1. Keep Punctuation Inside the Quotation Marks
"Hello," said John. "How are you?"
Not like this...
"Hello", said John. "How are you"?
2. Start a New Paragraph for a New Speaker
Why? Because it makes life so much easier for the readers of your novel to follow the dialogue (and doing that is the whole purpose of good punctuation).
Starting a new paragraph whenever the speaker changes looks like this...
"Hello," said John. "How are you?"
"Can't complain," said Eleanor. "Well, I could, but nobody listens to a word I say."
"I'm just on my way to the coffee shop. Want to join me?"
"I'd love to, John, but I'm already running late."
The same thing applies even if one of the characters doesn't speak...
"Hello," said John. "How are you?"
"Can't complain," said Eleanor. "Well, I could, but nobody listens to a word I say."
"I'm just on my way to the coffee shop. Want to join me?"
"I'd love to, John, but I'm already running late."
John smiled. He couldn't stand Eleanor, and he was certain she hated him. But with John's brother being engaged to Eleanor's best friend, they at least had to pretend.
"How about next time?"
"Looking forward to it already," said John.
3. Omit Quotation Marks in a Long Speech
The art of writing dialogue is to keep most of it short and sharp and punchy. Occasionally, though, a character will say something that simply can't be said in a single paragraph, much less in a sentence or two.
When this happens in your novel, punctuate the dialogue like this...
"The usual way of punctuating dialogue," he said, "is to start the speech with quotation marks and to close the marks when the character stops speaking a sentence or two later. However, if it is a long speech then you will want to break it up into paragraphs.
"Like this. Notice that there are no quotation marks at the end of the previous paragraph, but that they do appear at the start of this new one. It's only when you reach the end of the final paragraph of the speech that you close the quotation marks. Like this"
5. Use Dashes and Ellipses Correctly
Use ellipses to indicate a character's words trailing off. Like this...
"The reason I wanted to talk to you, Frank, is to ask you..."
You would do that if the speaking character was distracted or forgot what they wanted to say.
But if they were cut off, use a dash...
"The reason I wanted to talk to you, Frank, is to ask you-"
"Yeah, well I don't want to talk to you."
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Nod my Head - A Writing Guide for Wattpad Writers
Non-FictionDo you find yourself writing he nodded, she shook her head, he shrugged, over and over again? It gets tedious, and doesn't help at all when it comes to pin pointing your character's actual emotions. So I've made a book using notes I've been collecti...
