Dialog Punctuation Tips for Authors

Short and sweet, I will explain punctuating dialog, and only dialog, in the way I wish my teachers had.

Don't let what all the "rules" scare you. Once you have this "lesson" down, you will be okay in over 95% of the dialog you write.

If you get confused, look online for answers to your questions. (Be very careful to only use sources that know what they are doing. If you see words like "I don't think" or "In my opinion" look elsewhere.) When I started writing, the internet was not an option. I looked in books to see how what I wanted to do was done. Publishers and editors had looked over every line before the book went to press. (It would be naive to believe they caught every error, but you could take it to the bank any slips were few and far between.) You can still do that, but only with books on paper and of publications at least 20 years old. Never use anything self-published as your guide. (I guess using those criteria, you shouldn't use this as your guide. But, wait, I'm different. You can trust me.)

Of course, other English-speaking countries have different rules for the punctuation of dialog. (In the United States, the period goes inside the quotation mark. In the UK, it goes outside.) This is what I know about the rules in the US.

LET'S GET STARTED

IF YOU GET NOTHING ELSE, please ALWAYS start a new paragraph when you change the speaker. Always. There are no exceptions. None.

(Bill could hear the shouts from the crowd. "That's not fair." "How can he get away with that?" "Someone has to put a stop to it." is the same speaker - the narrator. The narrator is telling you what is going on. No character(s) in the manuscript is/are speaking.)

THE SIMPLE SENTENCE.

The period is the big boss. When it says "stop" it means "stop". Your sentence is over. Move on to the next one. I don't know of any exceptions to this rule. It doesn't matter what you have before the period, that little dot tells you, you are finished with that sentence.

1."I told you to stop."

2."I told you to stop," Bill said.

3."I told you to stop," Bill said, "and I mean it."

Note that in #2, there is a comma after "stop", not a period. That is because I am not done with the sentence, there is more to come. I want to add that Bill is speaking. As there is a comma and not a period, "Bill said" is part of the sentence.

It would be wrong to write: "I told you to stop." Bill said. The period after "stop" has made "Bill said." into its own, stand by itself, sentence.

"I want you to stop."

Bill said.

That's not what you are trying to do. You want the reader to know that Bill is the one who told you to stop.

Look at #3. I have added more to the sentence, but again the sentence doesn't end until we get to the period so "Bill said" is part of the sentence as well as "and I mean it.

Correct: Becky smiled. "Hmmm," she said.

Not Correct: Becky smiled. "hmmm," she said.

Not Correct: Becky smiled. "Hmmm." She said.

WHEN THE SPEAKER CONTINUES IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH

If the dialog continues directly to the next paragraph without the speaker stopping, do not end the paragraph with a quote. But do start the next paragraph with a quote. Because you have not closed the quote (the end of the dialog quotation mark), the reader knows that the same person is talking in the next paragraph.

e.g.

>>> "Bill is an idiot. He doesn't give a shit what anyone else wants. It's his way or not at all. (End of paragraph as we are changing subject.)

"And don't get me started on his father. It's not hard to see where Bill gets it from."

>>> "Billy, I don't know what I am going to do," Bob said. "It's beyond anything I've ever done.

"And Steven is useless as a resource." (End of Steven speaking, so end quote.)

Two separate subjects (so a new paragraph) with the same speaker. His dialog ended the first paragraph but is continued at the beginning of the next. There is no change of speaker, so we don't end the first paragraph with a quote.

>>> "Billy, I don't know what I am going to do," Bob said. "It's beyond anything I've ever done."

>>> Bob shook the oblong box, then placed it on the table. "And Steven is useless as a resource."

Here, dialog ended the first paragraph but didn't immediately continue in the next paragraph, so we insert an end quote. To show that Bob is still speaking, we can use an action tag for Bob, then follow with dialog. Without the action tag (or a dialog tag) either Billy or Bob could be speaking. "And Steven is useless as a resource." could have been said by either of them.