He Said, She Said: Punctuating Dialogue
Dialogue is one of the most important elements of good fiction writing. It moves the plot forward, establishes background information, and gives readers a window into the heads of non-viewpoint characters. But dialogue can be tricky. There’s a lot to consider, from making the dialogue itself sound natural to using the right dialogue tags and action beats. And then there’s the punctuation. I see writers every day struggling to sort out all the punctuation that surrounds dialogue. The good news is, while there are a lot of rules around punctuating dialogue, they’re fairly straightforward. This article will help you sort it all out. Note that these are US English conventions; UK conventions are a little different, and I won’t go into them here.
Dialogue tags: Dialogue tags like “he said” or “she said” identify who’s speaking and sometimes how they’re speaking. A dialogue tag has to be a speaking word—said, asked, mumbled, shouted, whispered.
“Look, there’s a cat,” she said.
He said, “Where?”
“There, by the roof!” she shouted, starting to run.
“Which roof? Why can’t I see it?” he asked.
Action beats: Words that express actions other than speaking, like “smiled,” “coughed,” or “laughed,” are not dialogue tags. These can be action beats, along with any other actions the speaker does while, before, or after speaking. Action beats can often be used in place of dialogue tags, because they also do the job of telling the reader who’s speaking.
“Look, there’s a cat.” She pointed toward the neighbor’s house.
He squinted. “Where?”
“There, by the roof!” She grinned, then ran past him toward the house.
He frowned. “Which roof? Why can’t I see it?”
Interrupted dialogue: Sometimes a character starts to say something, but is interrupted mid-word or mid-sentence by another character, an action, or a sudden change in the direction of their own thoughts. This can be conveyed by an em dash. These interruptions speed up the dialogue and give a sense of urgency.
“Look, there’s—”
“What? Do you see the cat?”
“Yes! There!” She ran past him.
He squinted. “Wh—”
“There, by the roof!” she shouted over her shoulder.
“Which roof? Why can’t I—” A shadow moved beside the chimney on the roof nearest him. There it was.
Trailing-off dialogue: Sometimes a character starts to say something but trails off because they’ve lost their train of thought or are hesitant to finish what they’re saying. This is conveyed with an ellipsis. Ellipses slow down the dialogue and give a sense of hesitation or confusion.
“Look, there’s a cat.” She pointed toward the neighbor’s house. “It might be Pringles, but from this distance . . .”
“I think I see a hint of orange . . .” He squinted. “Or maybe brown?”
“But if Pringles is here, that would mean . . .” She shut her eyes, not wanting to consider the possibility.
Broken dialogue: A dialogue tag or action beat doesn’t always have to come before or after dialogue. Sometimes it can be placed right in the middle. This can be between sentences (as shown in the first two examples of trailing-off dialogue above) or in the middle of a sentence.
A dialogue tag in the middle of a sentence is set off by commas. These work best if placed at a natural break in the sentence, such as where there would be a comma. Note the second half of the sentence starts with a lowercase letter, since it’s a continuation of the same sentence.
“Look,” she said, “there’s a cat.”
An action beat in the middle of a sentence is set off by em dashes. Note there’s no space between the dashes and the adjacent words or punctuation. If the action happens while the character is speaking, the em dashes are placed outside of the quotation marks:
“Look”—she pointed—“there’s a cat.”
If the character’s action interrupts their speech, the em dash is placed inside the quotation marks.
“If it’s not Pringles, I—” she pulled a tissue from her pocket and blew her nose “—don’t know what I’ll do.”
Speech within speech: When a character quotes something someone else said, the quoted material needs to be clearly separated from the character’s dialogue. This is achieved through single quotation marks around the quoted material.
“Do you remember what Peter said when he left?” she asked. “He said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t let Pringles out of the house.’ And what’s the first thing you do? What are we going to tell him?”
You may occasionally see dialogue punctuated differently than I’ve described; for instance, some authors omit quotation marks completely, and others use em dashes at the beginning of each line of dialogue rather than quotation marks. That said, any deviation from the standard has the potential to confuse readers or distract them from the dialogue itself. If you choose to punctuate in a nonstandard way, think carefully about how it might impact the reader experience.
There you have it! Hopefully this has helped clarify the conventions for punctuation so you can focus on what’s most important: writing engaging and effective dialogue that will draw your reader in and progress your story.
For more on the use of dialogue tags and action beats, check out this article. And if you still have questions or think of scenarios I didn’t cover, let me know in the comments!
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