[1] dialogue
So, when writing a lot of people have the tendency to leave their dialogue like this:
"Hi" he said.
Or like this:
"Hi." he said.
Which, in turn, after seeing these mistakes for so many years, make me go like this:
ASLKJDHFLKAJWHLFKJAHSLIUHGSDFSTIOW RTWIO F WK OM MG
Nothing against anyone, but it just aggravates me. I really don't understand why they rarely teach how to write actual stories in the school. Seriously, I've only learned the rules of grammar from the internet and reading. I owe little of what I know about grammar to school.
(DISCLAIMER: it seems some of you have been taught to use periods in your dialogue in school. Everything I advise you to do here is not from my own ass, I promise, and using the comma is something I've seen used in dialogue in every form of published literature I've read in America -- now, that is America, so I'm not sure if the rules of grammar are different for other countries. If you are not from America and you have been taught a different way with grammar, then please disregard this chapter).
ANYWAY, PRETTY GALS (or guys idk), here's how you do dialogue:
If your character is simply describing how they said their dialogue straight after they speak it, you use a comma.
CORRECT: "Hello," he said.
INCORRECT: "Hello" he said.
INCORRECT: "Hello." he said.
If your character is performing an action straight after their dialogue, you use a period.
CORRECT: "Hello." He smiled.
INCORRECT: "Hello," he smiled.
INCORRECT: "Hello" He smiled.
An extra tip for dialogue is to try to find different ways to describe what you're saying rather than using "said" all the time. This is just something that'll spruce up your writing and you can find them by searching "synonyms for said" on google. It's that easy.
However, while I discourage the repetitive use of said, I also discourage repetitive use of synonyms of said as when we read dialogue it's better to focus on the actual dialogue rather than the dialogue tags.
If you have an questions, just ask :-)