alright then, recap: Quotation marks indicate when someone is speaking. "Hey," he said. "How long have you been here?"

     Apostrophes are used for (but not limited to) contractions. "I'm only here because I was bored."

     See?

     

     That's how it's done. Don't you forget it.

Hope?

I read a magnificent poem recently that was more of an epic than a normal "feelings" poem, if you know what I mean. Of course, I'm not expert in poems, so all I can really say about it was that the rhythm was quite nicely done, and I could totally feel what was going on. I had only one problem with it.

It ended without hope.

Now, I love a good angsty story/poem/whatever. I really do, I've dabbled in it multiple times. The ones I've done that have ended without the hope of things looking up are my fan fiction pieces, and that's because it was in the midst of the actual thing, therefore the reader ought to know that not all is lost. So, there is hope, just not really.

Why wouldn't one have hope at the end? To me, that says that living life is worthless if there isn't hope to be had. Why live if death isn't even worth it? What's the reward for living? Not much when there isn't hope.

So, I guess the question is, why do you not put hope at the end? And, if you do, why?

For me, I do. Why? Because I have hope. And, I suppose, that because I have hope, I can't help but offer it to others.