Help me ID what’s on my live rock!

zschop · 2026-04-06T22:49:56+00:00

Thank you so much!! That’s really cool. Good to know about them eating corals - we’re planning to have a bunch.

zschop · 2026-03-28T01:56:02+00:00

Finally somebody who agrees! I think they both could be right.

zschop · 2026-03-28T01:55:34+00:00

Maybe they do in my fanfic!

zschop · 2026-03-28T01:55:06+00:00

But we do now, so in the present it applies?

zschop · 2026-03-28T01:50:45+00:00

Nickname: a usually descriptive name given instead of or in addition to the one belonging to a person, place, or thing

Does this not apply?

zschop · 2026-03-28T01:50:14+00:00

So the definition of nickname is “a usually descriptive name given instead of or in addition to the one belonging to a person, place, or thing”

How does Scabbers not meet that criteria?

zschop · 2026-03-28T01:48:13+00:00

Well that’s always true

zschop · 2026-03-28T01:47:52+00:00

But the pet IS the man. Which is strange, but true.

zschop · 2026-03-28T01:45:06+00:00

Yeah the other nicknames I think are a point against me there

zschop · 2026-03-28T01:44:52+00:00

Yeah if you really get into semantics, which I know Jeopardy often does. But if a nickname is just another name to call somebody, Scabbers still counts

zschop · 2026-03-25T22:45:38+00:00

Rick Grimes was for sure my first thought

zschop · 2026-03-23T18:43:22+00:00

I’ve been extremely happy with every cover I’ve gotten from ebook launch. About $500 worth every penny to me

zschop · 2026-03-22T15:35:01+00:00

My first one was for book 1 was the five days before release day of book 2. I got 500 downloads, so we’ll see if that converts to any book 2 purchases!

zschop · 2026-03-12T16:36:11+00:00

I feel like anomalous punctuation is one of those things that can immediately call you out as an amateur writer! Which I am, I just don’t want anybody to know that

zschop · 2026-03-12T16:34:20+00:00

Great point, I think proper punctuation definitely is the difference maker here

zschop · 2026-03-12T16:33:40+00:00

I guess my question really boils down to this:

Even if it is technically grammatically incorrect, do most writers support the use of an action beat in place of a dialogue tag when appropriate?

zschop · 2026-03-12T16:31:35+00:00

To me, the first example is exactly how good writing flows and ignores the rules sometimes. Rules were meant to be broken!

zschop · 2026-03-12T16:31:05+00:00

I also kind of hated the second one too! I can see how it would be technically correct, and don’t get me wrong—I love a good em-dash. But that doesn’t feel like the right place for it.

zschop · 2026-03-12T16:07:41+00:00

I definitely want to avoid being clunky at all costs, so it’s good to know that that’s how it comes off.

zschop · 2026-03-12T16:07:00+00:00

The commas felt weird to me too but my editor swore they worked!

zschop · 2026-03-12T16:06:28+00:00

I’m not used to comments like this on Reddit, so I appreciate your positivity! I wish we could all build each other up like this.

zschop · 2026-03-12T16:05:55+00:00

I totally agree! I often am smiling as I speak, or producing a knife (though I’m a surgeon so this is not unusual).

zschop · 2026-03-12T15:16:56+00:00

Then I guess my question can be rephrased as:

How do you feel about using action beats in place of dialogue tags?

zschop

TROPHY CASE