Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

Tags

hell yeah i love cheat sheets

More Posts from Blimp-of-evil and Others

blimp-of-evil

6 months ago

Yeah I’ll incorporate this into my belief system

dick grayson started saying shit like "teamwork makes the dream work!" and "hydrate before you die-drate!" specifically to annoy his new baby brother on patrol after jason showed up but it became so second nature that he started doing it with the league and the titans and now it's hhis brand whether he likes it or not

bruce has no sympathy. this is karma for the batmobile.

Tags

batfam batman dick grayson bruce wayne dc jason todd nightwing

11K notes View Post

blimp-of-evil

3 months ago

if you're procrastinating, go do the thing, trust me.

284K notes View Post

blimp-of-evil

3 months ago

I made a bird :D

Tags

best of luck! <- thanks lol- I've only found one of two pieces i need to compare so far : but I will persist!!

12 notes View Post

blimp-of-evil

3 months ago

Do y’all know where the phrase “eat the rich” comes from or do you just repeat it cause you heard it elsewhere?

It’s not a bad thing, I just saw someone say “we never said who would eat the rich” and realized a lot of y’all might not have heard the full quote

It’s from Rousseau and it’s “When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich"

And, well, there’s a lot of people with nothing to eat…

Tags

just gonna leave this here with the current state of the world and all…

199K notes View Post

blimp-of-evil

6 months ago

i keep changing my usertag lmao-

will i ever stop? who knows! :D

Tags

urinetown usertag idk how to tag this one lmao

2 notes View Post

blimp-of-evil

5 months ago

Proshippers are NOT WELCOME on my blog. kindly fuck off

Why the fuck is there a proshipper in the Urinetown fandom get out of here we don't welcome you

Tags

urinetown fuck proshippers op is so real urinetown the musical urinetown musical

24 notes View Post

blimp-of-evil

1 month ago

Listening to Privilege to Pee on public transport lmao-

Tags

urinetown I fucking love this musical urinetown the musical privilege to pee it’s so hard to try sign along and make fool of myself though public transport hell yea

11 notes View Post

blimp-of-evil

3 months ago

getting hit by Charlie's Inferno, Too Much Exposition and High Hopes in that order is truly a vibe like no other

my spotify shuffle:

"...but everyone's true colors are revealed in acts of lust~" "i'm not sure i follow-"

BUM BUM BUM BUM "WHAT IS URINETOWN? URINETOWN'S THE END! SWIFT AND BRUTAL PUNISHMENT NO NEED NOW TO PRETEND!"

Tags

ramblings urinetown i love it though urinetown the musical Too Much Exposition specifically always jumpscares me lmao top teir shuffle shenanigans i am supporting the shuffle shenanigans tag I have a major oral assessment tomorrow that i should be prepping for but im procrastinating for some fucking reason <3 also i downed like half an energy drink earlier and most of the caffeine ive ever had is from doctor pepper wish me luck lmao my body is about to experience New Substances

29 notes View Post

blimp-of-evil

3 months ago

hold on I need to test this

every single person who reblogs this

every

single

person

will get “doot doot" in their ask box

2,381K notes View Post

blimp-of-evil

6 months ago

okay but that line goes SO HARD oh my god

imagine the “Robin meets the JL while Batman is away” trope but it’s inverted. instead of being funny and interesting and extroverted all of the Robins just bolt. bolt, hide, or fight. B told them not to ever let themselves get cornered and to run if a meta sets eyes on them. so they run, they hide, and they fight back with a tiny shard of holdout Kryptonite B had embedded in their gauntlet. they dig their boots in, clench their fists, and prepare to be immovable at <100 lbs.

14K notes View Post

End of content

No more pages to load