[stylist] Pet PVS- lines of dialogue

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Vejas,

Not writing dialogue is a pet peeve of mine as well. And actually, it's
incorrect to place lines of dialogue spoken by more than one person in
the same para. Dialogue is suppose to be its own para. This can also
include any action attributed to the speaker, but if another speaker
responds, it's suppose to be a new para, and if the narration continues,
it too is a new para. For example:

Jess gazed in the mirror. "I hate all these freckles."

"You can hardly notice them," Kate said.

The girls laughed at each other in the mirror.

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: 20
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:51:22 -0700
From: vejas <brlsurfer at gmail.com>
To: Writer's Division Mailing List <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] pet PVS
Message-ID: <4f6bf34e.e71d3c0a.5d64.4eb1 at mx.google.com>
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Here are two of my pet peeves:

1.  In some books I have read, quotation marks are...  well...  
simply not present.  Here's an example (purely made up)

 I looked at Elizabeth.  We have to do something now.  (This "we 
have to do something" was a statement I was telling Elizabeth, 
but the context isn't very clear that I'm saying it, since 
there's no quote marks.
2.  In between people talking, there is supposed to be a new 
line.  It's so annoying when they're on the same line because you 
lose track of who's talking.

I used to play a "quotes game." When I was in third grade, I used 
to play a game with myself in my stories, where I would have a 
conversation like this between 2 characters.  (I'm old enough to 
know better now.)


Here's an exapple:
Heidi met Evelyn at the playground.  They began talking. "What's new?"
"I don't know." "Do you want to play jump rope?" "Yes." "Cool." "Yeah."
"I really don't want to play jump rope, actually." "I don't care." "OK."
The object would be to keep some stream of conversation.  Then, I 
would enjoy looking back and seeing, do I remember which one was 
speaking? After like 10 lines, if you're not careful you forget 
who's talking.  (It's fun to write, but to annoying to read  if 
it's not my own writing lol.)
Vejas