HOW TO PUNCTUATE DIALOGUE 💬 Writing tips from an editor | Natalia Leigh
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- Опубликовано: 28 ноя 2024
- HOW TO PUNCTUATE DIALOGUE (the right way). Today I have NINE TIPS for punctuating your characters' dialogue like a pro. If you have any requests for more editing content, please let me know in the comments below. Happy punctuating!
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Chicago Manual of Style References:
6.11 Single quotation marks next to double quotation marks
6.115 "Smart" quotation marks
6.9 Periods and commas in relation to closing quotation marks
13.30 Quotations and "quotes within quotes"
13.39 Direct discourse
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Never knew about the non breaking space!!
Finally! a direct yes or no answer about whether or not periods and commas go inside quotes! Thank you!
This was fantastic information! Thank you. Might it be possible to hear about hyphens, dashes, and colons?
I love the screensaver on your computer. Beautiful.
Great refresher video, Natalia!
Please do Dialog Tags next! And we would love the video as loooong as possible 😂
“Then get a different editor” haha I loved that insert.
Same.
I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!!! I’ve searched EVERYWHERE for videos on how to correctly start writing a novel, but all of them never really go into depth on how to actually WRITE them. (if that makes sense, lol) Thank you so so much! Watching every single one as we speak 🥰
This was amazing, the first video to give me exactly what I needed when searching this topic, thank you! ❤
Thanks Natalia, great info 😊
Non-breaking space. I finally solved my problem!
Just completed the first draft. So glad I tripped onto your tutorial.
Whew! Many Thanks. You are, without a doubt, a precious gem.
I'm so glad I could help! Happy writing! :)
Thank you so much for the tips. Using Grammerly has helped me catch most of these tips but I didn't know about the non breaking space. I will research. I was told to edit my book until I think it's perfect, then give to editor.. 😊 love your channel.
Very helpful! Thanks for the video, Natalia! Had no clue that a non-breaking space existed!!!
Natalia, I am currently reading and loving "Pistol Daisy"! I can confirm that this book is well-edited. This was a helpful video. I didn't know that smart quotes differ from straight quotes. My word processor is currently set to straight quotes.
I love your videos. Love it and I learning a lot.
Thank you very much. A great percentage of my books are dialogued and I wasn't sure about some points, especially when a character keeps changing topiic in a converation. Now at last it's clear to me.
Good video. I knew everything but the halfspace which was new. Thank You.
Hey Natalia, thank you so much for this video. It's sooo helpful!!! I'm a writer from Germany who wants to write her first English manuscript this year (probably during NaNoWriMo). So far, I've mainly focussed on extending my English vocabulary, but lately, I've begun to study English punctuation and found out that it's VEEEERY different from German punctuation. This video was vastly informative, and I learned so much. THANK YOU!!!
You are the first person I've seen excited by punctuating dialogue! Good for you!
I didn't know any of this. I am very new. Thank you so much.
The info about the curly quotes and non-breaking space was very helpful. Thanks!
Perfect video just before Camp Nanowrimo starts!
I'm busy trying to make a comeback into booktube and would so appreciate your support. Have a lovely day Natalia!
Only knew a couple of these rules. Had no idea there were so many rules. This video was helpful thank you!
Well that's it! I'm off to purchase the Chicago Manual of Style. It keeps popping up in these editing videos.
Great short and comprehensive crash course. I really enjoy this type of video.
Awesome video! Thamk you! I would love a dialogue tags video.
I would also love to know... how to correctly format the following on a page.... character A speaks, chacracter B does an action, and then character A speaks again. Does this all go in one paragraph or do you break it up because of character B's action in between character A's speaking? I hope this made sense, lol.
Thanks for the video! I didn’t know about some of these tips and will definitely implement them in my writing from now on!
Natalia, thanks. what I can't get right, #1 from a 1st POV narration, a back of mind thought within a dialogue. and #2 I translate a dialogue ie., “[French] You [really] want to go there?”
I knew number 6 would get me! I didn't check the proper way to do it and just mimicked what I see in books and seems published authors also do it wrong. 🙈 I always thought, when the dialog ends in a comma: "today is nice," she said, the she would be small because of it, but if we had an exclamation/period/question mark, it would make the next word She in capital letters: "today is nice!" She said.
Thanks Nat!
I threw off my editor when I used !? in my novel. It's acceptable, just not as common as when I was in high school 😆 I tend to use it when I am trying to show the speaker's emotion without having to write it out.
I will say its been a learning curve with my writing. I did good in my general education English classes, and have an English major. I still struggle to write Chicago style though 😀
One thing I am waiting to have an editor check is in my fantasy I have someone smoking a pipe. I put ... in the dialogue as indication he's taking a puff of his pipe. My beta readers don't have an issue with it, but it'll be interesting to get editor feedback ☺
Thanks for a great video and I hope your move is going well!
How would people not know about them. I learnt these in school.
Id love to see a series of videos on grammar
I have grammar OCD and it is extremely distracting to see improper punctuation when reading a book, magazine, or online article. Thank you for this video, Ms Natalia!
Excellent info that I needed
Love this video. I’m still a little confused when to use straight quotes and curly, but you gave me a great place to start. Also, the non breaking space was something I’d never hear of. Yes! Dialogue tags would be awesome. If you do could you explain how to punctuate when you break up a dialogue sentence. Ex “We need to go,” Johnnie said, “before he gets back.”
Hey Beth, I’m glad you enjoyed it! When writing fiction, you’ll always want to use curly quotes. 🥰 And the example sentence you shared looks great! That’s exactly how you’d break up the dialogue.
Natalia Leigh thank you. 😊
Thank you so much, you are the best
Love this video Natalia and also I got Pistol Daisy today 😊 I tweeted you a picture of my physical copy. I can't wait to get started. Take care ❤
Thanks! I did not know about straight quotes or to put a space in between apostrophes and quotes. Great video!
I write in Spanish but this was mostly super helpful!
This was so helpful. I’ve been going through a lot of dialogue so I needed these tidbits. Some things I knew but some I didn’t so thank you for this video. Amazing as always!
Thank you!
If you see this, would you please make a video regarding editing that, if not provided by an editor, would cause you to advise a client to find a new editor? Are there gaps in an editor’s knowledge that you find more forgivable than others? Constantly striving to improve is a necessity of course; I’m just curious where you draw the line. Keep up the excellent work!
Great Video 10/10 thank you.
I'm glad you mentioned Chicago Manual of Style. I just learned about this last week. I wasn't sure if I should buy the book. After watching your video, I think I'll get it.
Thank you so much.
I love these videos!! I knew some of them but not all of them. Thank you so much for taking time to make these videos for us❤❤
Your awesome Natalia, this video was very helpful.
Extremely helpful video. I love that you explained this is such a simple and entertaining way for people. Great job.
Thank you for this video. Have a question but not sure how to put it. I'm gonna use an example to illustrate. So for a sentence like this: "For the first time in a long while, or maybe ever, I walked, careless. Aimless. Free." with emphasized words (careless, aimless, free.) Are they used in a single sentence separated by commas, or are dots used and the words put in upper case?
(I walked careless, aimless, free.) vs (I walked, careless. Aimless. free.) Thanks again.
Thanks. I’m working on a new novel and I noticed that I’m not using smart quotes. I found a substitution option in Scrivener to fix that automagically. I just subscribed to your channel.
Great Video and topic.
Very informative!
Thanks for this teaching matetial. Can we use: 1) More than one exclamation marks to express intense emotions? 2) Can we use exclamation marks and question marks together at the end of a dialogue within the inverted commas?
Thanks you so much! id love a video on dialogue tags and how to show thoughts that arent spoken .. would they be italicized?
Question: How do you properly interrupt dialog, either with interruption or a pause? Also, how to you correctly add action while dialog is happening? Either as part of the dialog in the form of an action the character is doing and/or added to convey drama? I was told to use em dashes for all these, but what is the right was to use all these?
If anyone is using Open office as their writing tool then [ Ctrl + Shift + space to insert a non-breaking space.] It will be displayed as a light grey bar.
I'm an old geezer (87) and on a limited income. I'd love to have you publish a RUclips on writing on the cheap.
By the way, you are a great RUclipsr.
Ken Glaser, Westminster CO
Omg, thank you so much, I struggle sooo much with punctuating my dialogue, especially #6, it's taken me SO long to figure out when I should or shouldn't capitalize a word, and while I think I'm getting better at it, I know my manuscript is riddled with those mistakes. I also get commas and periods mixed up all the time, such as when dialogue is split up with a speech tag in between. Does the speech tag end with a comma, or period before going into the next part of the sentence? I don't know why I continue to structure my sentences this way when I know I don't know how to punctuate them!
Lots of great info in this video. Also, I totally know who I will be hiring when I need an editor!
Wow! thanks for all of this information, it is very helpful. I have a question about exclamation points. Is it true that the use of exclamation points should be rare and that using a speech tag such as, she yelled or she screamed is sufficient? For example: "You have no clue what it's like!" she yelled. Or should it be like this? "You have no clue what it's like," she yelled.
I read an article once and I cannot remember who wrote it. It was about how we shouldn't rely on exclamation points to get the reader to understand that someone is yelling or cheering or otherwise filled with emotion. I thought it sounded weird at the time. I mean it is proper grammar to use one when high emotion, tension, or loud voices are being used. Please set me straight!
That was really interesting, thank you.
I try to get the punctuation right because I believe that it shows respect for your reader.
Though I do make mistakes. Or is that (Though, I do make mistakes.)🤪
I would love to see a video on the EFA. On their website I see the membership fee and that they put your name in the directory when you sign up. But do they do anything else to help you find jobs? I’m really considering starting my editing journey with them but I feel like I don’t get a whole lot of details from the site
Thank you for this.
Question for tip number six. If the dialogue tag is an action, is it still lowercase? Ie "Interesting, isn't it?" he stared at her over the rim of his mug, and took a long sip.
The "he" would be lowercase?
Since we are also talking about quotation marks, am I correct to use quotation marks for a song title or a book title? And the period on the inside, of course, as the title ends the sentence, is that right?
Hi Natalia, please let me know what the best way is to punctuate a dialogue as I tend to start with Samantha looked me in the eyes and said: ''Do you want to kiss me?'' - whereas most authors seems to use ''Do you want to kiss me?'' Samantha said. Should I vary the 'she said' part from putting it at the beginning and at the end of my dialogue or keep it standard? Thank you!
Is there a video on punctuating thoughts? Such as Mary thought, Is that a gunshot?
I didn't get the difference between curly and straight quotes. Let's say I'm having dialigues through my text. Is there a preferred type of quotes? When I type in my language the keyboard alwys gives me curly ones. When I switch to English it depends (not sure on what). I can't figure out why I get different types of quotes by default.
My computer will automatically capitalize the next letter after the quotation marks, if what is being said ends with a ? or !
It’s something I have to be constantly paying attention to and it drives me crazy.
Thanks for making this video!
Hi Natalia, I'm not sure if you can help me with this but I'm writing a movie script and in one scene the character is reading a verses from the bible, can I use the opening quotations at the beginning of the verse and then just have the closing quotations at the very end or is this only for novel writing? Also, I was wondering if you've ever written short fiction or scripts or if you plan to in the future? Much love! -Kayla Ortz
Natalia, I understand that in a dialog ending with an exclamation point, the next word should be in lower case (unless it's a proper name). How about if it ends with a question mark, do you capitalize the following word, pronoun or common noun?
Hi, Leo! A question mark and exclamation point behave in the same way. Here are some examples:
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Why do I have to go?" She crossed her arms and sighed.
"What are your plans for this weekend?" Sarah asked.
For a dialogue tag, the word following the dialogue isn't capitalized unless it's a proper noun. However, an action beat (example 2) does get capped because it's a complete sentence and stands on its own.
I hope that helped!
9:16 I do this:
"Ryan called me 'poopy-head'."
Is this wrong? Because it does make sense when you analyse it properly.
I had a question in regards to back to back dialogue. I want to know if it is continuous dialogue between two characters having a conversation, do I keep all of the dialogue for that conversation in the same paragraph?
For example: “What’s is wrong with you?” said Karen. “Nothing is wrong with me , Karen!” says Hailey.
Great video. Thanks, Natalia.
So should I say I call myself an 'author?'
Coz I thought I should call myself an 'author'.
You would call yourself an “author.” Double quotes, period on the inside 😉
@@NataliaLeigh I hadn't thought of double quotes! If it's double quotes, shouldn't I call myself an "Author?" Capital A?
@@ciunasday5222 Good question. If you're using the word "author" at the beginning of dialogue, then yes, capitalization would be appropriate. But in our case, "author" is being used as a word, not dialogue, so no capitalization is necessary. :) Has this become confusing yet? lol!
Thanks, Natalia. Not at all confused; your explanation is very clear. One final question ... before I go and change ALL the quotation marks in my dialogue-heavy hundred and fifty thousand word epic novel - Thanks, Brighteyes(!): Is there a subtle difference in meaning conveyed if I call myself an ‘author’ rather than an “author”, or is it just plain incorrect?
I was actually scared to watch this video since English is not my mother language, I was afraid to be wrong about everything. Thankfully I simply learned some new rules for future reference :)
I wrote a psychological thriller. How much will it cost to edit 316 pages?
.? USA & UK difference? - spacing between quote mark and letter
Should I change “Grab your bikes,” John said, “we’re going to the park.” to "Grab your bikes," John said. "We're going to the park." ???? Is it incorrect to split the sentence with a dialogue tag? Thank you.
Say I've got a character telling another character of an encounter...
"He looked at me and said 'Why are you writing this stupid dialogue?' "
Is that punctuated correctly? It's only a piece of the puzzle here but perhaps there's a whole video to be had on question marks.
The Fault in our Stars didn't break paragraphs in dialogue most of the time. It was horrible.
Really?? I read it like eight years ago, but I can’t remember how it was punctuated.
@@NataliaLeigh my friend loaned it to me this last week. I was appalled. Even stylist leeway doesn't allow using the same paragraph for different speakers. Definitely would be interested to see your new opinion from an editor's POV.
Awesome content! Have a look at my channel and sub if you enjoy it 😊
I don't like smart quotes, they are annoying
Straight quotations are the best 💁🏼♀️
They are better looking. But the smart quotes are the grammatically correct ones. :)
@@mischarowe technically the difference is irrelevant, it's more about the preferred style. That's why it's called the chicago manual of style. Gramatically correct is to have double quotations, no matter which type.
@@xChikyx Though I like the straight quotes, it's not the accurate way to do it - it's like the comma looking weird before the quotes, but it is actually supposed to be that way.
Natalia is a professional editor. I'll take her word for it. No offense.
edit: When you look at a published book, the quotes aren't straight. They're not AS curly as the ones you'll see in a word document (I think that's just a microsoft office thing), but printing houses have their own style anyway. Their smart quotes look like a mix of curly and straight. If that makes sense.
@@mischarowe it depends on the font actually
@@xChikyx That's a very good point I forgot about. :) It's still not the straight quotes, though.