Dialogue

Writing dialogue is an important skill for fiction writers. Although finding the best words and phrases can take a long time, the actual formatting conventions are fairly simple. If you've read a few short stories or books, you've seen dialogue in action hundreds of times, and the below information will be a brief reminder of exactly what's being done with the grammar and formatting.

Quotation Marks

Put quotes around the dialogue. Trailing punctuation goes inside the quotes.

He said, “Good morning.”

She replied, “Yes, it is a good morning.”

“Would you like some coffee?” she asked.

He thought about it and answered, “Yes, please.”

Dialogue Tags

The piece before or after the dialogue is called the dialogue tag. Generally, the dialogue and tag are separated by a comma. Generally, dialogue should begin with a capital letter. If a conversation goes on for a long time, dialogue tags may not be necessary. If the reader can easily understand who is speaking, omit the tags.

“Good morning,” Hermione said.

“What’s good about it?” Jamie grumbled.

“Well, look at birds and the roses outside. How beautiful!”

“It’s going to rain later.”

“Don’t be no negative, Jamie.”

Here are some common dialogue tags: said, stated, shouted, whispered, yelled, asked, answered, replied.

Paragraphs

When the speaker changes, or when the focus of the action changes, start a new paragraph. If the speaker is also doing something, their speech and action might fit into one paragraph. 

It was a dark and stormy night, and the rain pelted the house like it was trying to wash it away. Suddenly, there was a noise at the door.

“What was that?” asked Frank.

Sheila replied in a shaky voice, “I don’t know. Should we check?”

Frank got out of bed and rummaged around for his bathrobe. “You stay here. I’ll be right back.” He tiptoed down the hall and creaky stairs, listening carefully for any further strange noise. Five minutes later, he returned.

“It was the cat,” he groaned as he sank into his pillow.

By putting the speaker's actions and words together in a paragraph, you reduce the total number of paragraphs, which usually makes the passage easier to read.

“Did you bring it inside?” she asked.

“Yes, of course.”

“Thank you for checking.”

Detailed Rules

1. Spoken words go in quotation marks.

2. Use dialogue tags much of the time.

3. When you change speakers, start a new paragraph.

4. Use commas with dialogue tags, and use ordinary punctuation with other verbs.
   Leia said, “I love you.”
   Han looked at her and nodded. “I know.”

5. If the dialogue tag comes last, replace the preceding period with a comma.
   “I believe you,” Nancy whispered.

6. If the dialogue tag comes last, leave preceding question marks and exclamation points as they are.
   “Don't you own a TV?” Justine asked.
   “A TV? Hell no!” Joe replied.

7. Use single quotation marks to quote things inside dialogue.
   Dexter said, “Yeah, it was wild. Then I said, ‘You can keep the duck.’ We all laughed.”

8. Use lowercase when the dialogue tag splits the sentence.
   “If we don’t leave now,” Marcus yelled, “we’ll be late.”

9. Use an em dash to show an interruption.
   “We need to leave before—” A crash downstairs had the sisters running for the fire escape.

Thought

If you want to show what a character is specifically thinking, you can use the above formatting, with quotation marks, and change the tags to be things like "she thought" or "they told themselves".

Chewbacca looked at Luke and Leia. He thought to himself, “They look nothing alike. Are they actually related? How unexpected.” He shrugged his shoulders, turned back to the console, and pressed the accelerator.

Some authors prefer to put thoughts in italics.

Chewbacca looked at Luke and Leia. They look nothing alike. Are they actually related? How unexpected. He shrugged his shoulders, turned back to the console, and pressed the accelerator.

The above styles are both widely used. Before using either, though, see if it's actually necessary. Often, authors are telling a story from a limited perspective, in which case it's already understood that information is coming from the main character.

Chewbacca looked at Luke and Leia. The two didn’t resemble each other at all. Was it possible that they were actually siblings? He shrugged his shoulders, turned back to the console, and pressed the accelerator.

References

• Hill, B. (2012). Inner Dialogue—Writing Character Thoughts. Retrieved 2024.

• Lirvin. (2016). The Write Place: Guides for Writing and Grammar. Retrieved 2024.

• Yoon, H. (2021). Dialogue Practice Worksheet. Auburn University. Some of the above content was copy/pasted from here.