[stylist] Writing quotes, A. K. A. dialogue

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Dialogue is it's own paragraph. Any action associated with the speaker
is included in the para with the dialogue. Punctuation always goes
inside the quotes.

"I'm so hungry." Jason walked towards the restaurant patting his
stomach.

"Why did you go to the park without me?" Mel asked.

I walked the street lined with maple trees, wondering which house was
Mia's. I turned towards Kate and said, "It's been so long since I last
saw her."

Sometimes you can include dialogue in a para if it applies.

My mother was always knocking my appearance. No matter what I did, it
wasn't good enough. Her eyes roamed me as though saying, "Are you really
going to wear that?" A silent phrase locking my wounded soul tighter.

Commas are used when a dialogue tag is placed either before or after the
actual dialogue. If after, the comma is placed inside the quotes and the
dialogue tag is placed outside.

Griffin cleared his throat before asking, "How long do we have?"

"I'd say about thirty minutes," Kiley said.

Dialogue tags should be used sparingly. Try attributing action to the
speaker rather than a tag especially with an adverb.

Instead of, "This day has been difficult," Carson said aggressively.
Try, "This day has been difficult." Carson pounded his fist together.

If you have access to electronic versions of books, or other material,
or some format allowing you to peruse para-to-para or word-to-word,
etc., you can check formatting and structure of dialogue. Google will
provide a lot of information as well.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan


Message: 3
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:43:38 -0600
From: Eve Sanchez <3rdeyeonly at gmail.com>
To: bjnite at windstream.net,	"Writer's Division Mailing List"
	<stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] The Dark rewrite 1
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Hi, you said something about quotes that is making me ask a question
that will probably make me look like a total fool. How do you do quotes?
I have read them for many years and now that I cannot look at the
written page dang if I can remember what they look like. What I am
thinking is quotation, text, quotation, comma, she/he said. Is there a
good source for learning the proper way to punctuate these things that
is accessable? Would love your input here. Thanks, Eve