Nitty Gritty: Dialogue

Meet Dialogue. Aka, conversation, speech, talking, or whatever else you may wish to call it.

I don't think I have ever read a story where none of the characters spoke, so here we go!

Basic dialogue rules
Speech must be in quotation marks. These things – " ".

You can connect speech to a person, which is helpful to let the reader know who is speaking, although it isn't always strictly necessary. There are several ways to connect dialogue to the character speaking. If you tie the dialogue to actions, you can also show the scene and emotions as well.

Remember: Only ever have one speaker per paragraph – even if it is just a few words.

*Advanced detail*
I'll try to stick to the basics, but I have to add this somewhere – so let's get it out of the way before it comes back to pester me.

Action tags and dialogue tags: Action tags use periods whereas dialogue tags use commas.

Action tags are action – She sat down, he raised his eyebrow, etc. Even more complicated ones such as he laughed (laughing is an action, you can't really laugh a word...)

Dialogue tags are indicating that someone is talking – he said, she asked, he exclaimed, she gushed, etc.

This tip is more for advanced writers, perfectionists, or those looking to potentially publish their work. The average novice writer doesn't really need to worry about it (so feel free to use commas or periods as you like). You will see the proper punctuation in all of my examples though, so please don't let it confuse you.

Said is a fine word, and often invisible, which helps the flow of a story. If you are looking for other words to use instead, this is one of my favorite websites (skip to the bottom, then choose the print option for a nicer layout): www.spwickstrom.com/said/

Examples of dialogue: *cough* Action tag *cough*

(This is where dialogue has periods. Commas and dialogue tags are discussed farther down)

Example one: Nicky eyed up the coffee pot. "That looks pretty good."
Example two: "That looks pretty good." Nicky eyed up the coffee pot.
Example three: "That looks pretty good." Nicky eyed up the coffee pot. "I think I will have a cup or two..."
Example four: Nicky wandered over to the coffee pot and eyed it up. "That looks pretty good."

Note: The dialogue and the tag can be rearranged in almost any fashion. Just try to keep it clear on who is speaking, especially in really long paragraphs.

Examples of dialogue: *cough* Dialogue tag *cough*

(This is where dialogue has commas)

Nicky asked, "Can I have some? Pretty please?"
"Not a chance!" Ben retorted. "Hey! Give that back!" [Note: because of the exclamation mark, no comma is needed. However, had it not been Ben's name there, the word would be lower case – see below.]
"Nope," she said. "It's mine now!"
Trinity grumbled, "Nicky put the coffee down. Now."
Nicky pleaded, "Please! Just one taste!"

"No," Trinity said.

You can even mix them up if you want both actions and clear speech.

Here are some more examples:
Trinity growled faintly before reprimanding Nicky, "Enough of that. You know the rules. No coffee for you."
"Aw," Nicky groaned, slumping to the ground in defeat.
Ben swiftly grabbed the big cup of coffee before heading back to the kitchen. As he passed by, he muttered, "I will go hide this elsewhere."
"Get someone to drink it," Trinity replied, keeping an eye on the far-too quiet Nicky.
"Alright." He glanced back. "You keep an eye on her."
With a snort, Trinity replied, "I am not a babysitter."
"At least keep her from following me for two minutes," he said just before disappearing through a doorway.

Note the commas and periods above. There is always some sort of punctuation connecting the dialogue to tags or anything connected with the dialogue. Punctuation rules still apply (and are supposed to be inside the quotation marks).

Correct: Nicky tiptoed closer to the coffee pot. "Oh, this is going to taste good."
Incorrect: Nicky tiptoed closer to the coffee pot "Oh, this is going to taste good." [Note the missing punctuation in front of the dialogue.]
Incorrect: Nicky tiptoed closer to the coffee pot. "Oh, this is going to taste good". [Note that the second period is outside of the last quotation mark.]

More examples showing how dialogue and action tags can be used with the same sentence.
Nicky wandered over to the coffee pot and said, "That looks pretty good."
"That looks pretty good," Nicky said as she wandered over to the coffee pot.

Nicky wandered over to the coffee pot. "That looks pretty good."
"That looks pretty good." Nicky wandered over to the coffee pot.

 
You don't really need things tied to your commentary either, as long as your readers know who is talking. Or sometimes, we don't need to know who was talking. Here are a few examples.

Example one:
Nicky sighed as she asked, "Why are you blaming me?"
Daniel narrowed his eyes at her. "Because they saw you with the paintbrush."

"I think they lied."
"I highly doubt that."

See? You knew exactly who was talking without additional words, although we could have added more details to show what they were doing, such as Nicky edging away or pretending to be innocent.

Example two:

I listened to the group outside talking.
"It is such a nice sunny day!"
"I agree, what should we do this afternoon?"

"I want to go to the lake."
"What about berry picking?"
"Uh, guys, why is Nicky holding a coffee cup?"

"Oh no..."

We don't know how many people were talking, or who they were, or even if they were walking, standing or sitting, but it didn't really matter in this example.

Dialogue across paragraphs
Okay, so what do we do with a character that won't shut up? One that drones on for more than one paragraph without taking a breath? There are a couple of options.

1. Have the speaker pause, allowing a second paragraph to start gracefully.

Example: Nicky spoke excitedly, "Oh! That reminds me of something! One time I found an entire box of paints in the garbage behind a painting store, but they weren't completely empty. There wasn't enough inside to paint lots, but that gave me an idea!"

She gestured wildly with her hands. "I couldn't find a paintbrush, so I had to improvise! It is really amazing what you can do with a feather, a stick, some leaves, and a few marbles!"

2. We can have someone else speak between the two long paragraphs.

Example: Nicky spoke excitedly, "Oh! That reminds me of something! One time I found an entire box of paints in the garbage behind a painting store, but they weren't completely empty. There wasn't enough inside to paint lots, but that gave me an idea!"

Trinity raised an eyebrow. "Do I even want to know what you did?"

She gestured wildly with her hands. "I couldn't find a paintbrush, so I had to improvise! It is really amazing what you can do with a feather, a stick, some leaves, and a few marbles!"

3. We can also eliminate the pause, but we must use the quotation marks carefully in this situation.

Nicky spoke excitedly, "Oh! That reminds me of something! One time I found an entire box of paints in the garbage behind a painting store, but they weren't completely empty. There wasn't enough inside to paint lots, but that gave me an idea! [Note the lack of the end quotation mark here – this is correct. It shows the speaker isn't done speaking yet.]

"I couldn't find a paintbrush, so I had to improvise! It is really amazing what you can do with a feather, a stick, some leaves, and a few marbles!

"The biggest problem was trying to dodge all of the cops as they searched for the person responsible. You should have seen their faces! Every time they finished circling the block, I had painted more things in their absence!" [The end quotation mark will be present when the speaker finally stops blabbering on and on.]

Dialogue oddities

Because people don't always speak in proper English, we can sometimes incorporate this into our story dialogue. Use it carefully though.

Example: Old Uncle Jack shook his head. "Ye ain't old enough t' understand."

In some other situations, such as in several fantasy/werewolf novels, you will encounter mindspeech. Magically speaking mind to mind. Since it is still a type of speech, it still requires quotation marks.

Example:

I shook out my fur tiredly and flicked an ear at Thomas as he caught up, "What took you so long?"

The incredulous look he gave me had been worth the comment. "I had to go around half of the things you ducked under. You don't have any room to talk, you are breathing hard too."

Another example I have seen is using colons instead of apostrophes. Example: She asked, :What was that?:

Internal thoughts

Sometimes our characters have the audacity to actually think or have internal dialogue with themselves. You can use italics for a character's thoughts, particularly if you are doing a first-person perspective. 

Examples: 

With a groan, I sat down and silently vowed, I'm never letting Nicky again.

I scratched my head. Now, if I were halfway organized, where would I have put that paper?

For third-person POV, you generally write out their thoughts in a more direct route.

Example: Thomas shook his head as he turned away. He had no idea why Carrie never listened to his warnings. One day she was going to make a serious mistake. 

A common blunder: tieing speech to narration

When using dialogue, we can tie speech to an action tag, dialogue tag, or even have no tag. But we can't tie dialogue to story narration. (I did this a few times before I realized it).

Example of narration [avoid!]: "Where did she go?" That lady was always sneaking away from her chores. 

The narration/observation isn't tied to the speaker, so we'd have to either make it a new paragraph or add a tag in front of it.

"Where did she go?" I asked. That lady was always sneaking away from her chores. 

"Where did she go?" 
 That lady was always sneaking away from her chores. 

Dialogue is pretty simple, but if it isn't used properly, it can confuse your readers.

Used properly, it is a power tool.

There are plenty of resources on Google if you get confused, want more examples, or perhaps even wish to take a small quiz to see how much you really know.