Formatting dialogue can be tricky, but if not done correctly, you’ll find your readers are confused, and your text will look very blocky.
Understanding the basics allows your readers to follow your dialogue easily. Ideally, any editor will need this to be done before they work on your draft.
1. Use quotation marks to indicate anyone talking
Whenever someone is speaking, their words should be enclosed in quotation marks.*
Example:
‘Let’s go for a walk.’
2. Use a new paragraph to indicate a new speaker
Any time you change speakers, you should begin a new paragraph. If the speaker performs an action after speaking, you should keep that speaker’s action in the same paragraph. Then, move on to a new paragraph when someone else begins speaking or performs an action. This helps the reader know who is speaking and who is performing the action.
Example:
‘Frank, I’m going to need you to take a look at this,’ said Susan. She gestured to the photograph on her desk.
‘That’s not mine,’ said Frank.
‘It is! I found it in your bag,’ replied Susan. Her eyes darted from the photograph to Frank’s empty coffee cup. She knew it was going to be a long night.
3. Dialogue tags stay outside the quotation marks
Dialogue tags indicate who is speaking. Dialogue tags stay outside the quotation marks, whilst the punctuation stays inside the quotation marks.
Example:
‘There were feathers everywhere,’ Karen explained.
If the dialogue tag comes before the dialogue, the comma appears before the first quotation mark.
Example:
Karen explained, ‘There were feathers everywhere.’
If the dialogue ends with an exclamation mark or a question mark, the tags that follow still begin with a lower-case letter. The dialogue punctuation still goes inside the quotation marks.
Example:
‘There were feathers everywhere!’ she explained.
4. Use a separate sentence for actions that happen before or after the dialogue
If an action occurs before or after the lines of dialogue, it should be given its own sentence. For instance, if Fern gasps and then speaks, it would look like this:
Example:
Fern gasped. ‘You’re dying?’
5. Use double quotes when quoting something within the dialogue
If a character is quoting something or somebody else within their dialogue, use double quotation marks to indicate that the character is quoting someone else.
Example:
Oliver started to laugh. ‘When you said, “I love you!” I thought you were joking.’
6. Start with a lower-case letter after an interruption in a sentence of dialogue
If either a dialogue tag or an action comes in the middle of a sentence of dialogue, the first letter of the second fragment of the dialogue should be lower case.
If the interruption is a dialogue tag, end the part before the dialogue tag with a comma and then place a comma after the dialogue tag.
Example:
‘At the end of the day,’ he whispered, ‘there’s always more soup!’
However, if the interruption is an action, place a quotation mark after the last word spoken, a space, an en dash, the action itself and another en dash.
Example:
‘I’m really not sure’ – he scratched his head – ‘but I’ll give it a go.’
7. Long speeches have their own rules
If a person speaks for a long enough period of time to necessitate a new paragraph, the dialogue formatting rules are slightly different from normal. The opening quotation marks are placed at the beginning of the first paragraph as well as at the beginning of each subsequent paragraph. The closing quotation marks, however, are placed only at the end of the last paragraph.
Example:
Peter took a deep breath and began: ‘Here’s the thing about dogs. They’re unpredictable creatures. They may look all cute and friendly, but unless you know what they’re like, then you shouldn’t approach them.
‘I got bitten by a dog once. I was walking in the park on Hayling Island, and I saw this cute-looking dog. It came bounding up to me, and I thought it was friendly. All of a sudden, it bit me. My heart stopped. I froze up. Blood was dripping from my hand. I’ll never trust a dog again.’
8. Em-dashes indicate interruption
Em dashes (—, not to be confused with hyphens [-] or en dashes [–]) are used to indicate interruptions and abrupt endings in dialogue. When formatting dialogue with em dashes, the dashes should be placed inside the quotation marks.
Example:
Bethany began to speak: ‘I just thought we could—’
‘I’m not interested,’ interrupted Lisa.
9. Don’t add other punctuation when using ellipses
If you’re writing dialogue that ends with an ellipsis (…), you shouldn’t add a comma or any additional punctuation beyond a closing quotation mark. Ellipses are used to indicate the dialogue trailing off. (Unlike the em dash, which indicates an abrupt end.)
Example:
Lindsay let out a low whistle. ‘I guess this is it…’ she said.
10. Other handy tips when writing dialogue
- Always use contractions when someone is talking. It gives a much more natural feel to the conversation. The only exception is to give a particular emphasis to what is being said.
- Use dialogue tags sparingly. You don’t need to tell the reader who is speaking if it’s just two people talking, as long as you’ve established who spoke first. If you have a person doing an action alongside the line of dialogue, which indicates who the person is, that’s enough (called an ‘action beat’).
- Be careful what verb you use in a dialogue tag. Example: You can’t smirk a comment. You can smirk after a comment, but you can’t perform that action whilst talking.
- Don’t overuse names within the dialogue itself. Most people don’t repeatedly use the name of the person they’re speaking to in what they’re saying, so it doesn’t sound natural.
- Dialogue should be used to move the story forward; don’t use it as filler, otherwise readers will start to skim-read your book.
- Be careful of using shouted, screamed or yelled as a speech tag. Most people don’t shout, scream or yell (have a think to the last time you heard someone do this), and yet in lots of novels characters are yelling, screaming and shouting. This isn’t realistic.
- Exclamation marks: you only need to use one – and use them sparingly. Never use an exclamation mark and a question mark together (i.e. !?); if you wish to give emphasis to a question, place it in italics instead.
* In British English, there are two standards to choose between when it comes to quotation marks: using single quotation marks for everything (except for quotes within quotes – see my later tip on that) or using double quotation marks for speech/quotations but single quotation marks for scare quotes. It’s much easier and neater to go with using single quotation marks for everything!
Alexa Whitten is…
Authormaker at The Writers’ Refinery
Cohost of The Pen to Published Podcast
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