I’m going to wear it to the grocery store, the library, and the pancake dinner.” I’m not just going to wear it to the wedding. First of all, you should not put a comma after a dialogue tag. This above example has several mistakes in it. “I love this dress,” said Sally, “I’m going to wear it everywhere, not just to the wedding, but also to the grocery store, the library, and the pancake dinner.” Fortunately, it is also easy to avoid them.īelow is an example of a run-on sentence in dialogue with way too much punctuation. It’s easy to want to create run-on sentences. Rule #4: Avoid Run-On Sentences – Use Multiple Sentences if Necessary The important thing to remember for this rule is that we place the period inside the quotation marks. It’s also not necessary to use a dialogue tag. If we follow Rule #2 of always giving each character their own paragraph, we don’t have to worry about any potential confusion on who is speaking. In these examples, we don’t need dialogue tags because we have already identified Mark in the paragraph. Mark walked across the room to the corner dresser. When you are not using dialogue tags, you’ll want to put the period inside the quotation marks as well. When your sentence ends with a dialogue tag, you use a comma inside the quotation marks. Rule #3: Put Periods Inside of Quotation Marks When Not Using Dialogue Tags Here each part of the dialogue exchange has its own individual paragraph. In the example here, the two different speakers should have their own paragraphs. When you have a new speaker, you should create a new paragraph line. Rule #2: Always Create a New Paragraph Line for New Speakers Now let’s get into punctuating more complex sentences! “I put your keys on top of the dresser,” Mark insisted.įor simple sentences, this is easy enough to remember. End with the dialogue tag to identify the speaker. Surround your dialogue with quotation marks and end it with a comma before the last quote mark. Now that we know this basic anatomy of dialogue sentence structure, let’s move onto the rules! The dialogue tag is what identifies Martha as the speaker. The sentence which Martha speaks is the dialogue. In this example, we have the following sentence, spoken by Martha. Most dialogue sentences are made of two parts: the dialogue, which is the spoken portion of the sentence, and then the dialogue tag, which identifies the speaker. In order to punctuate your dialogue correctly, it helps to understand the different parts of a sentence. You’ll be writing down those spoken exchanges between your fictional characters while writing your novel in no time! Once you learn the basics of how to use punctuation in dialogue, it becomes second nature. If you’ve done all of the work of planning an outline for your novel and worked on developing your characters, the last thing you want to do is lose readers by making common grammar mistakes! How to Punctuate Dialogueĭialogue punctuation rules are fairly straight forward and simple. Good punctuation will help your readers connect to your characters and help you write a stronger book. Punctuating dialogue might not sound like a very exciting topic or a lot of fun as a writer to study – but it is very important in making sure your dialogue exchanges between characters make sense to your readers! Learning how to punctuate dialogue is important when writing the conversations between your characters.
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