101 Writing Tips from an Exhausted Reviewer

Dialogue

"Ah, yes. Dialogue. The topic with the most requests," the exhausted reviewer said with a sigh.

The readers glanced up, amused. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"And what's the point of this example?"

The exhausted reviewer snorted. "Well, as always, we have a good example and a bad example."

"And is this a good example, or a bad example?"

A slight pause. A brief shrug.

"Both."

"Both!?,!?...!?!?!...!!!,!?" The reader cried out, terrified, because I obviously need to point out that they are terrified and now I'm going to hurt myself by breaking all rules by writing "this is so bad." the reviewer agreed.

My gosh, that hurt my soul to write. That last paragraph... I have never cringed so hard.

Basically, this chapter is going to be all about dialogue. This includes how to write impactful dialogue, how to keep it engaging, and common errors I see. However, before we talk that talk, we better walk that walk -- and I mean walk through the grammatical rules of dialogue.

1. Each new speaker gets their own paragraph.

Sharing is not caring when it comes to dialogue. So, here is an incorrect example:

"Don't make me write this! It's hurting my eyes! Stop!" the Grammar Nazi cried out. "Never!" the readers replied.

And now, correct example:

"Don't make me write this! It's hurting my eyes! Stop!" the Grammar Nazi cried out.

"Never!" the readers replied.

2. Punctuation goes inside the quotation marks.

The quotation marks are hungry and they want the punctuation marks inside them. I realise how inappropriate this can sound. I apologise. Here is an incorrect example:

"Can you please get your head out of the sewers"? Sunshine asked her readers.

"Never"! the readers replied.

And here is a correct example:

"Can you please get your head out of the sewers?" Sunshine asked her readers.

"Never!" the readers replied.

3. If your character is giving a long speech across multiple paragraphs (with no interruptions), you don't use the end quotations until the very end.

This is to indicate that the next paragraph has the same speaker speaking. Here is an incorrect example:

"Hello. Let's pretend this is a really long paragraph about my life story. You see, it actually isn't very long because my life story is not all that interesting. I read. I write. I review. I cry. I play with my dog."

"On top of all that, I like the taste of coriander."

And here is a correct example:

"Hello. Let's pretend this is a really long paragraph about my life story. You see, it actually isn't very long because my life story is not all that interesting. I read. I write. I review. I cry. I play with my dog.

"On top of all that, I like the taste of coriander."

Let's Write!