🗨⁉Punctuate Dialogue⁉🗨
There is a site for this, but I couldn't copy and paste the URL to here, I'm no expect on dialogue and I want to clarify that this work here is not my own. I found this on google, called The Editor's Blog. As you can see the woman who wrote this has her name down below. After reading this and please, read it all, I had a better understanding, Beth gave simple examples while being very detailed. Now I'll be honest, remembering these rules might mean rereading this article over and over. I know while I was writing I had to refer back just to make sure I did it right. But you know what they say, if you work at it eventually it becomes second nature. This is an important grammar tool to use for editing.
December 8, 2010 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill
last modified April 18, 2016
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The PDF ($0.99) and (available in paperback and PDF) both contain expanded and updated versions of this material.
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Only what is spoken is within the quotation marks. Other parts of the same sentence-dialogue tags and action or thought-go outside the quotation marks.
Dialogue begins with a capitalized word, no matter where in the sentence it begins. (Interrupted dialogue, when it resumes, is not capped.)
Only direct dialogue requires quotation marks. Direct dialogue is someone speaking. Indirect dialogue is a report that someone spoke. The word that is implied in the example of indirect dialogue.
Direct: "She was a bore," he said.
Indirect: He said [that] she was a bore.
Here are some of the rules, with examples.
Single line of dialogue, no dialogue tag
The entire sentence, including the period (or question mark or exclamation point) is within the quotation marks.
"He loved you."
Single line with dialogue tag (attribution) following
The dialogue is enclosed in quotation marks. A comma follows the dialogue and comes before the closing quotation mark. A period ends the sentence. Punctuation serves to separate the spoken words from other parts of the sentence.
Because the dialogue tag-she said-is part of the same sentence, it is not capped.
"He loved you," she said.
Single line with dialogue tag first
The comma still separates the dialogue tag from the spoken words, but it is outside the quotation marks, and the period is inside the quotation marks.
She said, "He loved you."
Single line of dialogue with dialogue tag and action
The dialogue is enclosed in quotation marks. A comma follows the dialogue and comes before the closing quotation mark. The dialogue tag is next and the action follows the tag-no capital letter because this is part of the same sentence-with a period to end the sentence.
"He loved you," she said, hoping Sue didn't hear her.
The action and dialogue tag can also come first.
Leaning away, she said, "He loved you."
Dialogue interrupted by dialogue tag
Dialogue can be interrupted by a tag and then resume in the same sentence. Commas go inside the first set of quotation marks and after the dialogue tag (or action).
"He loved you," she said, "but you didn't care."
"He loved you," she said, hoping to provoke a reaction, "but you didn't care."
Separating this into two sentences also works. The first sentence will end with a period and the second will begin with a capital letter.
"He loved you," she said, hoping to provoke a reaction. "But you didn't care."
Questions in dialogue, no dialogue tag
Question mark is inside the quotation marks.
Use this same construction for the exclamation point.
"He loved you?"
"He loved you!"
Questions in dialogue, with dialogue tag
Question mark is inside quotation marks. There is no comma. The tag doesn't begin with a cap since it's part of the same sentence, even though there's a question mark in the middle of the sentence.
Use this same construction for the exclamation point.
"He loved you?" she asked, the loathing clear in her voice and posture.
"He loved you!" she said, pointing a finger at Sally.
Dialogue interrupted by action or thought but no dialogue tag
Characters can pause in their words to do something and then resume the dialogue. If there is no dialogue tag, special punctuation is required to set off the action or thought.
Enclose the first part of the dialogue in quotation marks but omit the comma. Follow the end quotation mark with an em dash and the action or thought and then another em dash. Resume the dialogue with another opening quotation mark, complete the dialogue, and end with a period and a closing quotation mark. There are no spaces between the quotation marks and the dashes or between the dashes and the action/thought.
Thus the spoken words are within quotation marks and the action or thought is set off by the dashes.
"He loved you"-she pounded the wall with a heavy fist-"but you never cared."
"He loved you"-at least she thought he had-"but you never cared."
Compare this to a similar construction without dialogue:
He'd forgotten all about me-my heart ached at the thought-but I'd never forgotten him.
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