How to properly punctuate the words your characters speak. Dialogue How to properly punctuate the words your characters speak.

I walked into the room. Mary was there. She asked, “What are you doing I walked into the room. Mary was there. She asked, “What are you doing?” I said, “I just came in to see if you wanted to start dinner.” “I already ate before I came home.” I said, “Well, will you help me anyway?” “No.” I asked her, “Why not?” She screamed, “Because I already ate! What’s wrong with you?” “Nothing,” I said. “I’m going to leave,” I said. “Fine,” she said, and went back to looking at the TV. I left the room.

Things to remember when writing dialogue Write it as realistically as possible. Make it clear who is speaking when. Do not give too much information or unrealistic information in dialogue. Keep the conversation moving. Make it as easy to read as possible.

Rules of punctuating dialogue Start a new paragraph when a new person speaks or a large passage of action interrupts the speaking. Use quotation marks to surround all spoken words on both sides. Use speaker tags to show who is talking. Use the proper end marks. Endmarks always go inside the quotes.

Endmarks – possibly the most difficult part of dialogue. Use a comma if the dialogue is a statement and there is a speaker tag following. Example: “Welcome home,” she said, stepping forward to take his hand.

When a speaker tag interrupts the speech... Treat it as parenthetical information and use a comma on either side. “I can’t believe,” she said as she ran toward me, “that you are finally here.”

Use a period... If no speaker tag follows the quotation: “Welcome home.” She stepped forward to take his hand. “Thank you.” He offered his own hand in return.

When a question mark or exclamation point is used... Follow with a lowercase letter if a speaker tag is being used. Use a capital if it goes right into action.

Example: “It has been so long!” she exclaimed. “Hasn’t it?” Her hand was warm in his own as he smiled down at her.

WHAT’S WRONG HERE? “Stop!” Buddy cried as they approached another intersection. At this one, the light had burned out and a tall oak stood off to one side. “Let me out here.” Are you crazy,” Joe asked. “It’s still at least another twenty miles to Mud Bucket! “Just let me out, Joe. I mean it.” Buddy had become desperate. He could think of nothing else he wanted more than to become a famous musician, and if it took selling his soul to the devil to do it, then he would. Joe pulled the truck over onto the gravel at the side of the road and rolled to a stop. “Are you sure about this? It’s freakin’ creepy out there, man.” “I have my phone. I’ll call if something happens. “Well,” Said Joe. “don’t think I’m coming back out here for your sorry butt,” Buddy got out, slammed the door shut, and Joe spun off onto the highway, his tires screeching on the blacktop.

“Stop. ” Buddy cried as they approached another intersection “Stop!” Buddy cried as they approached another intersection. At this one, the light had burned out and a tall oak stood off to one side. “Let me out here.” “Are you crazy?” Joe asked. “It’s still at least another twenty miles to Mud Bucket!” “Just let me out, Joe. I mean it.” Buddy had become desperate. He could think of nothing else he wanted more than to become a famous musician, and if it took selling his soul to the devil to do it, then he would. Joe pulled the truck over onto the gravel at the side of the road and rolled to a stop. “Are you sure about this? It’s freakin’ creepy out there, man.” “I have my phone. I’ll call if something happens.” “Well,” said Joe, “don’t think I’m coming back out here for your sorry butt.” Buddy got out, slammed the door shut, and Joe spun off onto the highway, his tires screeching on the blacktop.

I walked into the room. Mary was there. She asked, “What are you doing?” “I just came in to see if you wanted to start dinner.” “I already ate before I came home.” “Well, will you help me anyway?” “No.” I asked her, “Why not?” “Because I already ate!” she screamed. “What’s wrong with you?” “Nothing,” I said. “I’m going to leave.” “Fine,” she said, and went back to looking at the TV. I left the room.

Combating the "Boring" Speech Tag Many newer writers who are trying to avoid speech tags becoming boring will turn to their thesaurus for alternate speech tag verbs. Thus, you'll get characters who "exclaim" and "declare" and "query." The problem with that is voice. Dialogue reflects the voice of your characters, but all narration (including speech tags) has voice as well. And the voice needs to feel authentic and consistent. In fact, the "boring" speech tag is actually often caused by a combination of elements that come together to feel too repetitive for the reader. Sure, one element might be having every bit of speech tagged with "said," but the repetitiveness can also come from using the exact same sentence form in your speech. Form will include word choice, but also how you break the dialogue for the tag, and whether you ever vary with other kinds of identifiers.

First Variant: Moving Things Around Look at this example of quick dialogue: "I know," Jane said. "I thought you did," Bob said. "You knew it all along," Jane said. "I did," Bob said. Now, we could use lots of ways to vary that. But let's try one that uses "said" but is less rigid in structure: "I know," Jane said. Bob said, "I thought you did." "You knew it all along," Jane said. "I did," said Bob. This tiny variant doesn't exactly make the dialogue suddenly fascinating, but it does keep it from being quite so repetitive, and therefore dull. It helps. But we can do even more.

Second Variant: Moving Out of Limbo One of the problems with using only speech tags (no matter what the verb) is that it results in the setting and action falling away from the story and leaving nothing behind but talking heads. People often do stuff when they talk. So this opens the door for adding interest by expanding the world the characters are speaking in. Consider this: Jane closed her locker door and leaned her forehead against the smooth metal. "I know." "I thought you did," Bob whispered. Jane turned her head to look into his sad brown eyes. "You knew it all along." "I did." He smiled sadly. "I did." How much better do we know the characters when we expand beyond voices and let the physicality of the setting and the characters creep in to make the moment deeper? Now this doesn't always work. Sometimes we might begin a bit of dialogue this way, but then segue into an argument where we want to convey speed and force. In a situation like that, you might choose to leave some dialogue untagged (when the speaker is very clear) and use narrative action to add emotion or to change the pacing.

Second Variant: Moving Out of Limbo She slammed the locker. "You could have told me." "You wouldn't listen." She poked him in the chest. "You don't know that." "I do." "You don't." He caught her finger before it could strike his chest again. "I do. I always do." See how the lack of dialogue tags is kept limited so that I gain energy and speed but don't pay for it in confusion.

Dialogue Lesson Get your chrome book and go to the class page. Under Fiction, go to Dialogue Rules and open the PDF please.

Next Step Go to the class page, under Fiction and open the PDF labelled “Dialogue Exercises”.

Dialogue Exercise Please get your chrome book, go to the class page, under Fiction and open Dialogue Exercises. Review the dialogue punctuation and use of tags. Then, complete Ex 2 and 3 and submit to Turnitin.

Pair Share Get with a partner and share the two exercises from yesterday. Be prepared to speak about how your partner approached the dialogue – how did they create a relationship between the characters (body language, dialogue tags, actions, etc.)? What did you like best? Why?

Application Now that you learned about the purpose of dialogue and how to punctuate it as well as had two opportunities to practice, you will be going back to your Writing Sample Draft #2 and fixing all the dialogue. Remember dialogue defines character, builds suspense or moves the plot along.