How to Write a Book

Formatting | Dialogue

"For all forms, writing dialogue is almost like writing music. I pay close attention to rhythms and tones."
—Sefi Atta

✎𓂃

Formatting can be a real headache sometimes, especially when it comes to punctuation. And to make it more complicated, punctuation in Dialogue has some of its own rules.

 What is dialogue?

Dialogue is a verbal conversation between people, although, for our whimsical characters, it can also be mumbling to themselves.

✎ Quotation Marks

Quotation marks enclose Dialogue. There are different kinds you can use. The double, "like this.", or the single, 'like this', and in some countries or books, there is a double quotation mark that starts low and ends high; „like this".

Which one to use differs per country. The double quotation mark is often seen in US literature, whereas the single mark is used in British literature.

So, now we can identify our dialogues, we should look at how we format it in a story.

✎ Paragraphs

Paragraphing is something I see some Wattpad writers struggling with, but it's an important writing rule. I can't stress this enough; Every speaker gets their own paragraph.

Pick up a published book, and you will see that when two (or more) people hold a conversation, each person gets their own paragraph to speak in. The separate paragraphs are so the reader can easily identify who is speaking at the moment. It makes reading the story a lot easier to follow.

Wrong:

The man takes another breath of his cigarette, and Roselin can't help but comment on it. "Have you not heard? Smoking kills." The guy cocks an eyebrow, his dark brown eyes meeting hers. "It does? I thought those posters were just decorative." "I'm pretty sure we, the citizens of New Arcadia, would not lower ourselves to decadence," Roselin imitates the female's tranquil voice of the New City advertisements. The guy smirks, throwing his cigarette on the ground. Roselin gasps. "And now littering. I might as well call the cops," she says, not able to hide her own playful smile.

Right:

The man takes another breath of his cigarette, and Roselin can't help but comment on it. "Have you not heard? Smoking kills."

The guy cocks an eyebrow, his dark brown eyes meeting hers. "It does? I thought those posters were just decorative."

"I'm pretty sure we, the citizens of New Arcadia, would not lower ourselves to decadence," Roselin imitates the female's tranquil voice of the New City advertisements. The guy smirks, throwing his cigarette on the ground. Roselin gasps. "And now littering. I might as well call the cops," she says, not able to hide her own playful smile.
(Sin Eater, Talle Fey)

Separate paragraphs also ensure you don't have to keep saying, 'he said, she said'. When there are only two speakers, the reader knows that the second person must be speaking as the dialogue is in another paragraph.

Example

The man takes another breath of his cigarette, and Roselin can't help but comment on it. "Have you not heard? Smoking kills."

"It does? I thought those posters were just decorative."

(Sin Eater, Talle Fey)

But what if your character is holding a long monologue, and one paragraph seems a bit endless? You start the opening quotation mark on every paragraph the dialogue runs for, but use only one quotation mark in the final paragraph.