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hold on a second man…

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So you want to read something like Jane Austen?

I see lots of posts where people answer this question with recommendations for classic historical romance authors like Georgette Heyer or more modern bodice-rippers like Julia Quinn or Tessa Dare. But to me that’s never quite the appropriate answer. Sure, if what you want is romance with country dancing and breeches, that’s fine, but surely if you want to read more things similar to Jane Austen, the best way to do that is to delve into her lesser known contemporaries. People Austen admired and people who admired her. People writing on similar themes and using similar language. 

So this is my list of 10 novels from the 18th and early 19th century that you might like to try if you’ve read Austen and want to branch out more. These are just personal recommendations and based off what I’ve read; I’m very happy to hear other suggestions!

Worth noting as well that all of these are available online or free for kindle download. :)

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Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

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Shooting stars 🌠

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Here's something fun, if you're stuck in a writing rut. Taleforge is a random generator writing exercise. It generates 'cards' and you have to try and write a snippet of story - or a whole flash fiction, or the intro to a novel, you do you - based on those prompts.

Don't like the prompts? Hit page reload and the Event and Location prompts will change! You can change the settings a little bit - default for the challenge is 10 minutes, for example, and you can make it 5, 10, 20 or 30. Go forth and have fun, writers!

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Here's something fun, if you're stuck in a writing rut. Taleforge is a random generator writing exercise. It generates 'cards' and you have to try and write a snippet of story - or a whole flash fiction, or the intro to a novel, you do you - based on those prompts.

Don't like the prompts? Hit page reload and the Event and Location prompts will change! You can change the settings a little bit - default for the challenge is 10 minutes, for example, and you can make it 5, 10, 20 or 30. Go forth and have fun, writers!

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The cutest Harvest Moon designs, by @くろ丸 on pixiv!!

They also can be made into a calendar like this:

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Coulotte steak with buttery mushroom sauce

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Cream of mushroom soup

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Pumpkin Season 🎃

Set in the same tiny house as my other 4 paintings~

My dream house built from salvaged windows, modeled in Sketchup

Bonus pumpkin murderer

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sometimes plushies make me cry because it’s like. they’re little guys made to be loved. their only purpose is to be held and hugged and loved. we made them because we love making things and we love loving things. and they’re so cute

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I’m getting a fierce urge to replay Skyrim, and it’s got me thinking about the Thieves Guild questline. It’s one of the best in the game imo, mostly because its major NPCs actually have some depth and backstory - but I’m still sad about the huge amount of potential it has that didn’t really get tapped.

Maybe once I’ve replayed it I’ll think about how I’d properly rewrite the quests themselves, but for now, have a bunch of largely cosmetic changes I’d make to really exploit some of the narrative potential:

When you arrive in Riften, you learn from ambient chatter (and perhaps the conversation with Maul) that the Thieves Guild used to be more like its Oblivion incarnation - humble the rich, support the poor, etc. That ended abruptly 25 years ago, and the guild threw its lot in with the Black-Briars shortly after in an attempt to halt its decline. (The poorer residents, especially the beggars and Black-Briar employees, will lament this change.)

After joining the Guild, you learn from Brynjolf that this change began with Gallus’s death. He’s wistful for those days and for Gallus’s Robin Hood-esque management, and says the Guild’s decline is partly because they once had a small army of invisible spies in the poor, the beggars and the servants who knew the lives of the rich and were always happy to sabotage them. He hopes you can help the Guild become what it once was.

Mercer gets a complete personality change, so that he’s not an immediately unlikeable figure whose betrayal you see coming a mile away. He’s much more charismatic, acting like his change in the Guild’s focus, and his alliance with the Black-Briars, were necessary evils to keep the Guild afloat. He tells you that all he cares about is protecting his own in the Guild, and will do whatever it takes. Players might therefore actually be surprised when he betrays them.

It’s also discussed in ambient chatter that Mercer canonically (according to Gallus’s journal) came from ‘wealthy stock’, and you’ll hear Guild members wondering whether he was actually glad that Gallus’s death gave him a chance to hold onto the Guild’s takings, because he’s used to feeling entitled to money and influence.

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