writer « Robin Writes

I really did NOT think that finding the right piece of land would be this difficult!

There are three counties close to us, and obviously that’s going to increase the price—I understand that, and while I continue to check, we’re seriously looking a bit farther away. But not too far.

“The one that got away” still annoys me, even after a couple weeks. We hadn’t even seen it and it was under contract. I keeping hoping it will fall through . . .

Anyhow, last week we looked at two properties less than two hours away.

The first one was beautiful—and mostly flat! Believe me, that’s unusual around here. It was landlocked, but with a deeded easement, so no real worries there. Even had a nice, wide trail all the way to the back and electric right in the middle. No water, but still . . .

However.

To get to it, you go south on a state highway. Paved, all that, and then turn on to a gravel road. Good so far, right?

At the intersection of that gravel road is a junkyard. I think. Or a perpetual yard sale. Or, maybe, they’re getting ready to call a fleet of dump trucks and a bulldozer. One can hope.

But.

Down the gravel, passing that junkyard, were MORE places that looked darn near as bad. Since yards were covered with toys, swingsets, appliances, vehicles, etc., etc., some new, some used, I can only assume that theft is not an issue around here.

Sheesh.

So the property looked promising, from the road, but that easement I mentioned? Crossing that, we walked past a falling down building, another that appeared to have been scavenged, a pile of . . . something, and another, well, dump. Then we reached the property listed, and hey—bonus tires!

Well.

I think not.

To get to the next property, we drove down a nice gravel road and passed lots of trees—no dumps in sight! Then we turned and drove straight up—and up! We stopped at a home, also for sale with 20 acres, and walked over to the listed property.

Very nice. A lovely clearing in the middle, sporting a gigantic dead tree, two deer stands and a few game cameras, and well, not very level. Besides which, the price is steep (heh) and we’d have to build a road. Um, no thanks! Not up that hill!

Next weekend brings more possibilities to look at, but we’re kinda sorta seriously considering going back to that cave property. I want to take measurements and find the actually boundary markings, and maybe talk to the neighbors.

I’m not quite as excited about this place as my husband is, but hey—IT HAS A CAVE!

As most writers know, there are several types of writing styles: APA, MLA, and CMS, the Chicago Manual of Style. I’m going to focus on the CMS, as this is typically the style in which fiction is written.

A reader asked about the use of quotation marks versus italics when mentioning, in a novel, certain books, songs, and TV shows. Let’s start with the style, then I’ll move on to the legalities.

Short titles, e.g., short stories, poems, plays, chapters, articles, and episodes, should be enclosed in quotation marks. Longer and major titles, e.g., book titles, television shows, movies, etc., should be written (er, typed?) in italics—you may, of course, underline these instead, but in fiction writing, italics are almost always used.

To specifically answer the reader’s question, you would do this:

He was watching Letterman, waiting to hear the “Top Ten List.” After that, he planned to finish reading Stephen King’s The Stand while listening to Kiss’ Destroyer; his favorite song was “Beth.”

For more specifics on quotation marks and other miscellaneous formatting issues, check out The Owl or The Chicago Manual of Style Online.

On the other hand:

Sometimes, you cannot mention specific products by trademarked name; sometimes, you cannot use celebrity names; sometimes, you cannot name actual companies or buildings.

Aside from copyright infringement, which most writers are overly concerned about, there is also trademark infringement. Additionally, there can be issues of libel or defamation.

This blog post from 2010, written by an attorney, can address all of these issue far better than I can.

So there you have it—a specific answer to a specific question, which often is hard to find on the Internet. Feel free to contact me, via email, by clicking on my profile pic to the right.

I can also take a look at your query letter—click to the right on QUERY THAT!