How to Format Dialogue
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.ค. 2024
- Learn how to correctly format dialogue for your short story.
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Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever actually been taught all the rules of punctuation with dialogue. I’m writing a narrative essay rn, this was super helpful. Thanks!
My teacher force me to watch this even thought i know how to do it.
I'm sorry to hear that lol!
Though❌. Thought✅😂
❤
Thank you, I initially came for the indentation part, but learned a lot from the understanding of why we format it the way we do on the first few parts.
Yea same!
You managed to clarify all the basic information in one short video; thank you so much!
I highly appreciate this marvelous video. I wish I had watched it before trying to write incorrectly-punctuated dialogues!
Best regards from Ukraine!
Thanks for helping, this will help me with my short story assignment in school!
Thanks bro, you helped a lot 👍
It´s been a helpful video: plain and well conducted. Thank you.
Helped me better than my English teacher
Woah!
thank you
you explain it better than my teachers!!!
:O
Thanks for helping
Great video dude! Was a lot of help!
This was helpful thanks😏
My teacher forced me to watch this even though I already knew it.But u explain better than my teacher 😂
Thanks
Thank you :)
Thanks🎉
ty
Loved the explanation, great vid
Thx for helping even though i was forced to do this
Sorry to hear you were forced into it. I appreciate it :)
It's so frustrating because the dialogue is so easy to hear in my mind, but when I put it in written form I have trouble keeping the format. This is especially when I have long stretches of dialogue between characters.
All the "he said", "she said", "he replied", and "she muttered" starts to feel laborsome.
You don't need all of the "she said", "he replied." Your goal is to convey the conversation clearly. If you can do so with out the "she said", "he replied" then do so. Also, use the speaker's identity to expand the action and to paint a better picture for your audience. Example:
Walking into the room with the bell still ringing down the hall, Janey's teacher said, "Attention class! Please settle down and open your books to chapter 4."
Janey did as instructed as the teacher continued, "Four-score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought fourth on this continent a new nation. Can anyone tell me, what is meant by _four-score?"_
Janey's hand went up before she remembered that she was supposed to be keeping a low profile this semester.
"Yes, Janey?"
"Ummm, a 'score' is twenty years. So, 'four-score' would be 80 years."
"That's correct." The teacher was looking directly at Janey now. "And can you tell us to what Lincoln was referring as happening eighty-seven years prior to his speech?"
Janey's face began to flush as the scrutiny of her entire class began to turn slowly upon her, "Ahh, that would be the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776?"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Eighty-seven years prior to 1863 would be 1776."
"Very good," the teacher replied while writing the word _score_ and the number _20_ on the board, "Now does anyone know where we get the term 'score' to represent 20 years?"
Note: As long as when you read the dialogue back it is clear who is speaking the you don't necessarily need the identifier. And often you can use the identifier to express action like "walking into the room" and "writing the word ... on the board."
So, think about your characters and what they are doing while speaking. It is almost NEVER the case that a character sits without motion speaking for long periods of time. They move, they figgit, they take a deep breath before replying.
Here is another example just because I'm feeling particularly loquacious.
Alice asked, "What time is it?"
Steve replied, "Four o'clock. Why?"
"I'm late for my meeting," Alice answered.
"Well you better get a move on," Steve smirked.
Now try this instead:
Alice glanced at her watch which gave no sign of movement and then at Steve before asking, "What time is it?"
Lifting his head from the spreadsheets he was examining, Steve replied, "Four o'clock. Why?"
Already moving toward the door, she said over her shoulder, "I'm late for my meeting."
"Well you better get a move on then."
The smirk on Steve's face went unnoticed by Alice as she was already heading out the door in a rush.
BTW, writing is not easy but like many things it will improve with practice. And that practice often means rewriting a paragraph or a scene many, many times. For example, I have a terrible habit of using a passive-voice. I did so in my last example. Were I to rewrite that last line I would change it to be, "Alice failed to notice the smirk on Steve's face as she was already heading out the door in a rush."
I don't know why I adopted the bad habit of writing in a passive-voice but I still do it all the time and it is one of the things I have to look for as I review and edit my writing.
@@robertanderson6929his is really helpful thank you
@@aster_infinitum * [T]his
@@skybloxybacon lol
Great vedio to understand easily, Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot
Happy to help :)
Thanks for the help
Helpful. Thanks. The quotes are missing in your last sentence…dogs!”
Thanks for spotting that!
Thank you so much!!!
Glad it helped!
Great video dude
Thanks man.
what if it's unspoken rizz...
Possible.
I used to put an extra period lol
Not an uncommon mistake!
Nine
What about ten?
really helpfull but you have to add a comma in between the quotation marks
Thanks! Where did I miss the comma?