{"id":483,"date":"2023-04-05T14:33:12","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T18:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/?p=483"},"modified":"2025-03-26T23:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T03:12:08","slug":"dialogue-punctuation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/?p=483","title":{"rendered":"Dialogue Punctuation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019ve never edited fiction and suddenly have to do a test edit for a small publisher of fiction and you desperately need to look up every dialogue situation possible right after you get the manuscript and panic that you actually don&#8217;t know whether that should be a comma or period, here\u2019s the cheat sheet I wish I\u2019d had\u2014I mean, you could use&#8230; I didn\u2019t need one, I knew all of this intuitively, of course!!!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is based on CMOS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagomanualofstyle.org\/book\/ed17\/part2\/ch13\/psec039.html\">13.39<\/a> (\u201cDirect Discourse\u201d), though the \u201crules\u201d about punctuation in speech tags are interpretations and, honestly, preferences. If you need a different style guide, you\u2019ll have to go elsewhere (until I write one). I\u2019m fairly certain most publishing companies use CMOS at least as a base, and if there are exceptions they will cover them in their own style guide.\u00a0<br\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A few examples of common dialogue situations:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Basics:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m going to eat my shorts,\u201d Mary said to Beth.<br\/>\u201cWow!\u201d she said. \u201cThat is surprising.\u201d (lowercase speech-tag pronoun after ! ?)\u00a0<br\/>He said, \u201cWhat is she going to do?\u201d<br\/>I turned around. \u201cShe\u2019s going to eat her shorts!\u201d (no comma if action and not speech tag precedes dialogue)<br\/>\u201cNow, Mary,\u201d he said, \u201cI want you to know this is a bad idea.\u201d (comma all around with a full sentence is broken up by a speech tag)<br\/>\u201cYou think I care?\u201d she replied.\u00a0\u201cWhat do I care what you think?\u201d (cap for second part of dialogue if it&#8217;s a new sentence)<br\/>\u201cI know.\u201d He looked down and blinked back tears. (if an action instead of a speech tag follows dialogue, punctuate dialogue with period and then start next sentence with caps)<br\/>\u201cI\u2019m sorry\u2026,\u201dI said softly. (comma after ellipses before a speech tag)<br\/>\u201cI do want to\u2026\u201d He trailed off as he turned away. (no comma if no speech tag).<br\/>\u201cI hate you!\u201d Beth suddenly screamed.<br\/>\u201cWhat do you mean \u2018I hate you\u2019!?\u201d he asked. (punctuation with quote-within-quote, ? &amp; ! edition)\u00a0<br\/>\u201cShe said you were \u2018losing your edge,\u2019\u201d I replied for her. (punctuation with quote-within-quote, , or . edition)<br\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Remember: If another character speaks or acts, it goes on a new line!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Interruptions:<\/strong><br\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He sighed, \u201cIt will never\u2014\u201d (em dash for interrupted dialogue)<br\/>\u201cBut maybe it could\u2026,\u201d she interrupted. (comma after ellipsis before speech tag; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagomanualofstyle.org\/book\/ed17\/part2\/ch13\/psec041.html\">CMOS 13.41<\/a>)<br\/>\u201cNever,\u201d he said, \u201csay never.\u201d (comma after speech tag &amp; no cap when interrupting dialogue with speech tag)<br\/>\u201cNever\u201d\u2014she stifled a sob\u2014\u201csay never.\u201d (em dash for action interrupting sentence; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagomanualofstyle.org\/book\/ed17\/part2\/ch06\/psec087.html\">CMOS 6.87<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Punctuation after dialogue\/in speech tag:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI will love you forever,\u201d he said desperately. (no comma before adverb)<br\/>\u201cI won\u2019t,\u201d she said, her brain throbbing in her skull. (concurrent action gets a comma)<br\/>\u201cI know!\u201d he yelled and slammed his fist on the table. (concurrent action with speech tag = no comma)<br\/>\u201cI\u2019ll wait,\u201d he whispered, and ran out of the room. (non-concurrent action with speech tag = comma)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Long quotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Remember that there is no closing quotation mark until the quotation is done, even if it spans multiple paragraphs. There are starting quotation marks on every paragraph, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis has got to be the worst day of my life. First I woke up on with a blistering headache. Then there was a bulldozer in my yard trying to push over my house to make way for a bypass.<br\/><br\/>\u201cI didn\u2019t even know they were going to MAKE a bypass! They\u2019ve been hiding the plans at the back of the planning office basement, in a bathroom marked &#8216;beware of the leopard,\u2019 in a locked filing cabinet.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnd now I\u2019m lying in the mud in front of the bulldozer and my best friend is telling me he\u2019s an alien and I need to come down to the pub because the world\u2019s about to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI swear to God, if I get abducted by aliens who read me terrible poetry I\u2019m going to scream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Credit to Douglas Adams)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve never edited fiction and suddenly have to do a test edit for a small publisher of fiction and you desperately need to look up every dialogue situation possible right after you get the manuscript and panic that you actually don&#8217;t know whether that should be a comma or period, here\u2019s the cheat sheet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maggiebillard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}