Quotes When a Character Continues Talking
3 rules about quotation marks in dialogue
When writing dialogue, what do you do with periods or quotation marks? Multiple paragraphs of dialogue, quotes within quotes, and even action tags change the location of punctuation within and around quotation marks. If you ever have a grammar question, don't guess. Learn something by looking through blog posts like this one or, better, theChicago Manual of Style. There are many online resources available, but if you're hoping to learn how to work with quotation marks in dialogue, you came to the right place.
Simple dialogue
Simple conversation without additional or long paragraphs of dialogue fall under this category. We'll cover the rest in a bit.
AmE (American English) uses double quotation marks in dialogue…always. In news headlines, single quotes are used, but if you're not writing headlines for a newspaper (this doesn't include headlines in a book about a newspaper), stick with those double quotes.
"What on earth are you doing?" my mother asked, her hands firm on her hips. It was her "answer me" pose.
I looked up from the floor and offered a small smile. "Just making something," I tried.
Mother's frown lines deepened. "Where did you get the plaster?"
"From…your closet." I couldn't lie. I looked at the floor. "I'm sorry."
"Room!" she yelled.
I used several different types of punctuation in the above example. If you don't have quotes within quotes or quoted material that (1) isn't dialogue and (2) isn't punctuated within the quote, keep all punctuation in front of the quotation marks. Periods, commas, exclamation marks, and question marks are all included in this rule.
Scare quotes and air quotes
If you noticed, the first line of dialogue above also includes something unspoken in double quotes. Scare quotes, as they're called, are quotes placed around a phrase that emphasize the material within them. They can also be used as a sarcastic reference.
Sarcasm. When I say you're "trying," I'm drawing attention with scare quotes to that particular word to provide, in this case, doubt that I actually think you're trying.
Emphasis. If I say it's his "nighttime" routine to eat steak at 9:00 a.m., the scare quotes function as a reference to something he might have said before. He calls it his nighttime routine despite the fact that he's eating his dinner for breakfast, perhaps because he gets off of work at seven and goes to sleep shortly after eating. Scare quotes are often written air quotes, as another way of putting it.
When editing someone's manuscript, I often see scare quotes like this in single quotes, and I'm assuming the writer intends to separate normal dialogue from these simple references. Your reader will be able to tell the difference, so your job is to make sure they can by using your writing and not incorrect style. We'll talk about using single quotes, but that's not where they go.
Besides, when you use air quotes in real life, do you use one finger for each quote or two? Just saying. 🙂
When to close the quotation marks
I've seen dialogue typed out like this:
"Wait." "I have a confession to make," he said. "I do remember you."
"You do?" "Why did you lie to me?" the boy asked, walking closer.
Don'tclose your line of dialogue after a sentence if the person is still speaking. The closing quotation marks are there to separate action/dialogue tags from the spoken text or to signal that the person is no longer speaking. The above example should look as follows:
"Wait. I have a confession to make," he said. "I do remember you."
"You do? Why did you lie to me?" the boy asked, walking closer.
Dialogue tags
If you want to read more about how to write natural dialogue, read this post. Here, I'm discussing the basic format regarding quotation marks and punctuation.
Dialogue tags are part of a sentence. The written dialogue has punctuation, so think of the dialogue tag as an added phrase in the punctuated sentence.
Periods will be the only unique ones here. If you include a dialogue tag (not an action tag), the period is replaced with a comma. The period is a narrative element, meaning it ends all narrative sentences. If you use a period at the end of dialogue, it may confuse readers, who will expect the next sentence to read apart from what you just quoted.
Remember how I said to think of the dialogue tag as part of the sentence? Well, this supports that idea. Use a comma.
CORRECT: "Hey, come over after school," he said.
INCORRECT: "Hey, come over after school." he said.
What about sentences with dialogue tags between parts of it? You might use a dialogue tag to signal a short pause or elicit a moment of tension.
CORRECT: "Wait," he said, holding out his arm to block me, "there's something here."
CORRECT: "Wait," he said, holding out his arm to block me. "There's something here."
INCORRECT: "Wait," holding out his arm to block me, "There's something here."
Did you notice in that last one that I took out the dialogue tag? You can have an action tag (which we'll talk about soon) or a dialogue tag, or nothing at all. In the last example, a dialogue tag makes that punctuation incorrect. Remember, periods are replaced with commas before a dialogue tag.
The first two are correct because, in the first example, it's styled as one complete sentence: Wait, there's something here. The second example styles it as two sentences: Wait. There's something here.
Question marks and exclamation marks don't change the way periods do. With dialogue tags, you'll still have the period at the end, so you punctuate the dialogue normally.
CORRECT: "That's my hat!" he said.
CORRECT: "Where are you going?" she asked.
CORRECT: "That's my hat," he said, "so give it back!"
INCORRECT: "That's my hat!," he said.
INCORRECT: "That's my hat," he said!
INCORRECT: "That's my hat!" he said, "so give it back!"
Action tags
Action tags improve the quality of imagery and take the place of dialogue tags. He said/she said can sound redundant, and it doesn't offer much of an image. Action tags allow your characters to exist and interact with their environment while they speak, which brings your story to life. So, use action tags. Don't just use them to make your dialogue different, either. Make sure it makes sense. You don't need a grand design for your character to sneeze or anything, but consider your character as a being in an environment. If they don't move, they don't move. But, if they do, let them.
Action tags are not dialogue tags
Action tags are not treated equally because they aren't equal. Your character isn't punching these words, they're not spilling juice on these words, and they're not sitting on these words. So, your action tags are going to be separate from what they say because speaking and acting are two different things.
CORRECT: "I waited…and this is what I get!" She wiped at her eyes, holding back the emotions that leaked into her voice. "And, what, you expect me to take you back now?"
INCORRECT: "I waited…and this is what I get!" wiping at her eyes, holding back the emotions that leaked into her voice, "and, what, you expect me to take you back now?"
CORRECT: "Hey, bro, come look." Joe waved me over while pointing out the window. "I've seen her before. You know her?"
INCORRECT: "Hey, bro, come look," Joe waved me over. He pointed out the window. "I've seen her before. You know her?"
CORRECT: "I don't know what to do"—Jake squeezed my shoulder—"so you better figure it out."
CORRECT: "I don't know what to do." Jake squeezed my shoulder. "So you better figure it out."
The different examples show you different ways of using action tags. You don't have to have additional dialogue after the action. I just want to make sure you see what that might look like. The last two examples of dialogue look different, but they're both correct. Why is that? They're variations of the same thing. When you want to use a simultaneous gesture within dialogue, action tags are formatted differently. Em dashes (not en dashes and not hyphens) separate the dialogue as a sort of aside to the speech. That's why it's not punctuated before or after the first set of closed quotation marks; the sentence is still going.
In the second correct example, the sentence ends. Jake squeezes my shoulder after saying he doesn't know what to do, then he says I have to figure it out. Both styles correct, but they perform differently within context.
In the other examples, commas aren't used like they are with dialogue tags because it's an action tag. Similarly, action tags are separate from the speech, so it's not lowercased, nor can it go without a subject. It's a new sentence, so it needs a new subject.Sheis your subject in that first example.
Dialogue within dialogue
AmE uses double quotes for dialogue, and single quotes identify dialogue within dialogue.
Sometimes, someone speaking quotes someone else. In AmE,thisis when single quotation marks come into play.
"Don't open that door." Jerry stepped toward his brother, his finger pointing at the half-turned knob.
Simon frowned. "You can't tell me what to do."
"I'm not," Jerry said. "Mom specifically told us 'Stay away from the locksmith's room.' Listen toher."
If you have dialogue within dialogue within dialogue, you use double quotes. You alternate. Begin with double quotes then use single quotes within that, double quotes within that, and so on.
Dialogue that extends over multiple paragraphs
Dialogue that spans multiple paragraphs uses open quotation marks in each new paragraph and closing quotation marksonlyin the final paragraph, when the dialogue ends. Otherwise, it's implied that the new speaker is speaking.
Sometimes, a speech or spoken story can take up too much space to stay within one paragraph. It's hard to read one long block of text. If your dialogue is long like this, you can break it into paragraphs, and that's perfectly fine. When you do that, you don't insert closing quotes until the dialogue is done or you're separating it from an action tag or dialogue tag. You will, though, insert opening quotation marks at the beginning of each new paragraph. It'll look like this:
"One day, when the cold, dark nights turn the grass to dust and the rock to rubble, you will ask what you did to deserve a fate of death in the abyss. You'll ask why you failed to heed my warnings, why you denied me the right to the wealth of the land as it thrives, and you'll ask if perhaps I would have saved your little world.
"You will ask, and I will not return to you. I will have made it to planets beyond, saving them as you refused to save your own." The pale man pulled on his suit coat, his eyes reflecting the metallic blue rhinestones on it. "You call me crazy now, but wait. Just wait until you wake in darkness and sleep in pitch. Wait until your cries go unanswered and your dreams become nightmares that you never escape." Silence swept across the auditorium, and as loud as his shiny suit coat was, even it seemed to dull in the quiet. No one spoke. Those who noticed couldn't decide whether it was in disbelief or creeping fear as the truth settled on the crowd.
Dialogue comes in many forms, and it can be confusing when you do the tricky stuff. It's okay, though. The point is that you keep working on it and play with it. Make dialogue easy for your reader to understand and be consistent with what you write. The fact that you read this post to the end means you're one step closer.
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Source: https://kingsmanediting.com/3-rules-about-quotation-marks-in-dialogue/
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