Sometimes, “whispered” or “shouted” might be appropriate. This is one case where repetition really doesn’t matter.
In most cases, the word “said” will do just fine - don’t try to come up with lots of fancy synonyms. The dialogue itself is what’s important: The tag is just functional.
It “tags” the dialogue to a particular character.
#DIALOGUE TAGS RULES HOW TO#
Here’s an example of how to format dialogue, laid out on the page: You can use single or double quotation marks (double are standard in the US, single are standard in the UK) - just be consistent!.Punctuation at the end of dialogue should go before the closing quotation mark.if they shake their head, even if they don’t actually speak.) (It’s also often helpful to start a new line if they act or react - e.g. When a different character speaks, start a new line.When a character speaks, their dialogue should be on the same line as their dialogue tag or action beat.In case you need a quick refresher, though, here are the basics for using dialogue tags: You’re probably getting most or all of this right already you’ll have read plenty of dialogue, after all! The basics of using dialogue tags correctly Getting it wrong will make you look less competent, and may put readers off altogether. While the exact layout of your words, and the difference between using a comma and a period, may seem fairly academic…correctly set-out dialogue makes your reader’s life easy. Setting out dialogue correctly, though, can be tricky - and even some experienced writers make mistakes. But if letting your characters speak in your stories is a struggle for you, check out these tips on writing dialogue. Some writers, including me, love writing dialogue and hearing their characters come alive on the page. If he asks for chocolate ice cream one more time, Benny’s mother thought, I’ll scream.Whatever type of fiction you write, you’ll almost certainly need to include some dialogue.Įven non-fiction writers may want to use dialogue occasionally (perhaps in an anecdote, or as part of an imagined conversation with a reader). “If he asks for chocolate ice cream one more time,” Benny’s mother thought, “I’ll scream.” With thoughts and imagined dialogue that are unspoken, you may enclose the interior discourse in quotation marks or not. When Howard asked Mary to marry him, she shouted, “Yes!” She said yes when he asked her to marry him. Single words such as yes, no, where, how, and why are not enclosed in quotation marks unless used in direct dialogue. Hey, you wanna dance?”ĭifferent speakers’ words may be written in a single paragraph to save space as long as the change of speakers is clear by prompts to the reader such as Rashan laughed. After a silence, Georgia, still standing, took the conversational lead. He moved a few braids from his forehead, but they fell back over his eyes. Rashan slouched into a nearby folding chair, not bothering to get one for Georgia.
Here is an example from my novel Touched: The most common way to indicate a new speaker’s dialogue is to start a new paragraph.
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