punctuation and dialogue/narration

[Former Member]

We got into a debate today in one of my classes about how to use punctuation when writing what the characters are "saying" in a story, as opposed to the author's narration of details. Also, we got onto the topic of changing POV's in a story.

 

Do any of you have any information on this? Every time I search the internet, it seems that there are so many conflicting opinions about this. I know every writer has his/her own style of writing, but don't the rules of grammar apply universally?

[Andy78]

The rules of grammar are universal.

 

I'll PM you a doc I have with a lot of the rules as I'm not sure how to paste it in here.

 

Hope it helps.

[Cia]

I found this cheat sheet online a while back. It helps clear things up quite well.

 

 

1. Use quotation marks to begin and end a direct quotation. Separate the quoted material

from the dialogue tag by commas. Do not use quotation marks to set off an indirect

quotation.

I said, “The fable by James Thurber will surprise you.”

I said that the fable by James Thurber would surprise you.

 

2. If a question mark or an exclamation point occurs where one of the separating commas

should be used, omit the comma and use the question mark or exclamation point to separate

the quoted material.

“Don’t be late!” Bill warned.

 

3. The speaker’s words are set off from the rest of the sentence with quotation marks, and the first word of the quotation is capitalized. When the end of the quotation is also the end of the sentence, the period falls inside the quotation marks.

He said, “We’ll discuss the fable in one hour.”

 

4. Both parts of a divided quotation are enclosed in quotation marks. The first word of the

second part is not capitalized unless it begins a new sentence.

“This fable,” our teacher said, “is a twist of an old tale.”

 

5. When writing only a part of a quoted sentence, do not begin the quotation with a capital

letter unless the person you are quoting capitalized it or it is the first word in your sentence.

A film critic has called the movie “a futile attempt by the director to trade in his reputation as a

creator of blockbusters” (Anderson 74).

 

6. Quotes within quotes: If you need to have one character directly quoting another character, then use double quotes for your main dialogue and single quotes for the quote-within-aquote.

“And then he said, ‘Mind your own business.’ The nerve!” she said.

 

7. MSF rules

 

a. Periods and commas ALWAYS go inside quotation marks.

“I think you’re wrong,” Dan said.

 

b. Colons and semicolons ALWAYS go outside quotation marks.

Dan said, “I think you’re wrong”; he was asking us to re-examine our information.

 

c. Question marks and exclamation marks go EITHER inside or outside the quotation

mark depending on the situation. They go inside when the question or exclamation is

part of what is quoted.

She asked, “Who did it?” or Did she say, “I’m quitting”?

 

d. When the sentence, as well as the quotation at the end of the sentence, needs a question

mark (or an exclamation point), use only ONE question mark (or exclamation point),

and place it inside the closing quotation marks.

Did she ask, “Is this fair?”

 

If you are questioning an exclamation, do it like this:

Is it true he yelled, “No!”?

 

8. When you write dialogue, begin a new paragraph whenever the speaker changes.

“Videotape is the wave of the future,” declared Clarissa. “There’s no doubt about it! Not

only is it a popular medium for today’s artists, but it has practical applications as well.”

 

“You’re right,” Angela agreed. “Video has been a boon to us on the swimming team—even

when we don’t like what we see! When we see ourselves on tape, however, we see immediately

where our shortcomings are: a kick that’s uneven or too much time lost at the turn.”

 

“I work with emotionally disturbed children,” mused Carmen,“and, now that you mention it,

perhaps videotaping the teachers at work would be helpful. It would give us a chance to study our interaction with the children and see where we might improve or change our approach.”

 

“Well, I guess we have our work cut out for us,” Clarissa said. “If we all become masters of

the video camera, we’ll be on the road to success.”

 

9. Use a pair of dashes to indicate an abrupt break in thought or speech or an unfinished

statement or question.

 

“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better

with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his

point of view—”

 

“Sir?”

 

“—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

 

10. If you have the same speaker saying things that are separated by descriptive passages, you may choose to keep everything in one paragraph or separate parts into their own

paragraphs. Make this decision using the same criteria you would use in deciding to start a

new paragraph without dialogue. In other words, if you have more than one topic, give each its own paragraph. Just make sure it is clear that the dialogue belongs to the same speaker.

“If I didn’t go to school tomorrow, you’d force me to.”

 

“Let us leave it at this,” said Atticus dryly. “You, Miss Scout Finch, are of the common folk.

You must obey the law.” He said that the Ewells were members of an exclusive society made up

of Ewells. In certain circumstances the common folk judiciously allowed them certain privileges

by the simple method of becoming blind to some of the Ewells’ activities. They didn’t have to go

to school, for one thing. Another thing, Mr. Bob Ewell, Burris’s father, was permitted to hunt and trap out of season.

 

“Atticus, that’s bad.” I said. In Maycomb County, hunting out of season was a misdemeanor

at law, a capital felony in the eyes of the populace.

 

11. Sometimes, one speaker’s words run for more than one paragraph. When this happens, use quotation marks at the beginning of the quotation, at the beginning of each subsequent

paragraph, and at the end of the whole quotation.

“I read a spell-binding mystery yesterday,” Agnes said. “It gripped me on the first page,

and I couldn’t put the book down until I had finished.

 

“The plot is simple, almost classic. Five people are sitting in a room watching home movies.

When the lights come on, one of the people is dead. Who did it? How was it done?

 

“Of course, no one has entered or left the room during the movies; thus, one of the other four

people in the room has done it. I, of course, thought of poison—but that was wrong.

 

“Well, the detective arrives, and the questioning begins. As the story unfolds, you learn that

everyone has a motive. The plot thickens. The mystery isn’t solved until the last page, and it had

me fooled. Whew! I’m exhausted from the suspense!”

 

12. ELLIPSIS POINTS: Use three spaced ellipsis points (. . .) to indicate a pause in written

dialogue. Ex. “Well, . . . I don’t know,” Sarah answered. When someone’s words “trail

off,” you also use 3 ellipsis points. (Be sure to space in between each one.) If the ellipsis

points appear at the end of a sentence, you will need a fourth “dot” for the sentence period.

 

“Mr. Ewell shouldn’t do that—”

 

“Of course, he shouldn’t, but he’ll never change his ways. Are you going to take out your

disapproval on his children?”

 

“No, sir,” I murmured and made a final stand: “But if I keep on goin’ to school, we can’t

ever read any more. . . .”

 

“That’s really bothering you, isn’t it?”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

When Atticus looked down at me, I saw the expression on his face that always made me

expect something. “Do you know what a compromise is?” he asked.

 

[LJH]

I would say that there are rules that govern writing and yes, these are universal.  The important thing is to know them before you break them. Dialogue requires that we use opening and closing quotation marks and tags like "He said/she said", but I have read books where there are no quotation marks at all. I would suggest that if you are serious about writing, that you find your own style. Your style encompasses how you treat dialogue and narrative, how you punctuate, how you hook the reader, how you engage the reader and how you use words to convey the story. Matthew Reilly, an Australian thriller writer, has a way cool style of writing.  At a moment of high drama, he will break the sentence and continue the same sentence on a new line without punctuation

just like this. 

 

It's all a matter of knowing the rules.  Grammar and punctuation make it easy for the reader to follow.  Here's just one rule you might think about, and it concerns the exclamation mark !

 

Get out! he shouted.  Seems to be the correct way of expressing the dialogue.  But I was taught that the exclamation mark is the tag. The exclamation is the shout. So writing he shouted, merely duplicates/repeats the exclamation mark.  So it is written as

Get out! he said.

 

But let's look at some dialogue truths: Dialogue is used to show conflict, to advance the story, and to show character.  So it must be taken seriously. Dialogue is the lifeblood of your story.  Characters discuss, argue, reveal and hide behind their words so dialogue must be written moment by moment and follow the stimulus-response rule.  You can include internal thoughts of the viewpoint character.  Dialogue involves the words spoken by the characters. It involves attributions or tags like "he said, she said" It involves body language, gestures, movements, facial expressions.  Use these as much as you can.  A character is never static. He is always moving, picking up a book, kicking a ball, watching his lover.

 

Yes, punctuation in dialogue is important because of the overwhelming truths as stated above.

 

I always have maintained that writing is a craft.  Very few of us are born with the ability to write a blockbuster.  So we must learn.  I also believe that if there were no rules, why, we wouldn't need Departments of Literature at universities, or Master of Creative Writing degrees.  We wouldn't have Professors in Literature. Having said this, it's important to understand the rules before breaking them.  It's like riding a BMX, you need to know how to ride a bike before you can do the tricks.

 

POV is tricky.  The best way is to adopt an omnicient point of view or the all seeing POV so the narrator sees everything. Of course, if you use the first person, your character will not be able to be in two places at the same time.  Your character will only be able to describe what he sees and what he thinks about it.  Many authors write first person quite spectacularly.  Many writers change POV in their work, one chapter will be seen through let us say, Mark's eyes, the next chapter will be seen through Peter's eyes. It's all a matter of what you want the reader to get out of your work. 

 

It's all a matter of knowing the rules. Then smash them! LOL

[sat8997]

Points to Cia for the solid information in her post.

 

  I know every writer has his/her own style of writing, but don't the rules of grammar apply universally?           

 

Yes. Follow them. Specifically, dialog punctuation. Nothing annoys me more than crappy dialog punctuation. 

[The Pecman]

We got into a debate today in one of my classes about how to use punctuation when writing what the characters are "saying" in a story, as opposed to the author's narration of details. Also, we got onto the topic of changing POV's in a story.

 

Changing POVs is a pet peeve of mine. I'm not saying it can't be done or never should be done, but I think a much wiser course is just to write the story in 3rd person omniscient, using an "unseen narrator" to tell the story logically, getting inside the thoughts of only one character at a time. To me, the moment you waver back and forth between two different characters on the same page, using 1st person POV, it's just hammy and contrived and artificial. 

 

Going back and forth between descriptive prose and dialogue is a skill like anything else. In some cases, if the description reflects the attitude and sensibilities of the protagonist, then I think it can reflect his or her mood to some extent. In other cases, the description might remain neutral (as in 3rd person), yet still find a way to describe the emotions and mood of the lead character.

 

Nancy Kress' book Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint (from Writers Digest Press) goes into this in great detail, with examples on how it can be done well, and how it's sometimes done badly.

Edited February 12, 2013 by The Pecman

[rainbowfingers]

Cia thx nice job btw it helped