dialogue writing new format 2019
Answers
Hey,
Your book needs dialogue.
Unless you plan on writing a textbook, you must learn how to properly write dialogue – and use it correctly because yes, there is a wrong way to write dialogue (and we’ll get into that later).
Without effective dialogue, even the best plot or book idea will fall flat.
But if you’re not sure how to write dialogue in a way that is not only natural, but also works as a catalyst within your book, the process of writing a book can be even more daunting than it already is.
What is the dialogue format?
When it comes to book formatting, dialogue is one of the most difficult to get right.
It’s not that it’s especially complicated, but there are many different types of dialogue and many different types of punctuation needed in order to properly format it.
Therefore, it’s easy to get confused or forget which format you should use for which line of dialogue.
The basics for the format of dialogue is that each time a new person speaks, it’s a new paragraph, like in this example from The Savior’s Champion by Jenna Moreci.
In order to fully understand how to format dialogue, you have to know how to punctuate it properly, depending on the form you’re using.
How to Punctuate Dialogue
The one thing most writers get wrong when they’re first starting out is proper dialogue punctuation.
Sure, you could leave that up to the editor, but the more work for your editor, the more expensive they’ll be.
Plus, it’s important that, as serious writers and future authors, you know how to punctuate dialogue no matter what. That also means editors will be able to focus on more complex edits instead of just punctuation.
Dialogue punctuation is complex and takes some time to learn, understand, and master.
Here are some examples of each and how you would punctuate each.
Dialogue Example 1 – Single Line
Single lines of dialogue are among the easiest to write and remember. The punctuation for this dialogue is simple:
The quotations go on the outside of both the words and end-of-dialogue punctuation (in this case a period, but it’s the same for a comma, question mark, or exclamation point).
Here’s an example of what this looks like:
“You really shouldn’t have done that.”
No matter what other punctuation you have, whether it’s a question mark or exclamation point, it will go on the inside of the quotations.
Dialogue Example 2 – Single line with tag
In this case, “tag” means dialogue tag.
A dialogue tag is anything that indicates who said what, but that’s all.
In the example below, you can see that the dialogue tag goes on the outside of the quotations, while the comma goes on the inside.
HOPE IT HELPS
Hey mate hope it helps u...
