This is where I've seen most people make mistakes. I'll go over things bit by bit, so no fear.
Dialogue tag or dialogue beat?
"Hey, where are you going?" Sarah asked.
"Away." Frank kept walking.
Now, to know the answer to this, you first need to know which is which. A dialogue tag is about how a character says something (e.g. Sarah asked, I whispered, he yelled, she muttered). A dialogue beat is, rather than a description of how a character says something, a physical action that they do (e.g. Frank kept walking, I glared at her, they laughed in his face). There're special rules for both of them concerning exclamation marks, question marks, dots, commas and capital letters. We'll go over them below here.
If dialogue tags are used, the next word after the dialogue is not capitalised - unless it's a name (such as Sarah) or a title (such as My Lord). But be careful, this also goes for exclamation and question marks! Without a question mark, one can't see it's a question, so they let it be.
"Kitten!" she cried out.
"What? Where?" asked Damien.
"Over there. Shh, be silent, or else we'll spook it," she added softly.
"Come, kitty kitty," he said.
Those were the rules for the dialogue tags. Now, onto the dialogue beats. Those are a bit easier, although many people mistakingly use the rules for dialogue tags with them (even Watty winners do this!). If there's a dialogue beat, the dialogue is followed by a capital regardless of who does what.
"Kitten!" She pointed at the feline.
"What? Where?" Damien looked around to find it.
"Over there. Shh, be silent, or else we'll spook it." She slowly closed in on the cat.
"Come, kitty kitty." He followed her, trying to be silent.
And now, let's mix them :D
She jumped up. "Kitten!"
"What? where?" Damien asked.
As she approached the cat, she said, "Over there. Shh, be silent, or else we'll spook it."
"Come, kitty kitty," he said soothingly.
Now, you know the basics. Be careful, though. Remember to always put one speaker per paragraph, and the action beat/tag is always said/done by that one speaker. If you have dialogue said by one person, and then a dialogue beat done by another, it will seem like the other person said it - and that's quite confusing.
A small (or rather large...) list of don'ts
She jumped up, "kitten!"
"What? Where?" damien asked,
As she approached the cat, she said. "Over there. Shh, be silent, or else we'll spook it."
"Come, kitty kitty," He said soothingly.
---
"Kitten!", She cried. "What? Where?", the boy looked around to find it. "Over there. Shh, be silent.", she said. "Come, kitty kitty.", he said soothingly,
----
"Over there." she said,
---
I think it's fair to say that Damien and Sarah hate this cat after so much repetition. I have seen people do all of the different don'ts above. Don't make the same mistakes. If the information above isn't clear enough, there're hundreds of different explanations on Google to help you - or you can always comment to ask me <3
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Jane's Book of Grammar (And Other Things)
RandomDo you need help with punctuation? Are you worried you don't know where to put commas and where capitals? Do you need help with dialogue? Well, here you'll find it! I'll try to explain things the best I can, providing examples as well. There seems t...
