How to format dialogues?

[Aleric]

Dear authors,

 

can someone give me rules of thumb of how to format dialogues in my stories? The questions that I have are: When to start a new paragraph, when to use a comma and when to use a period.

 

By reading your stories I came up with the following guidelines myself, but I am not sure it works in all cases...

 

1) A sentence, whether spoken by a character or the telling person, starts with an uppercase when the previous sentence ended with a period.

 

2) The punctuation of spoken sentences (in between quotes) is independent of the story line sentences.

 

3) When a different character than the last one that spoke starts to speak, a new paragraph is started unless the immedeate preceding story line sentence did not end on a period. In that case a new paragraph should have been started earlier, like at the beginning of said line.

 

Examples

 

Rule 1 makes things like this:

 

I said "I want to hug you.' And then I blushed.

 

Note that according to rule 2 the sentence that is spoken has its own punctuation: it starts with an uppercase and ends with a period. The quotes go around that. The word 'And' starts with an uppercase because the last sentence (the sentence between the quotes) did end on a period. Even while normally a sentence doesn't start with 'And'. Ie, it's more like 'I said something and then blushed.'

 

Also according to rule 1 we might have:

 

"You are so cute," he said "more cute than anyone I've known before."

 

Note again that according to rule 2, the punction of the spoken sentence is independent and reads 'You are so cute, more cute than anyone I've known before.' The word 'he' however doesn't start with an uppercase now because the last sentence (You are so cute) didn't end on a period. Also, in this example no new paragraph is started because it is still the same person talking.

 

Rule 3 leads us to things like:

 

I said "Come over here, now!' He looked at me and but didn't move. "I said, NOW!"

 

"Don't sweat it. I am not coming over." He replied. "You are not to tell me what to do,

anymore."

 

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." I said with a wicked smile.

 

But he didn't give in at all, softly whispering "But I am. Try to change my mind without

coming over to ME!"

 

The things that I am confused about here are the following things:

1) Are my rules still correct in sentences like:

 

"I love you." He said.

 

Or should that be:

 

"I love you", he said.

"I love you." he said.

"I love you," he said.

 

Also do we use a comma before a quote starts, or not? Ie, is it:

 

He said "I am going to kiss you while you are asleep."

 

or is it:

 

He said, "I am going to kiss you while you are asleep."

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Aleric

Edited January 29, 2005 by Aleric

[DomLuka]

Well my rules are a little less thought out than that. I dont really think about commas all that much, but I probably use way more of them than I should. But, as far as dialogue goes I make sure that everyone talking gets their own paragraph. It makes it way less confusing.

 

Also, punctuation should go inside of quotation marks, not outside.

 

"I love you," he said.

 

"Don't do that!" I shouted

 

When a sentence ends with a period, I'm pretty sure that the next word should be capitalized. (I probably don

[Myr]

Well, a few rules of thumb:

1) Each character speaking should have their own line. Never mix characters voices in the same paragraph.

2) Punctuation is important in how you want to say something.

This says one thing:

"Yahoo!  I'm rich," he announced.  

This says something else:

"Yahoo! I'm rich." He announced.

The second one doesn't make much sense in natural flow. It is too short and choppy. It also sends English majors into histerics.

3) Try reading what you write outloud. Pause for a moment a commas and pause longer at periods. If it sounds choppy when you read it aloud, then it is going to sound akward when people are reading it.

[Crackerwriter]

And while we're at it, SPACINGS!

 

PLEASE, by common consent, the norm is TWO spaces between sentences.

ie. between the full stop of the preceeding sentence, and the Capital letter of the next one, whether or not the full stop is contained withing parenthesis! (")

 

eg. "I'm off." His announcement came as....

 

Where a comma preceeds parenthesis marks, then there follows just one space before the next word that starts with a lower case letter.

 

 

eg. "I'm off," he said.

 

Stick to the rules and you'll spare many an editor premature baldness.

[Myr]

Oh there is also the difference between book publishing and net writing too.

 

 In books, you would indent your paragraph like this. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph.

 In books, you would indent your paragraph like this. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph.

 

* * *

 

On the Net, it is much easier to read if you don't indent (there is no html code for that anyway) and if you separate each paragraph by a blank line. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph.

 

The next paragraph is here. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph. The words would continue until you had a paragraph.

[Bill W]

I think the others covered most points, but I'd just like to emphasize about NOT mixing different voices in the same paragraph. Everytime you change speakers, you also change paragraphs. There's nothing more confusing than multiple speakers running into each other.

 

The other thing is, if your speaker is continuing through multiple paragraphs, don't put the closing (end) quotation mark on any paragraph except the last one. However, you do put the beginning (start) quotation mark on each paragraph he is speaking.

 

I hope that helps.

[boy on a string]

Another use for commas is when you are addressing someone in a sentence.

 

"Hey Bob, come over here," he said.

 

That is how I see most sentences. It should be;

 

"Hey, Bob, come over here," he said.

 

Another example - "I just called, Mom, to let you know where I am," Sam heard Joe saying on the telephone.

 

And when the person is addressing someone directly, like above, (mom, dad, brother, sister) then it should start with a capital.

 

I have a hard time with first, second, third person. So I don't know what person this is in, but this is when you don't capitalize;

 

"I just talked to my mom," He said.

 

Or

 

"Thanks, Sam, for letting me call my mom," Joe said.

 

When I went through school, I was taught that all words in the begining of a double quote, (") was capitalized.

 

He said, "Come here."

 

I was also taught that all words after the quote (") was to be capitalized as well.

 

"Come here," He said.

 

The exeption to the rule would be;

 

"Come here," said Sam.

 

Boy on a String

[Aleric]

Another use for commas is when you are addressing someone in a sentence.

 

"Hey Bob, come over here," he said. 

 

That is how I see most sentences.  It should be;

 

"Hey, Bob, come over here," he said.

 

... 'k ... But, hmm. Let me give an example right out of my current

story . I decided deliberately NOT to place a comma in front of

'Victor' in this case:

 

"Please come back soon, will ya Victor?"

 

In most case I do add a comma. But in this case I want it

pronounced without a pause: I just place a comma where I

want a pause, not somewhere else

 

I was also taught that all words after the quote (") was to be capitalized as well.

 

"Come here," He said.

 

The exeption to the rule would be;

 

"Come here," said Sam.

 

How can I recognize this exception? Is it only because of the word 'said'?

I suppose also when you'd use 'whisper', or 'shouted'? Are there other

cases?

 

Aleric

[Myr]

I would also recommend touring the Author Resource page.

https://www.gayauthors.org/author-resources.html