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Quick Dialogue Guide (For Writers)

• Start a new paragraph every time a new character speaks. • Put quotation marks around spoken words. • Dialogue tags usually follow the sentence with a comma.

Example: “I'm not going back,” she said.

Dialogue with a tag before the quote

Use a comma after the tag.

Example: She said, “I'm not going back.”

Dialogue with action instead of a tag

Use a period after the action.

Example: She crossed her arms. “I'm not going back.”

When dialogue continues after a tag

Use commas inside the quotation marks.

Example: “I'm not going back,” she said, “no matter what you tell me.”

Questions and exclamations

Keep the question mark or exclamation point inside the quotation marks.

Example: “Where are you going?” he asked.

“I can't believe this!” she shouted.

Interrupted dialogue

Use em dashes when dialogue is cut off.

Example: “But I thought you—” “You thought wrong.”

Trailing off

Use ellipses when a character fades out.

Example: “I just thought maybe…”

Dialogue with action in the middle

The sentence continues after the action.

Example: “I told you,” she said, rubbing her temples, “this would happen.”

Internal thoughts (optional style)

Some writers use italics instead of quotation marks.

Example: This is a terrible idea, he thought.

Long dialogue

If a character speaks for multiple paragraphs, keep quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph but only close them at the end of the final paragraph.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Writing multiple speakers in the same paragraph • Overusing dialogue tags like exclaimed, ejaculated, declared dramatically • Forgetting punctuation inside quotation marks • Using action beats incorrectly as dialogue tags

I saw another post about dialogue tags and punctuation, as you do, and I thought about a way that might make it easier for people to remember what’s correct.

When you’re adding a “dialogue tag” to dialogue, for example “She said,” you are still writing one sentence. The person doing the speaking is the subject, and the entire dialogue bit attached to it is the object.

The basic sentence format you want to think about is:

Subject Verb Object

So you wouldn’t say:

“The boat is red.” She said. ❌

That’s two sentences, and one is incomplete. “She said” what?

She said, “The boat is red.” ✅

or, equivalently,

“The boat is red,” she said. ✅

“The boat is red,” said she. ✅, but this one may make you sound a bit outdated

But what about when you put dialogue before and after? That depends on if it still belongs as one sentence.

If you’re splitting a line of dialogue in the middle of a sentence:

“Then you’ll do it,” she said, “like this.”

Otherwise, if you’re starting a new sentence in the dialogue:

“You would end the sentence after the dialogue tag,” she said. “That way, it’s clear that the next bit of dialogue is a new, separate sentence.”

If there’s no tag attached to the dialogue, it’s just its own thing, hence why I colored that second sentence differently.

Also, splitting dialogue up with a dialogue tag sometimes reads like a pause, so keep that in mind when choosing where to put it!

What if the verb you’re using doesn’t require an object? Then:

“This example means that she is screaming these words,” she screamed.

“Whereas this example technically implies that her scream comes after she speaks, or maybe even that this wasn’t her speaking to begin with.” She screamed.

The same works the other way around, like she screamed, “Holy shit!”

Versus if she just screamed. “Then someone else starts talking and maybe it’s her, but it’s still separate from the scream.”

When it comes to other punctuation that ends the dialogue before a tag, you don’t change anything about the format except the punctuation.

“What do I mean by that?” she asked. “See how that pronoun ‘she’ was lowercased? Just like it would’ve been if that had been a statement.”

“It’s the same with exclamations, by the way!” she shouted.

If you are ending your sentence with dialogue, maybe because it has no tag at all or the tag came before, then it gets its proper punctuation, and whatever sentence that comes after it is capitalized as normal.

“So, this sentence has a follow up sentence, but it’s not actually a dialogue tag, so I’ll end it with a period.” She raises an eyebrow as she speaks, like she’s wondering if she’s making sense to you.

Here’s a bonus fact for you, with its example wrapped in it:

Hands on her hips, she said, “I know what you’re wondering next. What if your dialogue is getting soooooo long, and the paragraph needs to end, but your character needs to keep talking? We know the rule that, typically, each change in speaker should get a new paragraph break. So how do you indicate to the reader that it’s still the same character talking?

“You do it like this. We didn’t end the quotation yet in the prior paragraph, because the dialogue isn’t over, but we start the paragraph with an open/start quotation mark as a courtesy indicator that the prior dialogue is continuing. That’s how you know it’s still me talking!” She didn’t add a dialogue tag here, because she started it in the prior paragraph with a tag. “Remember how I mentioned that the whole dialogue you attach to a tag is the object? So your ‘sentence’ didn’t end until the dialogue was closed with a closing quotation mark.”

“Oh, and while it’s relevant. If dialogue has another quote in it, that’s when you use single quotes. Like in this example here, where I’m telling you he said, ‘No way, he’s not reading all that.’ Single quotes, baby!”

Okay, I think that covers what I wanted to ramble about after seeing the post lol! I dunno if this will be helpful to other people’s brains besides mine? But I really love thinking about it this way.

And actually, as an afterthought, I think this might work for me so well because of me being a programmer? I think of the entire block of dialogue, even if separated by new lines, as a single string, and that helps me decide how to make it part of my sentence by concatenating it with dialogue tags and other non-quotation sentences.

#writer rambles #writer ramblings #grammar #dialogue #dialogue formatting #fanfic writer #fanfic author #fanfic authors #writing tips #or like #just me explaining how it works in my brain specifically #ao3 #archive of our own

“How do you format dialogue?” the girl asked. “How do you know whether to use periods or commas?”

“Well,” her teacher began, “you consider whether something is a dialogue tag—”

“What’s a dialogue tag?”

Her teacher smiled and said, “A dialogue tag informs the reader who is speaking. It can come either before or after the dialogue itself, but it is not a complete sentence in its own right.”

(Reader, you will notice three dialogue tags have appeared thus far: “she asked,” “her teacher said,” and “Her teacher smiled and said,” and the first two weren’t capitalized because they were continuations of the dialogue itself, sort of like how this bit of text after the comma is a continuation of this very sentence. The third example, by contrast, was capitalized because the dialogue tag began the sentence, then segued into the dialogue afterward.)

“I see…” The girl nodded, gaze casting downward as she considered what she’d learned.

“That, however, was an action tag.”

The girl’s brows scrunched together. “An action tag?”

“Mm-hmm. Action tags describe an action the speaker takes or perhaps an internal thought the speaker has, but, unlike dialogue tags, they are sentences in their own right.” The teacher paused, perhaps for emphasis, perhaps simply to let the girl process the new information. “They do not get connected to dialogue with commas.”

(Reader, once again you’ll notice that three action tags appeared in the prior section: one following dialogue, one preceding dialogue, and one sandwiched in the middle of dialogue. Note the lack of commas.)

“Hmm, okay. But what about—” The girl couldn’t recall the correct term and her question abruptly died on her tongue.

“Em dashes?” her teacher supplied, a knowing grin curving her lips.

“Yes! Yes, how do you”—the girl mimed as though she was grabbing a ball—“place them appropriately?”

Her teacher shrugged. “It depends on their function.”

“Can you—” the girl started.

“Give an example?” her teacher finished.

The girl nodded.

Once again, her teacher smiled. “I believe you, my dear, already have.”

(Reader, you’ll note that em dashes can be used to transition into both action tags and dialogue tags. If an action tag temporarily interrupts dialogue, as with the second example in this section, the structure is: “Dialogue”—action tag—“continued dialogue.” No commas, no capitalization.)

“I think,” the girl said somewhat petulantly, her hands coming to roost on her hips, “that you’re just making all of this up.”

Her teacher sighed. “Would that I were.” After some rustling, her teacher produced a link to a professional editor’s blog. “But I fear these rules come from The Chicago Manual of Style itself.”

“What’s The Chicago Manual of Style?” the girl asked.

A hollow laugh caught in the teacher’s throat. “For those of us writing in American English, it is both our guide and our shackle.”

“Sounds limiting,” the girl mused.

“It can be,” her teacher agreed. “But following established grammar rules can also make it easier for our readers to accurately interpret our stories, and there is something magical about being able to use these small symbols—little marks here and there—to make our voices rise off the page in precisely the way we intended.”

#watch there be a typo in this exemplar skdskfkjs #grammar rules #grammar tips #dialogue formatting #dialogue punctuation #writing advice #on writing #when i beta for ppl i often get questions on why i make some of the grammatical edits i do #so here's a surface-level explanation of some of the more common/basic rules that govern dialogue formatting #(update: there was indeed a typo 🥴)

Please please please please, dialogue formatting, I beg you. Use punctuation at the end of the dialogue. Use dialogue tags/actions that match the speaker. And for the love of all that is holy, new speaker = new paragraph. I just want to know who is saying it and what they are saying.

#daisy rants #daisy pleads #writing advice #dialogue formatting #it turns me off to a story so quickly #it's really hard to follow and figure out who is speaking when I have to read it four times in a row #half the time i end up guessing #or going back once information two paragraphs down clarifies it #just....format it properly #PLEASE

Dont seem to be able to find much on "special cases" for dialogue (maybe bc I can't come up with the right keywords to search). Ie. flashback phrases, texts, phone convos--but spec looking for a relatively unobtrusive way to depict the equivalent of an "O.S." (off screen) tag only in prose. Ie:A scene is interrupted by an unseen yell from another room //"Mom!"// or "//NO!//". Dont wanna overuse any of these things but when mult. are used at all on top of thoughts wouldn't italics get overused?

Flashbacks:

If an entire scene or chapter is a flashback, it’s usually written normally.

If a small snippet of a flashback is inserted into a scene, the whole thing is often in italics.

If you’re only bringing in one or a few lines of dialogue, they are often written in italics, without quotation marks, and without dialogue tags. However, the exact formatting varies depending on how you write it/what you need.

Texts:

Here and here.

Phone:

All you need to do is mention that your character is speaking on the phone. Dialogue for the other person should be written as all other dialogue.

Off Screen:

If a character speaks from another room/from a place your character cannot see them, dialogue should be written normally. Mention in the prose where the voice/character is coming from.

#Anonymous #answered #dialogue formatting

A little while ago I saw your italics post. I'm confused as to whether there is a specific, English grammar rule about using italics for quotation marks. For example, do you italicize within the quotation marks, and not the quotation marks themselves? Or do you just italicize the whole thing? I understand with some fonts it doesn't matter, but there are others that do.

I don’t recall a post on italics. Anyway, what you italicize depends on the situation.

If you are italicizing just a word or phrase, the quotation marks should not be italicized. For example:

“Go there now,” she said.

If you are writing a passage entirely in italics, then the quotation marks would also be in italics.

If you are writing a “special circumstance” line of dialogue, like if your characters are using telepathy or if your character is recalling something someone said in the past, then the quotation marks would be italicized. For example:

Words words words your character is thinking about something that happened in the past and now a line of dialogue will be repeated for emphasis. “Would you kindly?”

#Anonymous #answered #dialogue formatting #italics

I believe quotation marks and punctuation placement differ among English-speaking countries. I think the UK puts the quotes inside the punctuation.

In UK English, punctuation outside quotation marks in direct speech is typically only used when introducing a dialogue tag (but the US version is also used):

"Hello", he said. "It is the month of March."

Or:

'Hello', he said. 'It is the month of March.'

In academic writing, depending on the citation style, punctuation is often outside the quotation marks, but it can also be within:

Blah blah blah: “Blah blah blah” (thewritingcafe 2015).

Blah blah blah: “Blah blah blah.” (thewritingcafe 2015).

When referencing a phrase or word, quotation marks surround the word, but punctuation goes outside:

"Groovy", an outdated slang term, can be used to mean "cool".

Within indirect speech, punctuation typically goes outside the quotations in both US and UK English. Sometimes it goes both inside and outside:

She said that she “forgot how to ride a bike”.

She said that she “forgot how to ride a bike.”.

#Anonymous #answered #dialogue formatting

is that punctuation post really correct? because i've been learning english in school (second language) and we always learned it like this: "It's true", she said. Or: "It's true", she said, "he's telling the truth." Now I'm really confused.

Yes, the post is correct. Perhaps an explanation for why each sentence was correct or incorrect would have helped, so I will do that now.

Here is the original post. Here are explanations for the sentences in the post:

1) “I don’t believe it,” she said. “Prove it to me.” (CORRECT)

In this sentence, “she” is saying two different sentences. The dialogue tag is placed between the sentences.

2) “I don’t believe it.” She said, “prove it to me.” (INCORRECT)

This sentence is incorrect because it should be the other way around, like in the sentence above.

3) “It’s true.” She shrugged. “You can ask anyone.” (CORRECT)

This sentence does not have a dialogue tag. Instead, it has a dialogue beat. A dialogue beat is an action (“She shrugged”). The dialogue beat interrupts the dialogue in this example. Because “shrugging” is not a way of speaking, it is not a part of the dialogue as a whole. Dialogue beats are their own sentences.

4) “It’s true,” she shrugged, “you can ask anyone.” (INCORRECT)

This is incorrect because you don’t shrug words. You can shout words, you can yell words, you can whisper words, you can mumble words, and you can say words, but you cannot shrug them.

5) "It’s true," she said with a shrug, "you can ask anyone." (CORRECT)

In this sentence, “It’s true; you can ask anyone.” is its own sentence. A dialogue tag (“she said”) interrupts the first and second clause. Because it is one continuous sentence, the second part of dialogue is not capitalized.

6) ”It’s true.” She said with a shrug, “you can ask anyone.” (INCORRECT)

This is incorrect because the first part of dialogue should end with a comma, not a period, and “She” should not be capitalized.

7) “I love you!” he shouted. (CORRECT)

This sentence was about punctuation placement. Punctuation always goes inside the quotes when writing dialogue.

#Anonymous #answered #dialogue formatting