This week: Talk About Talking Edited by: Annette  
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| "I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I put a position, rebut it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation." ~ Tom Stoppard |
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Talk About Talking
Formatting dialogue is important. It ensures your readers understand who is talking and to whom they are talking to or about. For ease of reading, every new line of dialogue is indented like a paragraph.
Quotation marks, " " show a reader where a character is talking. Whatever is contained in the quotation marks is being spoken aloud. Quotation marks always come in a pair at the beginning and end of the quote.
A dialogue tag is like a tag on a present. Or on your luggage. A dialogue tag is the he said/she said/they said that's attached to a piece of dialogue. It tells us who is speaking. Typically, we want to tag our dialogue early in the scene. If there are only two characters, you can tag two characters initially, but then only tag every few lines (to remind a reader who is talking). In general, if it's very obvious who is speaking, then we don't need a tag. But tagging early in a scene will help a reader know who is talking.
A period ends a sentence. So if you have a piece of dialogue with a period inside of the quotations, the sentence is over. You cannot add a tag to that piece of dialogue. If it's important to tag that piece of dialogue, you cannot end that piece of dialogue with a period. Keep the periods inside of the quotation marks if you are punctuating that piece of dialogue as a complete sentence.
"I have to get glasses," said Johnny.
"Oh no," said Billy.
"I don't want to look funny with glasses."
Question Marks & Commas
If you are going to use a dialogue tag, you will need comma at the end of the piece of dialogue and then you can add that tag.
"You can call me Cookie," said the big blue monster. CORRECT
"You can call me Cookie," Said the big blue monster. INCORRECT
"You can call me Cookie." Said the big blue monster. INCORRECT
If your character asks questions, treat the question mark like a comma.
"What should I call you?" asked Betty. CORRECT
"What should I call you," asked Betty? INCORRECT
"What should I call you"? Asked Betty. INCORRECT
Changing Paragraphs
Every time a point-of-view changes, so does the paragraph. So, if two characters are talking back-and-forth, each one should get a new INDENTED paragraph.
"What about the Count?" said Oscar the Grouch.
"What about him? I'll invite him," said Big Bird.
"Oh man! He's going to count the balloons, and the candies, and all the party guest."
Ellipses. . .
Do not use ellipses as a way to pause dialogue. If dialogue has to be paused, then use em-dashes. Ellipses are used to show MISSING dialogue (like when you quoted a really long text and you took out pieces of that quote). If there are many pauses happening within a piece of dialogue, then find a way to write that as narration or use description as a way to describe what is going on in the scene.
To pause, use narration.
“I don’t know if I can,” she paused and shook her head.
If you want the dialogue to trail off, and the narrator doesn’t hear what that dialogue is, you can use ellipses.
“I don’t know if I can tell her that. . .” she trailed off.
To cut-off a character’s dialogue, use an em-dash or narration.
“I don’t know if I can—” He cut her off.
To cut-off a character's dialogue using narration.
“I don’t know if I can,” she started but then he cut her off.
Exclamation Points
In general, reserve your use of exclamation points for only the most important pieces of dialogue that require an exclamation point. If you write the dialogue and or narration/description effectively, then you won't need the exclamation point.
Punctuate an exclamation point like you would a question mark.
"There is nothing left for us!" Mark screamed.
"Said" vs Other Verbs
In general, use said or says instead of verbs like, he shouted or he shouted loudly. The word said/says reads very quickly and fluidly for a reader. When you add other verbs in, it actually slows a reader down. And if you have to add an adverb then your choice of verb wasn't strong enough to begin with anyhow.
Thoughts
If a character has a thought, and they say it out loud, this should be identified with quotations like dialogue since it is spoken aloud. If a character has thought, but it is strictly interiority, then you have two choices to identify it as interiority.
Identify the thought through narration like a dialogue tag.
For example: She checked the numbers on the screen again. Dear god, she thought. I've won the jackpot.
You can italicize interiority when you need to distinguish the interiority from the rest of the story.
For example: She checked the numbers on the screen again. Dear god. I've won the jackpot. In general, you do not need both.
Why can't the queen, the president, and the prime minster agree on commas? |
| | The Snowman (E)
A small boy, an orphanage, and a talking snowman all mixed together for Christmas morning.
#1045394 by W.D.Wilcox  |
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Replies to my last Short Stories newsletter "Freytag versus Three Acts" that asked Is an upside down V? Is it a pyramid? Is it a triangle? Or is it a rope with knots?
Damon Nomad  wrote: Nice summary, the Freytag construct helps me when outlining. I don’t visualize a symmetric triangle. The rising action is a longer route than the resolution. Learning to draw out the climax is also a powerful storytelling tool.
I agree that the resolution is a shorter leg than the rising action. Not sure about drawing out the moment of highest tension. It's not "highest" if it's a long part of the narration. That would put it either back into rising action or sweep it over the edge into resolution. |
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Short Stories: October 16, 2024 Issue [#12785]
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