How to punctuate dialogue in fiction writing.

Dialogue is vital to a great book: it tells your readers so much about the characters and it gives facts and information to move your story along.

Good dialogue punctuation brings clarity and flow to the words being spoken, and if done well, your readers shouldn't even notice it.

It can be tricky, but it doesn't have to be! Below, I've outlined some pointers to help you.

New speaker

When there is a new speaker, a new paragraph line should be used, indented at the beginning. Consider the following made-up dialogue between two speakers:

'Put it away,' said Steve. 'I want to see it,' said Dave.

Even with the use of dialogue tags, this does not flow well for your readers. The correct way is for each speaker to have his own sentence, as follows:

'Put it away,' said Steve.

'I want to see it,' said Dave.

You can see this works much better, and even without dialgue tags, it is still clear there are two speakers:

'Put it away.'

'I want to see it.'

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks (also known as speech marks) are how authors usually show that a character is speaking, and singles or doubles can be used.

In British fiction it is more common to use singles, and in US fiction you are more likely to see doubles. However, this is about style and convention, so if you're a British author and you want to use doubles, then that's fine. Similarly, if you're an American author and you want to use singles, that's also acceptable. The important thing is to be consistent throughout your book.

Example: Singles

Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin (p. 174)

'I appreciate you taking the time and trouble, sir,' Rebus said.

Example: Doubles

The Associate by John Grisham (p. 182)

Baxter closed his eyes and said, "I'm so weak."

Quotes Within Quotes

Sometimes you may find it necessary to place quotes within quotes (nested quotes) and to do this you should use the alternate style of quote marks for your internal quote.

Example: Singles with nested doubles

Wolf to the Slaughter by Ruth Rendall (p. 84)

Wexford left her and went to find Burden. 'I don't even begin to understand this,' he said. Why does Geoff Smith tell her his name? She didn't want to know. "No names. no pack drill" is what she said to Drayton.'

Example: Doubles with nested singles

The Associate by John Grisham (p. 90)

"Well, you have to watch real close or you'll miss him. There's a scene on a boat where the cops are gazing at the ocean, presumably for the rest of the body, though this is never clear. The movie has a lot of uncertainties. One of the deputies walks over to the sheriff and says, 'Sir, we're low on fuel.' That's our movie star."

Multiple paragraphs of dialogue

If one of the characters has an especially long speech, you may want to split it over more than one paragraph. In this case, the usual convention is to leave the end of the paragraph open but start the next with an open quote. When the character's speech ends, a closing quotation mark should be used as normal, as shown in the following example:

Wolf to the Slaughter by Ruth Rendall (p. 63)

'[...] Well, I was getting on with cleaning the silver so I went back to the kitchenette.

'No more than five minutes later I hear them go upstairs. [...] Anyway, the upshot was that he went off in a huff. I could hear her calling out after him. "Don't be silly, Alan, and don't forget we've got a date Tuesday night."'

Punctuating dialogue tags

Dialogue tags are small phrases in the narration that let the reader know which character is speaking e.g. he said, she said.

When the speech tags are in second- or third-person (he said, she said, they said, you said) they always take lower case.

If the dialogue tag comes after the dialogue, a comma is used (unless you're using a question mark or exclamation mark), and should appear inside the closing quotation mark even when the sentence is complete. A full stop would only be used if there is no dialogue tag at the end.

Below are some examples from Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin to illustrate:

Comma before closing quotation mark	Dennis gulped audibly and uncomfortably. 'Yes, ma'am,' he said woodenly.	P. 25
Question mark before closing quotation mark	'So what can you tell me about the farm?' she asked.	P. 21
Full stop before closing quotation mark	'No, ma'am, I don't think so.'	P. 25

Dialogue that trails off or pauses

When you want to indicate hesitation or trailing off in speech, use the ellipsis (the symbol of three periods in a row).

Consider the following two examples:

Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin (p. 28)

'Inspector Rebus leaves the room, twelve-thirty hours. So, Mr Duggan, to get back to the car ...'

Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin (p. 38)

'Yes, she's out with ... I mean at something. She's out at something.'

The first example illustrates the dialogue trailing off. Compare this to the second example, where it shows the speaker hesitating. Notice the author doesn't need a speech tag to tell the reader this; it is simply implied by the clever use of the ellipsis.

According to the Oxford Style Guide, an ellipsis is shown as three full points and these can be normal word spaces or fixed (narrower) spaces between the points. Again, this is a style choice.

It is recommended to use the following spacing techniques:

Ellipsis used in running text	Space either side
Ellipsis used at the beginning of a sentence	Space after
Ellipsis used at the end of a sentence	Space before

Dialogue that is interrupted

The em rule can be used to indicate an interruption in speech (like an ellipsis shows trailing off). This is the longest of the dashes and shouldn't be confused with the en rule or hyphen. Oxford and most US publishers use a closed-up em rule i.e. no space either side.

Consider the following example by John Grisham in The Partner (p. 38):

"But why—"

"Don't ask questions. There's not time for it. The feds are all over us. Just do as I say and make sure he's not hurt."

The above illustrates how the em rule can be used to show the second speaker's impatience and curtness without having to use dialogue tags or lengthy explanations.

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I've thoroughly enjoyed writing this piece for you. In researching cited examples, it's allowed me to look back at some books I haven't read for a long time. I do hope this blog has helped and happy dialogue writing!

If you're looking for professional proofreading, visit my Services page.

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Cited sources

Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin, Orion Books Ltd 1996

The Partner by John Grisham, Dell Publishing 1997

The Associate by John Grisham, Century 2009

Wolf to the Slaughter by Ruth Rendall, Arrow Books 2009

Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin, Joffe Books 2017